1. Decree of the Ministry of Interior 3rd August 2015 The “so called” Italian Fire Prevention Code - IFC: S7 – Fire Detection and Alarm Systems
Piergiacomo Cancelliere, PhD
Italian Fire and Rescue Service

2. S.7: Fire Detection and Alarm Syst.
Introduction
Performance Levels
Generally accepted criteria for selecting the performance level
Fire safety Design Solution:
Deemed to satisfy solutions
Alternative solutions
Compatibility and connectability assessment

3. S.7 Introduction S7 aims to:
Detect a fire at the earliest practicable moment;
to give signals and indications so that appropriate “actions” can be taken (activate active suppression systems, smoke management systems, call rescue teams, …);
to give audible or visible signals (or other alert notification signals) to the occupants of the building or activity who may be at risk from a fire.

4. S.7 Performance Levels I II III IV
Performance requirement
Description I
Fire Detection and Alarm are done by the occupants II
Manual fire detection notification and fire alarm system extended to the overall building or activity
III
Automatic fire detection extended to selected building/activity areas and fire alarm system extended to the overall building/activity IV
Automatic fire detection and alarm system extended to the overall building /activity and automatic control and triggering of automatic active protection systems (e.g. sprinkler, smoke and exhaust, fire door closing devices, …)
Active fire protection measures are divided into five levels of performance; the first one is not suitable for activity subjected to fire inspections as no provision is required. Level II wants only a basic protection in order to contrast a starting fire (a fire of a limited size); level III requires the addition of a manual system to mitigate a fire developing in a compartment. The performance level IV requires all of the protection measures provided by level III, in addition to an automatic suppression system covering only selected hazardous areas of the activity. Finally, the highest level of active protection measures implies selecting all the portable and manual measures and also extending the automatic suppression system to the entire building or activity

5. S.7 Performance Level Criteria Selection
Activities where all of the following conditions have been met:
Risk profiles:
Rlife included in A1, A2, Ci1, Ci2, Ci3;
Rprop equals to 1;
Renv not significant;
Not open to the public;
Crowding density not greater than 0.2 persons/m2;
Not generally intended for disabled occupants (Inclusive design);
All floors of the activity located at a height between -5 m and 12 m;
gross surface area of each compartment not greater than 4’000 m2;
Specific qf fire load not greater than 600 MJ/m2 [or 900 MJ/m2 for civil activities]
hazardous substances or mixtures are not used or stored in any significant quantities;
hazardous explosions or fire process and working activities are not performed.

6. S.7 Performance Level Criteria SelectionII
Activities where all of the following conditions have been met:
Risk profiles:
Rlife included in A1, A2, B1, B2,Ci1, Ci2, Ci3;
Rprop equals to 1;
Renv not significant;
Crowding density not greater than 0.7 persons/m2;
All floors of the activity located at a height between -10 m and 54 m;
Specific qf fire load not greater than 600 MJ/m2 [or 900 MJ/m2 for civil activities]
hazardous substances or mixtures are not used or stored in any significant quantities;
hazardous explosions or fire process and working activities are not performed.

7. S.7 Performance Level Criteria Selection
III
Activities not included in the other assignment criteria. IV
According to the results of the risk assessment (e.g. activity with high crowding, activity with complex geometries or underground floors, high specific qf fire load, hazardous substances or mixtures (significant quantities), hazardous processing as concerns fire, ...).

8. S.7 Deemed to satisfy solutions
Rather than the Level I, the deemed to satisfy solutions of a FDAS are based on a design and installation of a system according to the provisions of the national technical standard UNI 9795.
The FADS deemed to satisfy solution in order to achieve the overall functionality of the systems requires to implement basic functions as defined in the EU standard EN 54-1 (Fire detection and fire alarm systems
Part 1: Introduction):
Functions 1: detections and activations
Functions 2: control for actions
Functions 3: locals associated functions
Functions 4: remoted associated func.

9. S.7 Deemed to satisfy solutions

10. S.7 Deemed to satisfy solutions
FADS basic functions descriptions:
FADS basic functions
FADS secondary functions

11. S.7 Deemed to satisfy solutions
FADS performance levels and related deemed to satisfy solutions:

12. S.7 Deemed to satisfy solutions
Each function performed by a component shall be clearly stated and conform to the appropriate parts of the EN 54 standard. For example for the automatic detection function A:

13. Description of the application limits
S.7 Alternative solutions
For all the aforementioned deemed-to-satisfy solutions proposed by the IFC, an alternative solution can be adopted.
IFC offers three ordinary fire safety design methods in order to demonstrate the achievement of the connected performance level requirements:
Fire Design Method
Description of the application limits
Application of
standards or technical
documents
The designer must apply standards or technical documents issued by
internationally recognised fire-safety organisations. The selected standard or technical document must be fully implemented by means of solutions, configurations, materials and components recommended in the standards or technical documents, by specifically highlighting the suitability for each chosen configuration.
Innovative products and technologies
Innovative products or technologies are allowed when the compliance for the fire safety scope can be certified by testing protocol and safety analysis validated by third parties, national or international laboratories.
Fire-safety engineering
The designer must apply fire-safety engineering methods by means of assumptions and limits provided for by national and international fire engineering practice, according to the procedures set out in the chapters M1, M2 and M3 of the IFC.

14. S.7 Compatibility & Connectability Assessment
For a proper design, installation and operation of the FDAS, a compatibility check must be done on the components and equipment interconnections, including the specific operational sequences of the functions that the FADS should perform.
FDAS in compliance to the provisions of the UNI EN standard are considered as a deemed to satisfy solutions:
- It is necessary that all the components constituting the FADS are compatible or connectable, and that requirements relating to the performance of the overall system are fulfilled.
The EN Standard specifies the requirements for compatibility and Connectability assessment of components of fire detection and fire alarm systems, including voice alarm systems (VASs) as a subsystem of fire detection and fire alarm system.

15. S.7 Compatibility & Connectability Assessment

16. S.7 References