Project Fire Design Review and Precondition Management
A certain five-star hotel in Guangzhou (hereinafter referred to as Hotel G) is located in the core business district of Tianhe District, with a total construction area of 58,000 m², 3 basement floors and 28 above-ground floors, and a building height of 99.8 m (Class I high-rise public building). The project's fire design strictly implements national and local standards including GB 50016 Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings (2018 edition), GB 50084 Code for Design of Sprinkler Systems, GB 50116 Code for Design of Automatic Fire Alarm Systems, and GB 50974 Technical Code for Fire Water Supply and Hydrant Systems. The project obtained the construction project planning permit in March 2021 and completed the fire design review application in June 2021. The key prerequisite work for fire design review included: preparation of the fire design special section (covering six major subsystems: building fire protection, fire water systems, automatic fire alarm systems, smoke control and exhaust systems, gas fire extinguishing systems, and fire power distribution and emergency lighting); third-party technical review of fire design drawings (independent review commissioned to the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Building Research); performance-based fire design (smoke flow simulation (FDS) for the column-free large space of the banquet hall (area 1,200 m², clear height 12 m) to verify the effectiveness of the natural smoke exhaust scheme). During the fire design review process, the review experts raised 6 optimization comments, including: optimization of the direct-to-outdoor distance of the evacuation door of the fire pump room (adjusted from the original design of 18 m to 15 m; Article 5.5.4 of GB 50974 requires it should not be greater than 15 m); expansion of the fire elevator lobby area from 8 m² to 10 m² (Article 7.3.5 of GB 50016 requires not less than 6 m², but the Guangdong provincial implementation rules require not less than 10 m² for Class I high-rise buildings); adjustment of the setting positions of natural smoke exhaust windows in some smoke-proof stairwells. All comments were revised and passed re-review within 10 working days. During the design stage, the project also introduced a BIM fire review system, importing fire design information into the BIM fire review module of the Guangzhou Engineering Construction Project Approval and Management Platform for automatic compliance checking, identifying 37 fire hazards in the integrated pipeline layout in advance.
Fire Quality Management System During Construction
The construction quality of fire protection engineering is the core guarantee for passing fire acceptance at the first attempt. Hotel G established a five-stage quality management system of 'design disclosure → sample guidance → process inspection → special testing → integrated commissioning'. Design disclosure stage: In July 2021, the design unit, fire construction unit, supervision unit and hotel management company jointly held the fire construction drawing design disclosure meeting, clarifying 71 key construction parameters and technical requirements, including hydrant outlet dynamic pressure (Article 7.4.12 of GB 50974 requires ≥0.35 MPa), sprinkler working pressure at the most unfavorable point of the automatic sprinkler system (Article 9.1.4 of GB 50084 requires ≥0.05 MPa), residual pressure value of smoke-proof stairwells (Article 3.4.4 of GB 51251 Technical Standard for Smoke Control and Exhaust Systems of Buildings requires 40-50 Pa), etc. Sample guidance stage: Fire construction sample rooms were made respectively on the standard guest room floor (5th floor), standard office floor (12th floor), and large-space area (banquet hall), and large-scale construction could only proceed after acceptance. The sample rooms focused on verifying integrated pipeline layout, sprinkler spacing and coverage, smoke detector selection and installation positions, and evacuation indication sign settings. Process inspection stage: The construction unit conducted daily self-inspection, the supervision unit conducted weekly joint inspection, and the construction unit conducted monthly special inspection. A 'red-yellow-green light' digital quality management board was set up on the construction site for real-time visual control of the construction progress and quality status of the fire systems. Special testing stage: From June 2022, in accordance with the requirements of GB 50261 Code for Construction and Acceptance of Sprinkler Systems and GB 50263 Code for Construction and Acceptance of Gas Fire Extinguishing Systems, special tests were carried out by system. Test items included hydrant system test firing (roof test hydrant pressure 0.48 MPa, most unfavorable point pressure 0.38 MPa), end water test of the automatic sprinkler system (most unfavorable point flow 1.2 L/s, meeting the 1.0 L/s requirement of GB 50084), and air volume measurement of smoke control and exhaust systems (average measured smoke exhaust outlet air velocity 7.2 m/s, meeting the ≥7 m/s requirement of GB 51251). Integrated commissioning stage: In September 2022, full-system fire integrated commissioning was carried out, testing the interfaces between the automatic fire alarm system and all linked equipment, including core functions such as linked start of fire pumps, linked start of sprinkler pumps, linked start of smoke control and exhaust fans, fire elevator homing, non-fire power supply cutoff, emergency lighting switching, and linked descent of fire shutter doors. Integrated commissioning identified a total of 12 issues (including 3 software logic issues, 5 wiring issues, and 4 equipment parameter setting issues), all of which were rectified and closed within 3 weeks.
Fire Acceptance Documentation Preparation and Internal Review
Fire acceptance documentation is an important part of the acceptance procedure. The Hotel G project team began systematic documentation preparation 6 months in advance. In accordance with the requirements of GB 50877-2014 Rules for Fire Acceptance Assessment of Construction Projects and the Guidelines for Fire Acceptance Work of Construction Projects issued by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, five major categories of acceptance documentation were comprehensively sorted out: (1) Engineering documents—construction project fire design review opinion letter, construction drawing design document review qualification certificate, fire design special section, fire product instruction manuals and certificates of conformity, concealed works acceptance records, etc., totaling 48 items; (2) Testing documents—fire facility testing report (issued by a third-party testing agency with CMA qualification), fire electrical testing report, lightning protection testing report, etc., totaling 12 items; (3) Commissioning documents—fire integrated commissioning records, fire pump performance test records, smoke control and exhaust system commissioning records, gas fire extinguishing system simulated discharge test records, etc., totaling 24 items; (4) Construction documents—fire system construction records, equipment installation records, pipeline pressure testing and flushing records, concealed works acceptance records, etc., totaling 36 items; (5) Management documents—fire safety management system, emergency plans, employee training records, fire facility maintenance contracts, etc., totaling 18 items. Documentation management adopted a digital collaborative platform (Glodon BIM5D), enabling real-time document upload, version control and online review. In the document self-check stage, the project team simulated the review perspective of acceptance experts and conducted three rounds of cross-review on each document, identifying and rectifying 21 documentation issues, including inaccurate descriptions of some pipeline routes in concealed works records (9 items), individual parameters in testing reports not strictly filled in according to standard format (7 items), and unclear time node annotations in integrated commissioning records (5 items). The fire acceptance application was formally submitted in November 2022, and the documentation review passed at the first attempt without any return of submissions.
On-site fire acceptance organization and issue response
From December 12 to 14, 2022, the Guangzhou Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau organized a fire acceptance expert panel to conduct on-site acceptance at Hotel G. The acceptance was carried out simultaneously by four specialized groups: building fire protection group, fire water system group, electrical fire protection group, and smoke control and exhaust group. The acceptance process included: opening meeting (the acceptance panel listened to the project overview and self-assessment report), on-site inspection (each group conducted systematic spot checks and functional tests according to their division of work), document verification (the review group continued to verify internal documents), and closing meeting (summarizing acceptance opinions). The key test items and results during the on-site inspection were as follows: (1) Fire water source test — tested from the fire water pool intake, the flow rate met the maximum fire flow demand (fire hydrant system 40L/s + sprinkler system 30L/s), and the continuous water supply duration of 3h met the requirements of GB 50974 Article 4.2.2; (2) Most unfavorable point fire hydrant test — tested at the test hydrant on the 28th floor roof, the hydrant outlet dynamic pressure was 0.46MPa, and the solid water stream was 15m (GB 50974 Article 7.4.12 requires ≥13m); (3) Most unfavorable point sprinkler end water test — tested at the end water test device on the 28th floor, the discharge flow rate was 1.2L/s, and the alarm valve pressure switch activated the fire pump within 38 seconds (GB 50084 Article 11.0.1 requires ≤90 seconds); (4) Fire elevator forced landing test — simulating a fire signal on the first floor, all 3 fire elevators were forced to land at the first floor within 55 seconds (GB 26465 "Safety Code for Manufacture and Installation of Fire Elevators" requires ≤60 seconds); (5) Smoke control and exhaust system test — starting the exhaust system in the banquet hall (maximum smoke control zone area 400m²), the exhaust outlet air velocity was 7.5m/s, and the exhaust volume was 30,000m³/h, higher than the 27,000m³/h required by GB 51251 (calculated at 60m³/h per m²); (6) Emergency lighting and evacuation indication test — after power failure, the measured illuminance of emergency lighting at the farthest evacuation point (25m from the evacuation door) was 0.8lux, higher than the 0.5lux required by Article 3.2.5 of GB 51309 "Technical Standard for Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuate Indication System". At the closing meeting of the acceptance, the expert panel gave the acceptance conclusion of "zero rectification items, passed on the first attempt". The successful experience of Hotel G was promoted by the Guangzhou Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau as a demonstration project for fire acceptance.