Course Details

Fire Safety

Academic Year 2026/27

BHA064-A course is part of 1 study plan

​ BPA-SIS Summer Semester 3rd year

Main principles of fire safety in buildings.

Fire safety in non-industrial and in industrial buildings, including special focus on residential buildings.

The meaning of dividing buildings into smaller units, into fire compartments. The amount of fire risk depending on the purpose of the room, operation. Fire risk of fire compartment, sources of fire load. Fire safety assessment of building structures. Class of reaction to fire of building materials. Fire resistance of building structures. Increase of fire resistance of building structures. Escape options for occupants of a building at risk of fire. Fire dangerous area around burning building. Fire-fighting equipment.

Credits

5 credits

Language of instruction

English

Semester

summer

Course Guarantor

Ing. Marie Rusinová, Ph.D.

Institute

Institute of Building Structures

Forms and criteria of assessment

course-unit credit and examination

Aims

The student will have an overview of the disciplines of building assessment from a fire safety perspective. In the light of the acquired knowledge, the student will be able to better design a building to meet the fire safety requirements, especially in regard to the fire resistance of its structure and escape routes.

Basic Literature

HARLEY, Morgan, J.: SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, Vol. 1, 5th edition. London: Society of Fire Protection Engineers, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4939-2564-0. 1142 s. (en)
HARLEY, Morgan, J.: SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, Vol. 2, 5th edition. London: Society of Fire Protection Engineers, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4939-2564-3. 2307 s. (en)
HARLEY, Morgan, J.: SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, Vol. 3, 5th edition. London: Society of Fire Protection Engineers, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4939-2564-3. 1142 s. (en)
BUCHANAN, Andrew, H., ANTHONY, Abu, K.: Structural Design for Fire Safety, 2nd edition. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2017. ISBN 9781118700396. 415 s. (en)
ISO 834-1:1999/Amd 2:2021. Fire resistance test – Elements of building construction – Part 1: General requirements. (en)
EN 1363-1:2020. Fire resistance tests – Part 1 – General requirement (en)

Offered to foreign students

To offer to students of all faculties

Course on BUT site

https://www.vut.cz/en/students/courses/detail/299118

Lecture

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, elective

Syllabus

  1. Introduction to fire safety of buildings, importance of the subject in terms of protection of persons and property. Risk to persons in case of fire, health aspects.
  2. Theory of fire, behaviour of the most important materials in fire.
  3. Basic tasks in solving fire safety of a specific building.
  4. Fire compartments. Principles of dividing buildings into fire compartments, fire separating structures.
  5. Fire load of a specific room depending on its purpose, fire risk of the whole fire compartment.
  6. Fire compartments without fire risk, fire compartment with high fire risk. Occurrence, measures.
  7. Class of reaction to fire of building materials – Euroclass. Method of determination. Importance of Euroclass determination for the use of a building element in a structure.
  8. Fire resistance of structures. Limited states.
  9. Assessment of building structures from the point of view of fire safety. Load-bearing structures, fire separating structures.
  10. Escape roads from the burning building. Level of escape from the building, equipment of escape routes.
  11. Stand-off distances, fire dangerous area around a burning building.
  12. Fire-fighting intervention, fire water supply, fire extinguishers, other technical and technological equipment.
  13. Buildings for dwelling and lodging – specific issues. Practical examples of fire safety equipment in buildings.

Exercise

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, compulsory

Syllabus

  1. Structural, material and layout design of the building, the basis for ensuring the fire safety of the building. Practical examples of designs.
  2. Principles for dividing the building into fire compartments. Application to a specific building.
  3. Fire load in different rooms according their purpose.
  4. Fire risk in fire compartment.
  5. Determination of requirements for fire resistance of structures.
  6. Determination of the actual fire resistance of building structures
  7. Escape roads, assessment in a specific building.
  8. Stand-off distances and fire dangerous area – influence of radiation, falling of burning parts.
  9. Fire water supply, fire extinguishers.
  10. Assessment of the technical equipment of the building in regard to fire safety.
  11. Options for providing fire intervention, building-specific applications.
  12. Building for dwelling, practical approach for solving.
  13. Credits.

Self-study

26 weeks, 1 hours/week

Individual preparation for an ending of the course

52 weeks, 1 hours/week