Fire assessments are desktop study reports offered by Warringtonfire Australia when a modification is made to a construction that has already been fire tested.
They range from relatively simple judgements on small changes to a product or construction, through to detailed and complex engineering analyses of large or sophisticated building systems. They also involve the interpolation or extrapolation of the results of a series of fire-resistance or reaction-to-fire tests to evaluate a range of variables in a construction design or product.
Sometimes, for various reasons such as size or configuration, it may not be possible to subject an exact construction or product to a fire test. In these cases, we may be able to provide an assessment of the expected performance of a construction element or product – based on available baseline reference test data or through computer and mathematical modelling.
Meeting the requirements of national and international construction codes
The National Construction Code (and other local or international construction codes) specifies test standards for fire resistance, reaction to fire and bushfire attack levels.
Tests performed to the requirements set in any particular test standard only allow the product or system to be installed as tested or be varied as allowed by that standard under ‘permissible variations’. All other variations that may be needed to meet the construction or the client’s requirements must be assessed by an assessment team associated with an Accredited Testing Authority.
An assessment report from an Accredited Testing Authority, such as Warringtonfire, is prepared subject to A5.4, A5.5 and A5.6 and covered under section A5.2 (1) (d) Evidence of suitability in National Construction Code 2019 (NCC) Volume One.
About the Warringtonfire assessment team
- At Warringtonfire, we have been preparing assessments for clients for 20 years.
- We are ISO 9001 accredited and are part of an Accredited Testing Authority recognized by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).
- Our assessments team are all registered and accredited engineers, with the relevant qualifications and experience to assess the variations to products or construction systems and determine their applicability to the relevant test standard.
Our services
Our experienced team can provide clients with:
- Advice on new product ranges or systems to determine the minimum testing required to comply with the regulatory requirements, plus enable the assessment of a wider range of products.
- Fire-assessment reports to address variations to the fire resistance, reaction to fire and bushfire attack levels for products.
- Modifications to a tested product or system – with supplementary R&D pilot-scale or medium-scale tests, mathematical and computer modelling – and assess the variations to the tested product or system.
- Structural fire-protection assessments on protected steel members and composite construction systems.
- Assessments on the performance of a product or a system under specific conditions or installation configurations, which may be read together with fire-engineering reports prepared by an accredited fire-safety engineer for ongoing projects.
We can also:
- Conduct finite-element thermal and structural analyses to simulate the behaviour of building systems exposed to fire.
- If applicable, provide a ‘translation’ of a test report conducted overseas by an internationally accredited test laboratory to an equivalent Australian test standard for application in Australia.
For more information, email info.fire.melbourne@warringtonfire.com
About the Author
Omar Saad is the Fire Assessment Manager at Warringtonfire. Omar has been with Warringtonfire for four years. Previously Omar worked in the fire services and construction industry and is a qualified engineer.
