← All services

Fire Strategy Design

The fire strategy is the single document the rest of the project is built on. JWCS authors strategies that bound design intent across the lifecycle — from the qualitative design review through to operational handover — for surface stations, sub-surface stations, substations, depots, and lineside structures.

A fire strategy authored to bound the project, not to satisfy a checklist. The document sets out the design fire, the escape provisions, the compartmentation logic, the active and passive systems strategy, and the assumptions the rest of the design relies on. It is the reference every downstream discipline cites.

JWCS works from first principles where prescriptive guidance doesn’t bound the case (BS 7974 performance-based engineering), and prescriptively where prescriptive routes deliver compliant outcomes efficiently. Every strategy carries a documented Qualitative Design Review, named design fires, and explicit boundaries between performance-based and prescriptive routes.

Strategies are issued at gate reviews against the project’s GRIP / Pathway / RIBA cadence. Sign-off authorities, derogations under sub-surface regulation or S1088 routes, and key design assumptions are surfaced explicitly — no ambiguity over what is claimed, on whose authority, and against which standard.

Typical deliverables

  • Fire Strategy document (concept through to detailed design)
  • Qualitative Design Review (QDR) report
  • Stakeholder co-ordination across architectural, MEP, structural, and operational disciplines
  • Performance-based engineering analysis where prescriptive guidance does not bound the case
  • Evacuation analysis

Governing Framework

BS 9992:2020BS 9999:2017BS 7974ADBRRO 2005Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface) Regs 2009

Lifecycle stages

GRIP 3-5 / Pathway 1-5 / RIBA 2-4. Updates issued at gate reviews and on material design change.

Discuss this service

Direct line to the engineer delivering the work.

Contact