Why Fire Strategy Quality Matters More Than Ever

With the Building Safety Regulator scrutinising fire strategies at Gateway 2, and building control bodies increasingly rigorous in their review of fire safety documentation, the quality of fire strategy reports has never been more consequential. Yet the standard of fire strategies across the UK built environment remains highly variable. This article identifies the most common mistakes found in fire strategy reports — drawn from our experience reviewing and producing fire strategies across a wide range of project types.

Mistake 1: Failure to Coordinate with Drawings

The most common and most costly fire strategy mistake is producing a report that describes a different building from the one shown in the submitted drawings. Travel distances calculated on a superseded floor plan. Compartmentation specified in locations that don't correspond to the structure. Escape routes that have been reorganised since the fire strategy was last updated. This single issue is responsible for the majority of building control queries and rejections on fire safety grounds.

Mistake 2: Incorrect Travel Distance Calculation

Travel distances are frequently miscalculated — measured as straight-line distances rather than along the actual path of travel, or calculated to the wrong point (the escape door rather than the protected stairwell). Travel distances in dead-end situations are particularly commonly misstated. In residential buildings, the 7.5-metre dead-end limit is frequently exceeded without justification.

Mistake 3: Vague Compartmentation Specification

A fire strategy that says "compartment walls shall be fire-rated" without specifying the required fire resistance period, the construction type, or the fire stopping requirements is not useful to the design team and will not satisfy a building control body. Compartmentation specifications must be precise: "60-minute fire-rated masonry or light-gauge steel partition with intumescent seals to all service penetrations" is a specification. "Fire-rated construction" is not.

Mistake 4: Missing Fire Door Schedule

The fire door schedule — listing all fire doors in the building, their required fire resistance rating, their closer and hardware requirements, and their location — is frequently either absent from fire strategies or produced as an afterthought. This is one of the most important construction documents in the fire strategy package. Missing or incomplete fire door schedules are a common cause of compartmentation failure in completed buildings.

Mistake 5: Ignoring the Disabled Evacuation Strategy

Fire strategies regularly fail to address evacuation for people who cannot use stairs — either omitting the issue entirely or making vague reference to Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) without specifying the refuge areas, communication systems and assistance arrangements required to make them effective.

Mistake 6: Templated Reports Not Updated for the Project

The most egregious fire strategy error — and unfortunately not uncommon — is a templated report that has been superficially modified for a new project but retains information from a previous project: different building types, different standards, different compartmentation arrangements. Building control bodies and the BSR are alert to this and treat it as a serious competence concern.