Dubai to see facade safety standards this year

GGF CEO Nigel Rees and members of the Dubai Civil Defense.

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Fire safety standards and regulations for façades and curtain walls are soon to hit Dubai, with a comprehensive product approval, certification and testing system under development.

Dubai Civil Defence has for more than last three years been working on a system to fill the void of fire prevention standards for the outer parts of buildings, which can be critical to the prevention and spread of fire.

The new system is to be rolled out in phases since its initial introduction in 2008, and will be more fully launched to the construction industry by the end of this year, according to Andy Dean, general manager of Exova Warringtonfire Middle East, a fire consultancy firm that has been working with the government body.

“One problem we have to accept locally is the issue of façade engineering and fire safety,” he told an audience at the Glass and Glazing Federation seminar at the Limitless building in Dubai. “Facades on buildings from a fire safety perspective are inadequate.

“There is a level of regulation that many products have to comply with - now it’s the turn of curtain walls.”

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He explained that the industry can expect a ‘triangle’ of approvals devised by the DCD to raise the standard of products and the awareness of fire technicalities.

The first of these is product approval, where every item will be approved by the DCD and will be subject to ISO guide 67 certification. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding around certification, which is not surprising,” said Dean. “If you hear someone taking about a ‘test certificate’, they likely do not know what they’re talking about. Testing is not certification.”

The certification will be undertaken by “accredited organisations, he said, with those organisations themselves subject to certification. This certification will include taking samples of products.

The second is construction approval – assessing the way that facades and curtain walls are installed are right, with added checks that the contractors are capable to complete the job. The third area is inspection on site, conducted by the DCD in three phases: during construction, at the building’s completion, and when the building is fully operational.

Certification will eventually be broad in its application, added Dean, and can include the international ‘CE’ mark that he considered the “top level” of certification. “Due to the self-certification of some products, it will be important to look at where the CE approval is appropriate for that product,” he warned. The eventual process for facades and curtain wall will make testing more standardised.

Fire safety for curtain walls will be “policed” through many stages, including a fire safety assessment at the design stage of a building and again when there is a shop drawing available. The certification will be organised by “whoever wants ownership”, said Dean, but added that the different stage of product manufacture should look at the validity of the certification – as with other elements of buildings.

For example, if the manufacturer of the core of doors gains certification and sells it to a maker of fire doors, it will eventually become a different project, and that end-product’s certification will need to be assessed.