NSW: Will 2025 legislation require fire hydrant system upgrades?

Question: Our building fire hydrant system was installed in the late 1980s. We’ve heard that new legislation is coming in 2025. Do we need to upgrade our fire hydrant system to meet the higher testing requirements?

Our building fire hydrant system was installed in the late 1980s to AS 2419.1 -1988, Ministerial Specification 10 and BCA 1990 E1.3. We have been testing the system every five years to meet the performance standards in place when the building was strata subdivided.

We’ve heard that new legislation is coming into effect on 13 February 2025 regarding the standard of testing. Will we be required to upgrade our fire hydrant system to meet the higher testing requirements of the new legislation, or will our current performance testing standard be enough?

The cost to upgrade the fire hydrant system would be substantial.

Answer: The only change coming that will affect this system is the legislative enforcement of the procedure for testing.

The only change coming that will affect this system is the legislative enforcement of the procedure for testing. The system itself does not require an upgrade.

The standard being legislated is AS1851-2012. This requires the following steps (simplified):

• Monthly testing of any fire pump connected to the system.
• Six monthly testing of all isolation and hydrant landing valves.
• Annual testing of all isolation and hydrant landing valves, flow testing of system and pumps.
• 5 yearly overhaul of all pumps, isolation valves and hydrant landing valves. (Note: the 5 yearly often includes replacement of the hydrant landing valves themselves as overhaul labour can exceed replacement value).

Other things to consider are:

• NSW Fire & Rescue may request you install Storz hermaphrodite couplings to the landing valves to make connection in an emergency easier for them.
• Since 2000, local councils can order you to upgrade at any time to bring your building up to a current level of life safety – usually triggered by an incident, a DA submission or a complaint.

This post appears in the March 2024 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.

Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: rob.broadhead@2020fire.com.au
P: 1300 340 210