Structural fire safety and risks in occupied Higher-Risk Buildings

Content includes presentations below:

Demonstrating deflection head compliance to Approved Document B through load testing
Keith Jones, Design and Technical Quality Director, Ramboll

This presentation explains the Approved Document B requirements for floor deflection at compartment walls, outlines practical design and assessment methods for achieving compliance, and demonstrates through case studies how load testing can improve the fire design assessment of existing composite structures.

Determining structural fire resistance using a risk-based approach for high-rise buildings
Qingfeng Xu, Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Research Associate, University of Manchester, Ashton Fire Ltd.

This presentation introduces a quantitative, risk-based method for assessing fire resistance by combining fire, structural failure and evacuation modelling to evaluate societal risk, and assesses how effectively current UK fire resistance standards protect buildings with different heights and risk profiles.

Fire safety in modular construction: insights from the LFB thematic report
Samuel Woolf, Senior Fire Engineer, Fire Engineering Group, London Fire Brigade

This presentation explores gaps in understanding the fire performance of modular construction systems, highlights key risks arising from poor design, construction quality and unverified failure behaviour, and demonstrates how stronger technical approaches and standards can improve safety, regulatory confidence and affordable housing delivery.

Observations from 18 months of assessing structural risks in occupied Higher-Risk Buildings
Alex Carter, Partner, Cundall
Alison White, Structural Associate, Cundall

This presentation examines common structural risks across building portfolios, shares proportionate mitigation strategies developed through work on over 100 Higher-Risk Buildings, outlines the expectations of Principal Accountable Persons for structural engineers acting as safety advisors, and identifies ways to strengthen professional competence and practice across the industry.

Reasons to watch

• Apply methods to reduce design and construction errors beyond code requirements.  

• Gain insights into the interaction between structural behaviour, fire performance and regulatory compliance.

• Discover design and engineering approaches used to demonstrate compliance in both new and existing buildings.

Intended for

This training video is open to everyone and might be of special interest for:

• Structural engineers working on Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs) or involved in Gateway 2 compliance

• Engineering consultants and team leaders

• Construction and project managers involved in procurement, design coordination, and safety case development

Speakers

Alex Carter

Partner, Cundall

Alex has over 25 years’ experience working in structural engineering and has designed buildings in various countries around the world. Since joining Cundall in 2016, he has delivered numerous net zero or low carbon schemes and is an advocate of decarbonising structural design solutions through material reuse and the repurposing of existing buildings. He leads a team undertaking Structural Risk Assessments across portfolios of existing HRB’s which vary significantly in building age and form of construction. He also led the engineering design on the Circular Twin project that was awarded the AJ100 Sustainability Initiative of the Year Award in 2022 and is currently undertaking similar research on Regenerative Design in the NHS.

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Keith Jones

Design and Technical Quality Director, Ramboll

Keith Jones is the Design and Technical Quality Director for Ramboll’s UK Structures division.  With over 30 years design experience on UK and international building projects, he leads their Design Quality Panel with the aim of continual improvement in all aspects of design and technical delivery of structural engineering projects.  As a Project Director at Ramboll and previously Arup he has led multi-disciplinary engineering teams ensuring the successful delivery of projects from £5m to over £500m construction cost.

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Alison White

Structural Associate, Cundall

Alison has over 12 years’ experience working as a structural engineer in Birmingham, delivering many award winning buildings across the UK. She is responsible for leading her team through concept design, co-ordination and delivery. Over the last 18 months, Alison has managed Cundall’s Structural Risk Assessments work for Building Safety Cases across five UK offices. A STEM Ambassador and mentor, Alison is known for her collaborative approach and genuine passion for the built environment.

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Samuel Woolf

Senior Fire Engineer, London Fire Brigade

Samuel is a Senior Fire Engineer and leads the London Fire Brigade’s Fire Engineering Group. With over a decade of experience in the Brigade, including seven years specialising in fire engineering, he has overseen the review of numerous projects utilising modern methods of construction. His work particularly focuses on structural timber and modular construction, where he provides technical guidance to enhance fire safety, support innovation, and strengthen risk‑informed decision‑making across complex building projects.

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Qingfeng Xu

Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Research Associate, University of Manchester, Ashton Fire Ltd.

Dr. Qingfeng Xu is a researcher and engineer specializing in structural-fire engineering. He completed his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology, focusing on coupled CFD-FEM simulations for structure–fire interaction. He has worked on tunnel fire safety projects across the Netherlands and Belgium and is currently a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate at the University of Manchester, collaborating with Ashton Fire Ltd. to advance performance-based fire-safe design through risk-informed engineering solutions.

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