Question: Our yearly fire inspection revealed low water pressure and the requirement for a tank. Our fire protection company cannot sign off on the AFSS due to our lack of compliance. What do we do?
I’m a strata committee member for our 70-year-old, 25-unit building. Our yearly fire inspection revealed low water pressure, requiring a new 25,000-litre water tank. Installation of a new tank is costly, and we have no land available. Our fire protection company cannot sign off on the AFSS due to our lack of a compliant fire safety system.
A December 2024 report from Sydney Water indicated that our building does meet their flow and pressure requirements. What can we do?
Answer: Get a second opinion before doing anything further, and if that shows the issue is genuine, contact a fire engineer.
The Sydney Water Pressure Flow enquiry is a computer-generated report showing the theoretical pressure and flow available to the building at the street main tap-in point, e.g. out the front of the building.
The flow test undertaken by your fire contractor must be done at the “most hydraulically disadvantaged” location in the building. e.g. the location that is highest and furthest from the building entry.
The contractor’s test proves whether there is sufficient water at the furthest point for the fire brigade to use in an emergency.
Hence, while there is a relationship between the street mains pressure and flow and the contractor-completed test, the Sydney Water test does not take into consideration these factors:
- Height difference – for every metre the hydrant is above the street main, the pressure delivered drops by 10 Kilopascals.
- Back-flow prevention valve (the big blue thing out front) will reduce pressure by 50-150kPa.
- Friction losses – every bend, tee and valve causes friction that reduces pressure between the street and the farthest hydrant.
- Time of day and usage – if everyone is having a shower or watering the garden at the same time, one-off pressure issues can occur.
The contractor is doing exactly what they should in not endorsing the AFSS when the hydrant system has been proven not to perform as designed.
I highly recommend the owners get a second opinion before doing anything further, and if that shows the issue is genuine, contact a fire engineer who can potentially help with alternate/ performance solutions that may avoid the standard solutions raised by your contractor.
This post appears in the June 2024 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: rob.broadhead@2020fire.com.au
P: 1300 340 210
I am an owner and strata committee member of a strata building built in 2012. Will the fire collars installed at that time still be legal when AS1851-2012 is legislated in February 2025 or will new fire collars need to be installed to comply with the legislation.
Hi Barry
Rob Broadhead, 2020 Fire Matters has responded to your comment in the article above.
Hi There, thanks for this important information. I am seeking information on “fire schedules”.
It has come to our attention that we don’t have a fire schedule and this year (2021) without a schedule the contractor apparently will not be issuing an AFSS.
Is this possible?
It’s been the same fire safety company attending to these inspections for several years. Would they not have already known we had no schedule? Or is this a recent legislative requirement a fire schedule is required?
We are a small original 1920’s Art Deco building (well maintained) and none of us knew of any fire schedule requirements. We left it to the expertise of the contracted company to know what’s required but why is this years rules now different?
Cheers
Hi Gemma
The following response has been provided by Leanne Habib, Premium Strata:
We are not aware of any changes to fire schedules and understand that the position that an annual fire safety statement MUST be issued each and every year including all essential fire safety measures remains unchanged.
Hi Gemma
Rob Broadhead, 2020 Fire Protection has responded to your comment on this article: NSW: Changes in Legislation to Annual Fire Safety Statements (AFSS)
We have been with the same Fire company since our apartments were built 16 years ago.
We are paying an excessive amount to our fire company inspection
I am site manager of our building and also an owner on the committee
We have two fire debtors in all apartments one is a heat & smoke detectors wired to our fire system panel the other is a smoke debtor installed and paid for by owners. The owners smoke detectors have just been replaced by all owners.
QUESTION: I was aware that the Heat/Smoke detectors need to be check for fire safety.
But now our fire safety inspection has been insisted on inspection our apartments owners smoke detectors
I questioned what this was now happening as these are owned by owners.
Hi Lorraine
Chris Chatham, Linkfire has responded to your question on this article: NSW: Q&A Smoke Alarms in Strata Units
I read your article re Fire Safety Inspections, a lot of contradictions. However my question re inspections being annual…we have had 2 each year. One for interiors of units & the second for the foyers & exterior area. I have requested of the Strata Managers to unite them into one only insoection as we get charged for each. Since they are both deemed annuals, I cannot see a problem. I have not had a reply yet. I have also asked for a quote and perhaps from a second contractor. In your opinion does this sound sensible ?
Hi Liz
The following response has been provided by Vincent Graham, Project Guides:
You are required to undertake all inspections within 90 days of the AFSS due date. This typically means there is 1 inspection each year. Your building would not be able to undertake two inspections, 6 months apart, for the AFSS.
I would recommend reviewing the Contractors scope and amend so that all inspections fall within 90 days of the AFSS.
Hi everyone
Question what is required when drilling through a brick wall to connect NBN If the wall is fire retarded also a apartment block is their any issues.
Hi Jeff
The following response has been provided by Vincent Graham, Project Guides:
If you are drilling through a fire rated element, you must seal any services passing through in accordance with Clause C3.15 of the BCA. In the case of NBN, a fire rated mastic seal should be sufficient, but you will need to confirm with the manufacturer if they have tested it to the NBN cable (an example is FireMastic HPE from BOSS). I would recommend having a passive contractor complete the works to ensure it is done correctly.
Ok thank you. Are owners allowed to view the results.
Hi Rosemary,
This will involve looking at the whole building, so best to go through your Strata Manager.
Thanks Vincent, will I have to go through the sc members or to our strata manager. They will go off at me as say I’m not a sc member, even though I’m am an owner and I have concerns re our 2 units.
Hi Rosemary,
If you want to make sure the building is safe, why not have a Consultant prepare a Fire Safety Schedule. You can contact me if you want to know more about this.
Cheers
Vince
We own a strata unit and it is the only free standing building with only 1 other unit under us which is also ours.
The upstairs unit only has 1 door in and out. It concerns me greatly if a fire was to happen.
We have previously mentioned it to our original developers and then to our strata manager and to the sc. But none seem to care not be bothered.
I feel an fire exit door should have been put in the back of the unit.
We do have a security screen door on our one only front door. We don’t life there due to this fear of been trapped.
What can be done or said.
They ignore us non rental owners.
Hi Joseph,
Not only could you be getting over charged but the maintenance contractor may be carrying out your inspections a bit later than normal (you can start your inspections 90 days before the AFSS due date). They then hold the AFSS certificate on ransom until you have signed their Work Order’s (happens all the time).
Best thing to do is get your maintenance contractor to start their inspections 90 days before the date of the AFSS. AS1851 (the maintenance standard) outlines specific times for reporting (approximately 1-2 weeks). If you get the reports and have 10 weeks to complete the works, this should give you enough time to arrange other quotes.
Hope this helps.
very good article, my concern is that the inspection agent also generally does the work, I would like to separate the two functions to avoid overcharging by doing work not necessarily required
Thanks Vincent
Yes I have been signing off on the statement as a member of the committee
Hi Josef,
Good question. Technically the Strata Manager is not the Owner and therefore shouldn’t be signing the certificate. However, I don’t know of any Council’s that would reject an AFSS based on a Strata Manager signing it.
An ‘Owner’ of a strata building would be any of the many owners. If an Owner is signing off, follow the above steps and you shouldn’t have a problem.
My details are below if you have further issues with this.
Can you please advise as to who is the “Owner” of a strata building. Our strata manager refuses to sign this document