Abstract

Introduction: This article describes questions related to coming into force of Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of The European Parliament and The Council of 9 March 2011 laying down harmonized conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC, for existing in Poland regulations on fire safety of buildings. The provisions of the EU Regulation are in accordance with the solutions being used for many years in Western Europe, however, Poland has to start adjusting them, that is why the author pointed out the significant improvements that need to be adapted in our country in this situation. The key issue indicated in the provisions is a clear distinction between two situations: when in case of fire a possibility for people to escape from buildings is provided, and when people are enabled to survive fire in a safe part of the building. The requirement of the EU Regulation that the structure of the building needs to keep load capacity during fire by certain time frame sufficiently enough to ensure the opportunity to leave the building by the people and taking into account the safety of rescue teams significantly reduces too wide scope of building with class ‘E’ fire resistance set in Poland, in which the supporting construction do not need to have any fire resistance category. In the EU, the emphasis is placed on the action taken by the building users after fire is detected, leading to a reduction of fire spreading, even before the arrival of rescue teams. The possibility to use user-friendly indoor hydrants with semirigid hose is essential. Nowadays in many countries technical and building regulations are formulated in such a way that benefits from widespread use of engineering methods. These methods allow the best solutions being fit to the buildings to meet the security standards and this also means lower investment costs. The EU Construction Products Regulation contains obligation to remain the basic requirements for buildings, including fire safety requirements throughout their usage time. Periodic inspections of buildings check if these requirements are fulfilled; however, in Poland there is a need to extend this control with general inspections checking fulfilment of the requirements of fire safety of buildings, as they are currently implemented only to a very limited extent.

Keywords: construction products directive, construction products regulation, fire safety of buildings, engineering methods, evacuation, indoor hydrants, periodic inspections of buildings

Type of article: review article