The Basis for Fire Safety

This publication, The Basis for Fire Safety: substantiating fire protection in buildings, is a knowledge document providing substantiation, argumentation and background information about fire prevention. It is intended as a reference book and a practical manual. The publication offers a conceptual framework for and an approach to the fire protection of buildings, based on Dutch statutory schemes such as the Housing Act (Woningwet), Working Conditions Act (Arbowet) and the Safety Regions Act (Wet veiligheidsregio’s) and on scientific knowledge.

This is a monodisciplinary document by the Organisation of Dutch Fire Services that connects the individual elements of fire prevention. The publication emphasises an integral approach that is necessary in order to improve the quality of fire prevention. As the series of fire protection concepts published by the former Dutch Ministry of the Interior in the 1990s became obsolete, there was no longer an up-to-date document that provided for this.

The current document deals with integral fire safety at the level of buildings. As it is not a summary of methods by which fire prevention is
implemented in practice, no attention is given to important aspects of this, such as fire-safe living, supervision and enforcement.

Besides being a source of knowledge for the fire service, this knowledge document may also serve as:

• background information for the government in its capacity of legislator as regards building regulations
• a tool that will help market participants and the government, in its role of licensing authority, to decide on equivalent solutions, FSE solutions and risk approach
• a tool that will enable market participants to provide an insight into fire prevention, so that they can fulfil their own responsibilities for this.

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