Writing a Fire Statement: the sections and the evidence

A Fire Statement is a form, not a report. It has to be submitted on the version published by the Secretary of State, it has to be completed by someone with fire engineering competence, and it has to be supported by drawings that carry dimensions. Most of the ones returned as inadequate fail on the third point rather than the first two.

The document exists because Article 9A of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 requires it for development involving a relevant building, meaning one containing two or more dwellings or educational accommodation that is 18 m or more in height or has seven or more storeys. It is a validation requirement, so the application does not start without it.

Who is competent to author it

The form asks who prepared the statement and on what basis they are competent to do so. That question is not a formality.

Fire safety at Planning Gateway One requires fire engineering competence, and an architect completing the form because the fire engineer has not yet been appointed creates a problem that surfaces at the consultation stage. The competence declaration should name the individual, their professional membership and their relevant experience, and the individual should be comfortable being named.

An AI-assisted draft can structure the document and prompt for the information each section needs. It is a starting point for the fire engineer rather than a substitute for them, and this is one of the report types where a competent professional is legally required rather than merely advisable. The professional directory is the route to a reviewer where a scheme needs one.

Appoint the fire engineer at concept design. Everything below is easier to answer when the person answering it helped shape the plan.

Site layout and fire service access

This section describes how a fire appliance reaches the building and what happens when it arrives. It is answered with dimensions on a drawing, not with prose.

What the assessor is looking for:

• Route width and construction, with the load capacity of the surface stated where appliances cross podium decks, basements or landscaping.
• Turning provision, shown by swept path analysis for the appliance the local fire and rescue service uses rather than a generic vehicle.
• Appliance parking positions, with the distance from each to the building entrance and to the dry rising main inlet marked.
• Gradients along the access route.
• Gates, bollards, barriers and their opening arrangements, including who holds the key and how it is released out of hours.
• Height restrictions from canopies, trees at maturity and overhead services.

Landscape drawings and fire access drawings frequently disagree, because the tree that provides the amenity case sits exactly where the appliance turns. Resolve that before submission rather than at the consultation stage.

Water supplies for firefighting

Hydrant provision, flow and location. This is the item with the longest lead time, because the confirmation comes from the water undertaker and takes weeks.

Set out the existing hydrants and their distance from the appliance positions, the flow the mains can deliver, any new hydrants proposed and who will install them, and the fallback where the mains cannot deliver the required flow, which usually means a static supply or a tank on site.

Raise the enquiry with the undertaker before you submit. A statement that says flows will be confirmed later invites a consultee comment saying exactly that back to you, and the consultation clock does not pause while you find out.

Means of escape and the evacuation strategy

Describe the strategy plainly: stay put, simultaneous evacuation, or a phased approach, and the reasoning behind it. Then describe what the building provides to support it.

The items with a planning dimension are the ones that shape the floor plate. Stair numbers and positions. Lobby arrangements. Evacuation lift provision and its position in the core. Refuge locations and their relationship to the stair. Provision for residents who cannot use stairs, which affects unit locations as well as core design.

The national position on second staircases in tall residential buildings has moved since 2023, and transitional arrangements have applied to schemes already in design. Check the current requirement and the transition at the time you are designing rather than following a scheme approved two years ago.

Where the evacuation strategy relies on management arrangements, say who will manage them. A stay put strategy with no identified building manager is a strategy with a gap in it.

External wall construction and materials

Set out the proposed build-up of the external walls, the balconies and anything attached to them, and explain how the proposal sits against the restrictions on combustible materials that apply to relevant buildings.

Be specific about the things that are easy to overlook: balcony decking and soffits, solar shading and brise soleil, signage, external insulation, cavity barriers, and any planting systems on the elevation. Green walls and rooftop planting attract questions.

Where the structure is mass timber, the fire engineering and insurance position needs addressing from the outset, and our note on mass timber frames at the planning stage sets out why that conversation starts earlier than most teams expect.

Fire service facilities inside the building

Firefighting shafts, firefighting lifts, rising mains, smoke control to the shaft and the position of the fire control point. These have a footprint, and the footprint is on your planning drawings whether or not the statement mentions it.

State where each is, and state the assumptions behind the provision, such as the travel distance from the shaft to the furthest point on a floor. Where the core position is still being developed, say which parameters are fixed and which are not, rather than leaving the reader to infer.

Roof level matters too. Plant, photovoltaic arrays and access routes across a roof interact with firefighting access and with the external wall restrictions, and our note on roof level plant and photovoltaics on a flat roof covers the planning side of that.

Assumptions to carry forward

The last section of the statement is the one that pays for itself later. Record the assumptions on which the fire strategy depends, with an owner for each.

A workable register lists the assumption, the source, the design stage at which it is fixed, the person responsible, and the consequence if it changes. Stair positions, shaft locations, appliance access, external wall build-ups and hydrant flows all belong on it.

Everything in the statement becomes the starting point for the building control application at Gateway Two. Where the two packages disagree, somebody has to explain which is correct and whether the planning permission still works, and that conversation is expensive. A full Fire Safety Strategy prepared to BS 9991 or BS 9999 develops the same assumptions in detail as the design proceeds, and it is a fire engineering document throughout.

The Fire Statement itself stays a planning document: proportionate, dimensioned, and honest about what has not yet been designed. A statement that claims more certainty than the design carries is worse than one that identifies open items and says how they will be closed.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope drafts supporting documents for a Gateway One submission and flags what it cannot verify, while the Fire Statement itself must be authored by a competent fire engineer.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.