Chief Officer Reports

The Tasmanian building legislation outlines the role of the Chief Officer to report on the Schedule 1 items relating to the operational suitability of the fire safety features within a prescribed building.

A request for report from the Chief Officer will come from a licensed building surveyor and will contain specific fire safety features relating to the classification of the building. Together with a request for a report from the Chief Officer, the building surveyor must ensure that all relevant documentation is included with the request so that a complete assessment can be made by the Tasmania Fire Service.

The Chief Officer has 14 days from which to provide the report to the building surveyor. The report will contain specific information relating to the operational suitability of the fire safety features in the building.

Chief Officer Occupancy Reports

Once a building is ready for occupancy an applicant can request a report from the Chief Officer on the suitability of the fire safety features for occupancy. This must be done in writing and be accompanied by an application for occupancy (Form 4) and any other relevant information such as commissioning documentation.

The Chief Officer has 14 days from which to provide the occupancy report to the applicant.  The report will contain details about the operational suitability of the fire safety features installed in and around the building following an inspection by Tasmania Fire Service.

Chief Officer Supplementary Reports

There are occasions where additional information becomes available or the building design may change, the Tasmania Fire Service will issue a supplementary report to the Building Surveyor, reporting on the operational suitability of any changes to the building design.

For information on statutory reporting services within Tasmania Fire Service please contact the Building Safety Unit on (03)6166 5615 or email buildingsafetysouth@fire.tas.gov.au with your enquiry.

Fire Safety Engineering

Fire Safety Engineers are professionals within the engineering stream and are highly trained in designing fire safety systems within buildings to provide safety to building occupants including firefighters. Fire safety engineers are trained to develop performance-based fire safety designs for buildings to meet the performance requirements of the National Construction Code (NCC).

TFS has several fire engineers that assess the performance-based designs for fire safety features in buildings to validate the methodology and acceptance criteria for the proposed solution(s) and will assess these based on the operational suitability.

Where a performance solution is proposed for a fire safety feature in a building, a fire safety engineer should be engaged to design and validate the proposal.  The fire safety engineer will develop a performance based design brief (PBDB) and consult Tasmania Fire Service for its operational suitability.  Once the performance based design brief is agreed to, the fire safety engineer will develop a fire engineering report (FER) to be submitted to the Chief Officer as part of the building reporting process.  Tasmania Fire Service has developed a guideline to assist applicants TFS Guideline

At the request for a Chief Officer Report and a Chief Officer Occupancy Report, the Tasmania Fire Service, Fire Safety Engineer will review the Fire Engineering Report (FER) and provide comment on the operational suitability of the performance solution.

For information on fire engineering services within Tasmania Fire Service please contact the Building Safety Unit on (03)6166 5615 or email fire.engineering@fire.tas.gov.au