SECTION 5 - MAINTENANCE

Question 18

Part 9 of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 (EPAR), which deals with the subject of maintenance of essential fire safety measures, generally requires those measures to be continually capable of performing to a standard no less than that which they were originally required to achieve.

The actual words used in clause 182 of the EPAR are as follows:

(a)in the case of an essential fire safety measure applicable by virtue of a fire safety schedule,to a standard no less than that specified in the schedule, or

(b)in the case of an essential fire safety measure applicable otherwise than by virtue of a firesafety schedule, to a standard no less than that to which the measure was originallydesigned and implemented.

The standard (or level) of performance capability of a fire protection system can be influenced by several factors including the characteristics of the system itself, the building, and the occupancy (or use).

(a)Discuss the influence of these 3 types of characteristics on the standard ofperformance of a required fire sprinkler system.

(b)Describe how these factors can be encapsulated and recorded in a firesafety schedule (see Module 10 and the EPAR for information about firesafety schedules). NB. The fire safety schedule must describe the standardof performance of the measure.

(c)Discuss the role of testing and commissioning of fire protection systems inrelation to maintenance regulation and auditing.