BrazilSurbana Jurong establishes fire safety consulting practice
Urban and infrastructure consultancy Surbana Jurong has launched a new fire safety consultancy practice to offer solutions for developments and compliance.
Singaporean infrastructure consultancy and managed services firm Surbana Jurong has established a dedicated fire safety consulting unit to aid property developers and building owners with regulatory compliance. The new practice will be headed by Christopher Tan, a three-decade veteran in fire safety governance and design, and was established in response to the incoming amendments to the Singapore Fire Safety Act.
“With the new capability in fire safety consultancy, we are able to offer solutions to fire-proof buildings and create safe and sustainable spaces where communities can live, work and play,” said Surbana Jurong group CEO Wong Heang Fine. “We believe that technology is an enabler of productivity and growth. Hence, we will explore how we can harness our digital capabilities to fully exploit the potential of our fire engineering expertise.”
Under the new amendments, existing buildings in Singapore which have not yet met fire safety measures outlined in the existing Fire Code Buildings will be required to undergo a mandatory upgrade and install critical fire safety provisions. Surbana Jurong’ new fire safety consultancy offering aims to help building owners identify and address such gaps in compliance while balancing the costs of implementing any upgrades.
The offering will also be aimed at property developers to ensure compliance of new commercial, industrial and residential projects, and will more generally offer fire safety solutions – critical, the firm says, in a time when the built environment is constantly evolving and buildings and infrastructure are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated. It gives the example of contemporary large-scale mixed-use development.
To optimise land use and meet modern societal needs, such large, integrated urban developments often feature deep underground infrastructure, including subterranean transportation networks such as rail and roads. These complex urban landscapes, Surbana Jurong outlines, require customised fire safety solutions involving the use of fire engineering, advanced modelling and the necessary computational tools.
“Often, our clients tend to involve the fire safety experts at the late stages of the development with dire consequences. With the new fire safety engineering expertise, we are able to mitigate fire safety risks and ensure more pragmatic and calibrated regulatory compliance of our projects globally,” said Wong Heang Fine, “and help our clients better assess how their buildings can be protected against fire.”
The new unit is led by industry veteran Christopher Tan, former Senior Assistant Commissioner and Director of the Fire Safety & Shelter Department at the Singapore Civil Defence Force, who has over thirty years of experience in fire safety governance and design, emergency planning and incident command. “I look forward to leveraging my expertise to contribute towards Surbana Jurong’s value proposition,” said Tan.
