Inspection and certification of fire safety systems installation

The FPA Australia has long advocated for competent and experienced people involved in design, installation and commissioning repair, certification and ongoing inspection and testing of fire safety systems should be licensed or accredited.

Standby power supplies (emergency power supply)
Emergency lifts
Fire Curtains
Fire isolated passageways and ramps
Elements used for the fire protection of structural components
Emergency vehicle access to and around the site

FPA Australia believe that all fire safety systems require a certificate of compliance issued prior to an occupancy certificate. This certificate of compliance is considered the initial certification of the fire safety system and ensures that the job of on-going performance assessment is made easier and more effective.

On most occasions the fire safety system installer is contractually obligated to supply, install, test and commission a fire safety system. Some standards require an installers statement eg AS 1670 (installers statement) and AS 2118 (system completion statement). It is entirely appropriate that this type of installer’s statement is provided by the contracting entity.
The skill set to provide a certicate of compliance does not always reside within the contracting entity.

FPA Australia believe that all fire safety systems should be certified by a licenced or accredited system certifier, who are competent and experienced in the field for which they are certifying. The system certifier could be installer or the designer but not both. i.e. The accreditation is held by the individual. An entity can not install and certify their own work.

FPA Australia believe that all fire safety systems should be certified by a competent and experienced person authorised by the relevant authority as an accredited system certifier. A competent and experienced system certifier must have relevant nationally recognised qualifications, adequate PI and PL insurance and an appropriate level of experience

For the sake of clarity, FPA Australia advocates for independent certification of a fire safety system by a competent and experienced person authorised by the relevant authority as an accredited system certifier.

FPA Australia believes that if the system certifier (as described above) is held responsible for their certification work for a prescribed period of time there would be limited instances of a conflict of interest.

Given the structure outlined above we believe that it is quite appropriate for an employee of the contracting entity to undertake the system certification work, provided the individual is held responsible for the work they certify, as different to the entity.

Yes it is entirely appropriate that the owner is able to engage an independent person authorised by the relevant authority as an accredited system certifier.

The statutory building surveyor should be able to rely on the independent certification provided by an accredited system certifier.

Yes fire safety designer (fire safety engineer) must inspect and validate that the performance solution. This process shall inform the statutory building surveyor of the compliance with the performance solution.

The occupancy documentation or permit issued by the building surveyor must include the conditions of occupation, inclusive of each fire safety system, standard of performance for ongoing maintenance and frequency of inspection.

Where a performance solution is applicable, the fire safety designer (fire safety engineer) must also provide as part of the performance solution details of the standard of performance for ongoing maintenance, frequency of inspection for the routine servicing of each performance solution.

It is important to differentiate between rectification and routine inspection, test and survey activities. Repairs that are required to maintain a standard of performance are generally a different skill set to routine inspect and test activities.

Maintenance refers to a repair activity, then this work should be undertaken by a registered fire systems installer or plumber.

If the term maintenance refers to a routine inspect, test and survey activities (i.e. validating a fire safety measure is present and performs), then this can be carried out by someone with the skillset suitable for the inspect and test activity and not mandated to be done by a registered fire systems installer or plumber.

Annual maintenance statements do not provide a guarantee that the system will perform as designed.

FPA Australia believes that routine servicing (inspect, test and survey requirements) must provide confidence to the building owner or other stakeholders that the intended performance of the fire safety system or systems will comply with the performance requirements for the building as set out of A2.1 of the NCC Vol 1

To achieve this, a consolidated yearly statement should be prepared by each entity responsible for the routine servicing of each fire safety system. Defects or non-conformances that have not been previously rectified at the time of issuing the statement shall be listed with the yearly statement.

The question relating to what state the FPA Australia is from. Whilst we responded with NSW, the FPA Australia represents and speaks on behalf of all states and territories of Australia.

FPA Australia operates an accreditation scheme under a co-regulatory model with the NSW government.

Currently the scheme

• Accredits practitioners that design fire safety systems and
• Accredits practitioners that assess and endorse the annual fire Safety statement
The next phase of accreditation scheme is to accredit system certifiers
A fire system certifier provide validation prior to the issuance of the occupancy certificate that the Fire Safety Measure has been installed in accordance with the performance requirements (including evidence of suitability requirements) for the building as set out of A2.1 of the NCC Vol 1