United Arab Emirates
UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice - 2018 Edition is the latest Building Fire Safety Code issued by UAE Ministry of Interior General Command of Civil Defense mandating all the rules and regulations for any type of building to be constructed in the UAE. The code restrict the types of materials that can be used on facades of buildings depending on occupancy type and building height classifications.
Building Height Classifications are listed below:
- Low Rise Buildings - structures having total height of up to 15m
- Mid Rise Buildings - structures having total height from 15m up to 23m
- High Rise Buildings - structures having total height from 23m up to 90m
- Super High Rise Buildings - structures having total height of 90m and over
For the below occupancy type buildings, external walls can only be constructed with materials achieving a European Class A1 or A2-s1, d0 in accordance with EN 13501-1:2007+A1:2009 and materials having self ignition temperature of not less than 343°C as per ASTMD1929. In addition to the material classification requirement, if facade construction is to be made out of a system assembly constructed out of a mix of materials and components, then the complete system assembly must pass one of the following full scale system tests: BS8414-1 or 2 with pass criteria as per BRE 135 / NFPA285 with pass criteria / FM4881 with pass criteria / ISO 13785-2 with pass criteria
- Super High Rise Buildings
- Shopping Malls
- Theme Parks
- Schools
- Hospitals
- Assembly
For the below occupancy type buildings, external walls can only be constructed with materials achieving a European Class B-s1, d0 in accordance with EN 13501-1:2007+A1:2009 and materials having self ignition temperature of not less than 343°C as per ASTMD1929. In addition to the material classification requirement, if facade construction is to be made out of a system assembly constructed out of a mix of materials and components, then the complete system assembly must pass one of the following full scale system tests: BS8414-1 or 2 with pass criteria as per BRE 135 / NFPA285 with pass criteria / FM4881 with pass criteria / ISO 13785-2 with pass criteria
- Lowrise Buildings
- Midrise Buildings
- Warehouses
- Industrial Buildings
For the below occupancy type buildings, external walls can only be constructed with materials achieving a European Class B-s1, d0 in accordance with EN 13501-1:2007+A1:2009 and materials having self ignition temperature of not less than 343°C as per ASTMD1929.
All of the testing/certification requirements listed above must be conducted at UAE Civil Defense accredited laboratories and the accredited certifications must be approved/listed by regional UAE Civil Defense bodies. Installation of the Civil Defense Approved systems can only be installed by Civil Defense approved installers.
Further details on the requirements and the complete approval scheme is clearly defined on the UAE Fire and Life Safey Code of Practice 2018 Edition which can be downloaded
here.