It’s important for fire protection of a building to be considered as a whole. The provision of fire mains is an essential element of fire protection systems in large and complex buildings due to the difficulties in providing water supplies at the point of use for fire fighting and search and rescue. It is therefore essential that these systems are carefully maintained to ensure instant readiness when required.
BS 9990:2006 brings up-to-date the guidance on private fire mains (both internal and external), and gives recommendations for non-automatic fire fighting systems in buildings. It covers good practice in matters affecting the design, installation, testing and maintenance of such systems including wet and dry fire-fighting mains.
The principal changes from BS 5306-1 are that the new standard no longer gives guidance on when and where such systems are needed (which is now given in, for example, guidance in support of national building regulations), but deals solely with the design of the systems, including recommendations for provision, siting, installation and maintenance.
N.B. BS 9990: 2006 does not cover hose reels, foam inlets, automatic foam systems and portable fire-fighting equipment. These systems are covered in BS EN 671-1, BS 5306-1, BS 5306-3, BS 5306-8 and BS EN 3-7.
BS 9990:2006 and BS 5306-1:2006 replace BS 5306-1:1976, which has now been withdrawn.
