The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have been busy advancing their fire program. The following is an update of key areas based on a series of presentations made to the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) by members that were on the working groups.
Passive Fire Protection
Responsibility to progress this important field has been transferred to the Fire Protection Association (FPA) Special Interest Group (SIG) which includes input from all interested stakeholders.
Construction Monitoring
Issues were identified by the working group. At the same time IPENZ were also looking at this from a more holistic engineering perspective and are getting close to issuing a practice note PN23 on the subject.
Structural Clause NZBC C6.
The clause has been reworded and the proposed changes have been issued for public comment. The proposed changes can be found here. The same link has a standard form for providing a response to the proposed changes.
Verification Method VM2
Proposed changes largely focus on tall buildings (Greater than 60m). The proposed changes have now been issued for public comment and can be found at the above link. Also the SFPE forum has a discussion area dedicated to the proposed changes here. Anyone can view the discussions and members can comment.
Alternative Solutions
MBIE support the use of alternative solutions and guidance has been prepared for public comment and can be found at the above link.
Internal Surface Finishes
The working group recommendation was to remove the specific performance requirements for internal surface finishes from the Building Code and place the performance requirements at the Acceptable Solution and Verification Method level. The proposed changes have been issued for public comment and can be found at the above link.
Supported Housing
A design guide has been prepared with the intention that it will be published by MBIE as s175 Guidance.
Further updates will be prepared throughout the year, posted to our website and presented in the Origin Fire Newsletter. Michael James welcomes questions and discussion at any time.