Commercial & Office Fire Engineering
Fire engineering for offices, headquarters buildings and mixed commercial estates, scoped from drawings, use, occupancy, project phase and the reviewer question. The output is a written technical report or schedule with assumptions and limits recorded.
Commercial fire-safety questions that affect design and operation
Office and commercial schemes often need a clear answer on open-plan layouts, atria, tenant fit-out, smoke-control intent or occupied-building risk. The right deliverable depends on the building and the question, not on a generic promise.
Design-stage uncertainty
Open floors, interconnecting stairs, atria and mixed-use interfaces need a recorded fire-safety basis so later review comments can be answered.
Fit-out and tenant change
Tenant works can drift from the base-build strategy. A scoped review identifies which assumptions still hold and which require update.
Incomplete records
Existing strategies, drawings, alarm information and management records are often incomplete. Gaps are listed as gaps before conclusions are drawn.
Landlord, tenant and manager interfaces
Responsibilities can sit across several parties. The report can record fire-safety interfaces, but does not transfer statutory duties.
A scoped commercial fire-engineering process
We start from the design intent, occupancy, building records and the question to be answered, then agree the deliverable before technical work begins.
Define the commercial building question
We confirm whether the enquiry concerns base build, refurbishment, fit-out, occupancy change, fire risk assessment or a reviewer comment.
Review drawings and existing evidence
The current drawings, fire strategy, occupancy assumptions, fit-out information, smoke-control intent and management records are reviewed against the agreed question.
Prepare the technical output
The deliverable may be a fire strategy, means-of-escape review, smoke-control design-intent note, fire risk assessment or fit-out compliance framework.
Support technical responses
Where review comments are in scope, we help identify the fire-safety evidence that can answer them and the items that must come from others.
Scope your commercial fire-safety question
Commercial and office fire-engineering scope
The scope is designed around the building and the commercial question: design development, fit-out review, occupied-building assessment or response to comments.
Fire strategy and design review
Written fire strategy and design review for new build, refurbishment, fit-out and change-of-use commercial projects.
Means of escape and occupancy
Review of occupancy assumptions, travel distances, storey exits and management assumptions against the agreed route.
Tenant fit-out fire-safety framework
Fit-out review against the base-build fire strategy and the fire-safety information supplied by the client and tenant team.
Occupied-building fire risk assessment
Fire risk assessment for offices and commercial premises, with significant findings and prioritised actions recorded.
Smoke modelling where separately scoped
CFD or smoke modelling is included only where the design question requires it and assumptions can be defined in writing.
Fire door and compartmentation review
Condition or design review can be scoped for doors, compartment lines and passive protection evidence, with exclusions recorded.
What makes commercial & office fire safety different
Commercial buildings are usually designed around openness — connected floorplates, atria, feature stairs — which sits outside prescriptive guidance and has to be justified by engineering argument rather than by table lookup.
The fire strategy has to survive a decade of tenant fit-outs carried out by parties who never saw the original design intent.
Landlord, tenant and managing-agent responsibilities overlap, so a compliance gap usually appears at the interface rather than inside a single demise.
Who we usually work with
- ·Developers and asset managers
- ·Architects and lead consultants
- ·Facilities and estates directors
- ·Occupier fit-out project managers
Which requirements typically apply, and how
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, as amended by the Fire Safety Act 2021
Applies to workplaces and non-domestic premises in England and Wales; the Responsible Person holds the duty.
Building Regulations and Approved Document B
Applies to building work; Approved Document B is statutory guidance, and a performance-based route is an alternative way of showing the functional requirement is met.
BS 9999
A standard providing a risk-based design framework for non-domestic buildings — guidance, not law.
Applicability is confirmed for the specific building. This is technical fire-safety consultancy and not legal advice; legal interpretation is a matter for your own advisers.
What you can instruct — and what is excluded
Scoped deliverables
- Fire strategy for new build, refurbishment and category-A / category-B fit-out
- Travel distance, occupancy and means-of-escape justification
- Smoke control design intent and review for atria and connected volumes
- Fire risk assessment for the occupied building
- Tenant fit-out fire-strategy compliance framework
Boundaries of the work
- ·Smoke-control modelling is included only where separately scoped and technically justified for the question being asked.
- ·We define performance requirements for systems; we do not install, commission or certify them.
- ·This is technical fire-safety consultancy. Magnus Opifex Seven is not a building control authority, not the Building Safety Regulator, and not a certification body.
- ·We do not take on Responsible Person, Accountable Person, Principal Designer or Principal Contractor duties, and no approval outcome, programme or cost is guaranteed.
- ·British Standards and PAS documents are standards and guidance, not legislation; where they are referenced the statutory position is stated separately.
- ·We do not issue or sign EWS1 forms. EWS1 is a valuation-related form for lenders and is not a life-safety certificate or a fire risk assessment.
- ·Scope, fees and programme are confirmed in a written quotation once the building information is reviewed.
What we need to scope your enquiry
Information needed
- ·Floor area, storeys and occupancy figures
- ·Whether the scheme is new build, refurbishment or fit-out
- ·Any atrium, interconnecting stair or open-plan arrangement outside prescriptive limits
- ·The current fire strategy or fire risk assessment, if one exists
Useful reference
Scope your commercial scheme
Send the floor areas, storeys and the design question you need resolved. You get a written scope covering exactly what is being assessed and what it will produce.
Discuss a commercial schemeCommercial & Office Questions, Expert Answers
Direct answers from our fire engineering consultants — no jargon, no fluff.
What should we send for a commercial or office enquiry?
Can you review a tenant fit-out against the base-build strategy?
What does the commercial fire strategy include?
Is CFD or smoke modelling included in every commercial project?
Does your report determine approval, programme, insurance or lettability?
Who keeps the statutory duties for the premises?
Scope your commercial fire-safety question
Send the drawings, use, occupancy and the reviewer or design question. We confirm the deliverable, exclusions and fee in writing before work begins.