Fire Safety for Very Tall Buildings Engineering Guide

This Guide provides information on special topics that affect the fire safety performance of very tall buildings, their occupants and first responders during a fire.  This Guide addresses these topics as part of the overall building design process using performance-based fire protection engineering concepts as described in the SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance Based Fire Protection. This Guide is not intended to be a recommended practice or a document that is suitable for adoption as a code. The Guide pertains to “super tall,” “very tall” and “tall” buildings. Throughout this Guide, all such buildings are called “very tall buildings.”  These buildings are characterized by heights that impose fire protection challenges; they require special attention beyond the protection features typically provided by traditional fire protection methods. This Guide does not establish a definition of buildings that fall within the scope of this document. 

2     History

3     Components of Performance-based Design

4     International Practices

5     Unique Features of Very Tall Buildings

6     Special Features and Attractions

7     Hazard, Risk and Decision Analysis in Very Tall Building Design

8     Integration of Building Design and Systems

9     System Reliability

10       Situation Awareness

11       Emergency Egress

12       Fire Resistance

13       Building Envelope/Enclosure

14       Suppression

15       Detection and Alarm

16       Smoke Control

17       First Responder Considerations

18       Electrical

19       Buildings Under Construction

20       Building Life Cycle Management

21       Commissioning

22       Existing Building Considerations

23       Inspection, Testing and Maintenance

24       Aerial Vehicle Platforms

25       ESS in Very Tall Buildings

26       References

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) is the professional society representing those practicing the field of fire protection engineering. The Society has over 4,600 members and 92 chapters, including 17 student chapters worldwide.

The purpose of SFPE is to advance the science and practice of fire protection engineering and its allied fields, to maintain a high ethical standard among its members and to foster fire protection engineering education.

 The International Code Council is a member-focused association. It is dedicated to developing model codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.