Vegetation Management – Hydrants
Ensure fire safety in your strata building by maintaining vegetation clearances & visibility around hydrant boosters and valves. Learn about essential standards, real-life examples, and tips for keeping hydrants accessible and vegetation managed. Prioritize safety with expert advice from Civil Fire.
5-Yearly Servicing of Hydrant & Sprinkler Systems
With the legislation of AS1851 in NSW coming into force in 2025, the 5-yearly service of the fire hydrant system and sprinkler system
AS1851 in NSW
The Australian Standard for the Routine service of fire protection equipment, AS1851-2012, is being legislated in NSW as of 13th February 2025. What does this mean for building owners? Find out more.
Fire Dampers
Fire dampers are an essential safety measure that helps to prevent the spread of fire and smoke in buildings. Dampers belong to the ‘passive fire protection’ family.
Ionisation Vs Photoelectric Smoke Alarms
There are two main types of smoke alarms available on the market: ionisation smoke alarms and photoelectric smoke alarms. While both types of smoke alarms can detect smoke and save lives, they operate differently, and there are advantages to using one type over the other in specific settings.
Hydrostatic Testing of Fire Hydrants
Hydrostatic testing is a process of testing the integrity and strength of a pressurized system, such as a fire hydrant system, to ensure that it can withstand the required pressure and flow.
A resident's guide to fire doors
Most people don’t realise that the front entry door to their unit is actually required to have a fire rating. Other doors in your unit may also be required to be fire rated if they lead to a public space (e.g. to a carpark).
Sole Occupancy Units (SOUs) in residential buildings are usually separate fire compartments to their neighbours and the shared corridors. This means that the walls will have a fire rating, and if you put a hole in the wall with a door, it must also be protected. The reasoning behind this is that if there is a fire in a unit, we want the fire to be trapped in the unit and not to spread throughout the rest of the building (the smoke alarm will have already alerted the resident to escape).
What does this mean for residents?
Your fire contractor will need to check the door once per year at the annual fire inspection. Very generally speaking, the fire door needs to be able to self-close & self-latch from every point of the open swing of the door, and it needs to be tight fitting in the frame. We are also checking to make sure no additional non-compliant hardware has been installed.
Here is an outline of what we are looking for. This is determined by the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and the Australian Standard for components for the protection of openings – AS1905.1.
What about asbestos?
If your building was constructed from the 1960s-1980s, then there is a chance that your fire door may contain asbestos.
Asbestos is not harmful as long as the fibres are contained inside the core of the door. This means that repairs that involve drilling into the door cannot be completed on an asbestos door – the door needs to be replaced.
Only a business with a Friable Asbestos Removal Licence from SafeWork NSW with specially trained staff can undertake asbestos door removals. An air monitoring company must also be engaged to ensure no asbestos fibres are released into the air during the removal process. The disposal of asbestos doors is also very regulated and specific and a lot of extra administration work is required. These things all contribute to making asbestos door replacements more expensive than regular door replacements.
Civil Fire is fully licenced to undertake friable asbestos door replacements.
Can I install additional hardware on my fire door?
In short, the answer to this question is no.
Hardware refers to the additional equipment that is installed on the door, including locksets, hinges, pivots, closers & peep holes (to name a few).
Any hardware that is installed on a fire door must be tested and approved for us one that particular brand of fire door. This eliminates a lot of hardware that may be appropriate for use on a non-fire rated door, such as a digital lockset.
Any piece of hardware that could stop the door from self-closing and self-latching, such as a deadbolt hold open device or door guard, is also not permitted.
Do not install any additional hardware to your fire door unless you are sure it has been approved by the manufacturer. You should avoid modifying your fire door in any way. Call Civil Fire on 9906 1626 for further information.
I don’t think we’ve had contractors come through before who were so clean and tidy, helpful and responsive with ideas about how to better maintain the heritage and be compliant and generally respectful of the property.
He was so thoughtful, he stopped the really noisy part of the repair so I could answer calls. I went out at lunch, and he was on his hands and knees washing the floor in the entry because he’d brought in some debris from the street.
