BS9999: Code of Practice for Fire safety in the Design, Construction and Management of Buildings.

BS9999 is a major new fire safety document that has taken some 10 years to develop, and is now published as a fully fledged British Standard. The Code is being heralded as a breakthrough because it offers a more advanced, but accessible, risk based approach that is built upon tried and tested Fire Engineering principles. It encourages greater flexibility in design and fire risk management.

Although the Code has not been widely announced, we believe that knowledge of its contents will become a necessity for all designers and builders. The document is in part a consolidation and replacement of the existing BS5588 series (although BS5588: Part 1 Residential, remains valid) , and it is possible to use it as an alternative to Approved Document B to help demonstrate compliance with the Building Regulations.

But the new Code goes much further than those it replaces, and for the first time allows a codified degree of flexibility in means of escape design, not just prescriptive travel distances. Provision of features such as automatic smoke/fire detection, higher ceilings, sprinklers, ventilation, and a user risk profile, are all recognised as potentially positive factors to allow increased travel distances, etc. Structural fire resistance is similarly flexible.