Fire safety engineering

Arup has been at the forefront of fire safety engineering for over 50 years, investing in our people, our research and academic partnerships. Our work spans complex and unusual projects as well as more familiar schemes. Whether developing fire strategy designs, specialist fire safety analysis, offering strategic advice, or carrying out inspection, risk assessment or expert witness services, our work is grounded in fire science.

A responsive approach

Our 300-plus fire safety engineers are based in around 38 locations worldwide. They draw on Arup’s global experience, but they are also specialists in country-specific codes and planning standards for fire safety. This wealth of local insight equips us to deliver fire safety advice which meets regulatory, client and user-focused objectives.

Our solutions meet the challenges of the many sectors we work in: from the precise requirements of scientific, industrial and data centre facilities, sustainable high-rises, the occupant characteristics within residential and healthcare, the bespoke standards of airports and railways and sensitive refurbishments of heritage buildings as well as the retrofit of existing properties.

Whatever the context, we tailor our response to match clients’ individual objectives – from strategies to manage their fire safety and protection risks and user-friendly management regimes, to construction compliance services that reduce programme delays. Our longstanding fire safety expertise also means we can assist in recovery and analysis following fire.

Sydney Opera House decade of renewal - as part of the Opera House's improvement programme, we were challenged to design a new fire engineering strategy. To accommodate new front of house spaces, changes to the stairs needed new fire-resistant compartmentalisation design. At the same time we worked with ARM to provide the new theatre with an updated fire strategy without making significant design changes.

80 M Street SE - the first commercial office building in Washington DC to feature a vertical extension constructed using mass timber. Arup’s structural and fire engineers developed new concepts for 80 M’s two-hour rated exposed timber connections. These connection concepts were further designed and tested by Katerra, the timber design-assist partner, with help from the Arup team. Once it was clear that the connections and redundant systems proposed for the building delivered a high level of safety, Arup demonstrated the design’s viability and safety to the code authority, ultimately helping 80M to win approval.

DJI Headquarters - the HQ of the world's largest consumer drone maker sits at the heart of Shenzhen's technology and innovation hub. The extensive use of exposed steel required fire engineers to carry out detailed anti-corrosion and fire protection studies. We conducted advanced outdoor modelling analyses to examine the temperature impact on the exposed beams, columns, diagonal bracing and other components in different fire scenarios.

A balanced outlook

Fire safety cannot be understood in isolation as it often negotiates a delicate balance between the competing demands of design innovation, sustainability, resilience, functionality and fire performance. Our fire safety specialists work collaboratively, with extreme rigour and honesty that challenge standard fire safety design approaches. This goes back to principles instilled by our founder Margaret Law.

Research

We stay at the forefront of fire safety by supporting research, masters, PhD and professorship programmes at leading universities, helping develop innovative fire engineering techniques. This approach means that we rise to the challenges posed by all types of building forms, materials and construction methods to deliver fire safe solutions. Sharing research in this way reflects our in commitment to social usefulness beyond our core project work.