Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) ensures plans for construction of new commercial and industrial buildings in Western Australia are fire safe through the administration of fire safety sections of the Building Code of Australia (BCA).
FESA’s Built Environment Branch (BEB) administers the code in a number of ways:
- Ensuring fire safety requirements of commercial and industrial building plans are fulfilled before a building licence is issued
- Inspecting completed buildings to check required fire safety equipment has been installed according to the plan
- Testing the fire safety equipment
Standard residential housing is not included in the assessment process.
FESA’s fire safety assessments relate mostly to the requirements of professional firefighters in the event of a fire.
These include:
- Location of fire hydrants
- Adequacy and reliability of water supplies
- Capability of fire pumps and associated equipment
- Automatic fire detection systems, such as sprinklers and smoke detection systems
- Smoke management systems such as stairwell pressurisation and smoke exhaust systems that allow firefighters to enter buildings during a fire
- Access for firefighting vehicles
FESA conducts inspections of major projects to ensure firefighting equipment is installed as designated in the approved plans. The equipment is then tested for compliance with Australian standards and FESA requirements.
For further information please phone (08) 9323 9780.