Evaluation of the Legal Framework for Building Fire Safety Regulations in Spain

Abstract

There is a trend in Europe towards increasing the quality and performance of regulations. At the same time, regulatory failure has been observed in the area of building fire safety regulation in England and elsewhere. As a result, an analysis of the appropriateness of fire safety regulations in Spain is warranted, with the objective being to assess whether a suitable level of fire safety is currently being delivered. Three basic elements must be considered in such analysis: the legal and regulatory framework, the level of fire risk/safety of buildings that is expected and the level which actually results, and a suitable method of analysis. The focus of this paper is creating a legal and regulatory framework, in particular with respect to fire safety in buildings. Components of an ”ideal” building regulatory framework to adequately control fire risk are presented, the existing building regulatory framework is summarized, and an analysis of the gaps between the ideal and the existing systems is presented. It is concluded that the gaps between the ideal and the existing framework are significant, and that the current fire safety regulations are not appropriate for assuring delivery of the intended level of fire risk mitigation.

Deriving Major Fire Risk Evaluation Items Utilizing Spatial Information Convergence Technology in Dense Areas of Small Obsolete Buildings

“…Moreover, the fire is highly likely to develop into a large-scale fire when it starts in a closed space. Australia, China, and the UK have recently increased their level of awareness of the fire risks in major buildings in relation to highly flammable exterior cladding panels [35][36][37].…”

Adequacy of Fire Safety Measures of Residential Buildings in Peri-Urban Neighbourhoods of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

“…In advanced countries also, regulatory failure has also been observed in building fire safety regulations. Across Europe, Osácar et al (2021) concluded that the analysis of legal and regulatory framework, the expected level of fire risk/safety of buildings and actual fire safety achieved or implemented constitutes the basic framework for determining the appropriateness of fire safety regulations. While fire continue to raze buildings in the congested urban areas of both developed and developing nations, practically nothing is known about the peri-urban neighbourhoods that have been witnessing rapid physical transformation in the past two to three decades with regard to the level of compliance with safety standards or the appropriateness of the safety codes in recent times.…”