Fire Safety Design Review System and Legal Basis
The fire safety design review system is a core component of fire safety supervision over construction projects in China. Its legal basis mainly includes Articles 11 to 13 of the Fire Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (2021 Amendment), the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Fire Safety Design Review and Acceptance of Construction Projects (MOHURD Order No. 51), and local fire safety management regulations issued by various provinces and municipalities. According to MOHURD Order No. 51, special construction projects (including densely occupied premises such as hotels, restaurants and shopping malls with a total floor area greater than 20,000 m²) must undergo fire safety design review; where no review has been conducted or the review fails, the construction unit may not commence construction. The review covers eight core areas: building category and fire resistance rating, general layout and fire separation distances, fire compartments and fire separation, safe evacuation and fire elevators, fire water supply and automatic extinguishing systems, automatic fire alarm systems, smoke control and exhaust systems, and fire electrical systems. The review process is divided into two stages: formal review and technical review. Formal review is handled by the acceptance window of the competent housing and urban-rural development authority, which verifies the completeness of materials, focusing on whether the application form is completed in accordance with requirements, whether materials are complete, and whether drawings bear the drawing issuance seal and registered engineer seal. Technical review is entrusted to a qualified construction drawing review institution or an expert review panel for substantive review, typically covering simultaneous review across five disciplines: architecture, structure, water supply and drainage, HVAC, and electrical. For hotel projects, particular attention must be paid to the special provisions for hotel buildings in the Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings GB 50016-2014 (2018 Edition), such as the mandatory requirement to provide refuge floors where the building height of a standard floor of guest rooms exceeds 100 m, and the requirement to provide fire refuge areas within hotel guest rooms. Regarding review timelines, according to MOHURD Order No. 51, fire safety design review shall be completed within 15 working days from the date of acceptance, extendable to 20 working days where the technical review is complex.
List of Submission Materials and Preparation Requirements
Fire safety design review submission materials must be comprehensive, accurate and standardized; any omission or non-compliance may result in the submission being returned or delayed. According to the Rules for the Review and Acceptance of Fire Safety Design of Construction Projects and the specific requirements of local housing and urban-rural development authorities, the core submission materials include the following twelve categories: the application form for fire safety design review of construction projects (including basic information on the construction unit and design unit, project overview, and basic fire safety design information); fire safety design documents (including design statement and design drawings; special construction projects must provide special fire safety design documents); qualification documents of the design unit (copy of business license and copy of qualification certificate, stamped with the official seal); the construction drawing design document review compliance certificate issued by the construction drawing review institution; construction project planning permit documents (original verified); the dedicated fire safety design report (including fire safety design statements for each discipline, fire facility configuration statement, and fire material selection statement); a full set of fire safety design drawings including the general site plan, floor plans, elevations and sections; water supply and drainage drawings including the general fire water supply plan, fire pipe network system diagram and automatic sprinkler system diagram; electrical drawings including the automatic fire alarm system diagram, fire linkage control diagram and fire broadcasting system diagram; HVAC drawings including the smoke control and exhaust system diagram and HVAC and smoke control design drawings; proof documents of combustion performance of insulation materials and exterior wall decorative materials; and the fire safety design quality commitment letter signed by the legal representative. Submission materials shall be uniformly bound into volumes (A4 size), drawings folded to A4 size, and electronic documents submitted simultaneously in PDF format and CAD source file format. In particular, the dedicated fire safety design report shall be bound as a separate volume, and its content shall include the project fire safety design overview, fire safety design statements for each discipline, a summary table of fire facility configuration, a statement of combustion performance ratings of fire materials, and a list of standards on which the fire safety design is based.
Key Points of Technical Review for Fire Safety Design of Special Construction Projects
The technical review of fire protection design for special construction projects is the core of the review work. The review agency conducts an item-by-item verification of the compliance, rationality, and completeness of the design documents in accordance with the mandatory and recommended provisions of the national engineering construction fire protection technical standards. The review points cover the following 8 professional fields: The architectural review focuses on building classification and fire resistance rating (the fire resistance rating of a Class I high-rise public building shall be Grade I), fire compartment area (the maximum allowable building area of each fire compartment of a high-rise hotel is 1500 square meters, which may be doubled when an automatic fire extinguishing system is installed), fire separation measures (installation requirements for fire walls, fire shutters, fire doors, and fire windows), and safe evacuation (evacuation distance, evacuation width, form and number of evacuation stairs, and installation of fire elevators); The water supply and drainage review focuses on fire water sources and water supply reliability (fire water tank volume, fire pump flow and head, effective volume and installation height of the fire water tank), indoor and outdoor fire hydrant systems (layout spacing shall not exceed 30m, protection radius shall not exceed 150m, and the solid water column length shall not be less than 13m for high-rise buildings), and automatic sprinkler systems (determination of hazard class, sprinkler density, area of operation, and sprinkler selection and layout); The HVAC review focuses on the division of smoke control zones (the maximum allowable area of each smoke control zone is 500 square meters, and the maximum allowable length of the long side is 60m), mechanical pressurization air supply systems (air volume calculation, air supply outlet layout, and residual pressure control), mechanical smoke exhaust systems (smoke exhaust volume calculation, distance from the smoke exhaust outlet to the farthest point shall not exceed 30m, and the makeup air volume of the makeup air system shall not be less than 50% of the smoke exhaust volume), and the installation of fire dampers and smoke fire dampers; The electrical review focuses on automatic fire alarm systems (protection object classification, detector selection and layout, and manual alarm button installation spacing shall not exceed 30m), fire linkage control logic, fire emergency lighting and evacuation indication systems (illuminance and continuous power supply time), fire power supply and distribution (fire load class and fire protection of distribution lines), and fire emergency broadcasting and dedicated fire telephone; The gas review focuses on gas pipeline laying (strictly prohibited from passing through bedrooms and strictly prohibited from passing through fire compartments), gas meter installation, and linkage between gas leakage alarms and emergency shut-off valves. After the review is completed, a Technical Review Opinion on Fire Protection Design of Construction Projects is issued, with conclusions classified as qualified or unqualified.
Common review issues and rectification strategies
Common issues in fire protection design review can be summarized into six major categories. Mastering these issues and rectification strategies is crucial for improving the review pass rate. Category 1: incomplete design basis or citation of abolished codes, manifested as the fire protection design description not listing the code list or citing an abolished version (such as citing GB 50016-2006 instead of the 2014/2018 version of GB 50016). The rectification strategy is to check the code version numbers one by one and use the latest versions, while also paying attention to local technical standards. Category 2: key building fire protection parameters not meeting standards, including excessive fire compartment area (the maximum fire compartment area of a Class I high-rise hotel is 1500 square meters, doubled to 3000 square meters when an automatic fire extinguishing system is installed), insufficient clear width of evacuation doors (the clear width of guest room evacuation doors shall not be less than 0.9m), and excessive evacuation distance (the distance from a guest room door located between two safety exits to the nearest safety exit shall not exceed 30m, and the distance from a guest room door located on both sides of or at the end of a dead-end corridor to the nearest safety exit shall not exceed 15m). The rectification strategy is to adjust the functional layout, add evacuation stairs, or increase the clear evacuation width. Category 3: missing or insufficient configuration of fire protection facilities. Common issues include failure to install automatic sprinkler systems as required by the code (mandatory for Class I high-rise public buildings), insufficient fire pump head (failure to check the pressure at the most unfavorable point), and effective volume of the fire water tank not meeting requirements (the effective volume of the water tank for a Class I high-rise public building shall not be less than 36 cubic meters). The rectification strategy is to supplement the design and conduct hydraulic calculation verification. Category 4: inadequate construction measures, such as fire walls not being partitioned from the base of the floor to the bottom base of the beam, floor slab, or roof slab, incorrect selection of fire door grades (Grade B fire doors shall be used for evacuation stairwells and vestibules, and Grade A fire doors shall be used for equipment rooms such as fire pump rooms), and inadequate fire sealing of pipe shafts. The rectification strategy is to strictly construct according to the drawings and strengthen the fire sealing node practices. Category 5: unreasonable system linkage logic design, such as the linkage logic setting of the automatic fire alarm linkage controller not conforming to the code. The rectification strategy is to recompile the linkage logic relationship table and conduct simulation test verification. Category 6: insufficient design depth, such as drawings lacking pipe shaft details, equipment foundation detail drawings, and system control schematic diagrams. The rectification strategy is to supplement and improve them to reach the construction drawing depth in accordance with the Provisions on the Depth of Compilation of Construction Engineering Design Documents (2016 edition).