We are here to provide our clients with the best practical, logical and solid advice based on our in-depth knowledge in this field.

In the fire and life safety field, the diversity of codes and standards makes each project a special case of technicality that requires special abilities to understand the data, analyze the requirements and provide the adequate solutions and studies that satisfy both the Client and the respective Authorities Having Jurisdiction.
Siena team is well versed in both international and country codes and standards such as NFPA, IBC, IFC, Règlement de Sécurité Contre l’Incendie (French Code), British Standards (BS 9999), approved code B, HTM, UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice, Qatar Civil Defense Department Guidelines, Saudi Building Code (SBC), Gulf Countries Code (GCC), Jordanian Code, Egyptian Code, Kuwaiti Code, Portuguese code and others.
We are staying up to date with the progressive FLS industry, including continuous changes in fire technologies, and continuously involved in the civil defense and any relevant authorities’ regulations in order to support effective implementation of the code and standards and any other applicable requirements.

Safety to life is not a choice it is a must, and we will help you secure the minimum life safety requirement in your project.

Over the past decade the fire and life safety field has evolved from a secondary concern to a top priority in most MENA countries and has witnessed an unprecedent development worldwide.

The construction growth in many countries across the GCC has triggered the high importance of the FLS industry and the persistent need of proper design and implementation of all relevant safety requirements in the MENA region.
The fire and life safety strategy is the corner stone of any coherent building or structure design. Starting to develop an FLS strategy at the early stages of a project will ease the progress of the work at advanced stages and secure a correlated engineering design that is in line with the codes and standards and any other additional authorities’ requirements.

Siena team has been involved in an array of mega-projects across many countries, which allow us to be in a leading position while designing any type of FLS strategy.

The design of FLS strategy include requirements, guidance and recommendations on:

• Building and hazard classification

• Type of construction and fire resistance rating of structural components

• Building separation and exposure protection

• Means of egress components

• Occupant load and capacity calculation

• Means of egress arrangements

• Illumination of means of egress

• Marking of means of egress

• Opening protection details in fire walls and barriers

• Areas of higher fire risk and protective measures

• Openings in fire separations, passive fire protection, fire stopping

• Vertical openings and exit enclosure fire protection

• Interior finish, contents and furnishings classification and compliance

• Smoke control systems

• Fire detection, alarm and communication systems

• Firefighting systems

• Fire truck access

The importance of firefighting systems increased over the year, proving through case studies and real fire events their significant role in restricting the growth of fire and potentially suppressing it, preserving properties from sever damages and above all enhancing occupants’ survival chances.
Our competent engineers work thoroughly to provide our clients with the best fire protection design and suitable advice.

The firefighting systems include design, review and assessment of:

• Design and construction documents for all forms of suppression systems
• Hydraulic calculations
• Water supply analysis and testing
• Existing systems analysis

Early detection of a fire triggers a proper chain of action of the available fire protection and containment arrangements, which makes initiating devices and supervisory devices a vital part of the holistic FLS design.
Not to forget the importance of notification appliances in informing occupants by appropriate types and means that it is time to escape whether to the exterior of the building or to the nearest suggested safe area inside the property.
Our specialists in this field adapt the appropriate systems design based on a full case evaluation.

The fire detection alarm and communication systems include design, review and assessment of:

• Design and construction documents for all forms of systems such as initiating devices,
  notification appliances, supervisory devices and others.
• Smoke management system integration plans
• Fire Alarm Cause and effect matrix
• Existing systems analyses

Throughout history most deaths caused by fire events were not due to burns but the majority was caused by smoke inhalation. The particles, vapors and toxic gases carried in smoke layers can easily become a lethal weapon. Inadequate smoke control in the event of fire may cause the quick spread of the smoke components that incapacitate so quickly.

Our engineers are expert in designing the suitable smoke control strategy following the relevant codes and standards taking into consideration several variants and safety measures in order to protect occupants from the effect of smoke, help firefighters in their rescue and containment mission and limit the property damages.

The smoke control systems include design, review and assessment of:

• Pressurization
• Smoke management
• Smoke containment
• Smoke exhaust
• Existing system analyses

Selecting the ideal door opening type for each building space based on its actual use and design parameters is an essential part in the architectural package. And since door leaf protection, opening direction, hardware and locking mechanism are mandatory parameters in the Fire and Life Safety strategy design, Siena hardware specialist provide you with a comprehensive door hardware design study aiming to select the most optimal door openings solutions based on our expert knowledge, code requirements, functionality, project schedule, and budget considerations to streamline the design and construction process.

We are proficient in adopting creative and flexible solutions in order to deliver a comprehensive and coherent FLS strategy while preserving the client’s vision and design intent.
The built environment is an important way of expressing the visions of growth set by the ambitious countries who are continuously looking to have some of the biggest, boldest and most complex buildings in the world. With those types of projects comes a wealth of engineering challenges, and making sure that those designs are in line with the minimum fire and life safety requirements is one of the most important challenges.
Siena experts worked on many large-scale projects such as airports, stadiums, shopping mall and huge assembly buildings where the use of alternative engineering measure was a must to complement the prescriptive requirement in providing the minimum level of safety to life.
We develop performance base solutions as an effective equivalent engineering approach to the prescriptive code requirements; using engineering modeling to proof that the alternative methods are safe and operative is one of the widely used approaches in performance-based design.

The Fire safety engineering modeling include:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling
• Heat release rate
• Egress time calculation and evacuation modeling

One of the risks that comes within the challenges of designing a multifaceted building or a special structure is the uncommon fire risks that might breakthrough and threaten the safety of the people and property. A proper fire risk assessment will identify the unusual potential fire hazards, the possibility of being a threatening fire source and the risks they impose on the entire building safety. The assessment will end up by providing recommendations of the appropriate fire and life safety measures that should be implemented to minimize the imposed risk and ensure that the occupants and the premises meets the minimum safety requirements.

We have a wide experience in this type of work, and we know that every building has its specific issues that must be resolved sensitively in order to minimize the design changes due to various restrictions in this type of projects.

Any existing building undergoing any form of rehabilitation work or addition need to be reviewed and assessed for compliance with the relevant fire and life safety codes and standards to make sure that the existing part along with the rehabilitated one do not cause any life safety risk. Likewise, many authorities are imposing a certain level of protection on existing buildings that were not erected as per FLS norm.

The process of authority approvals is a vital part of the FLS work and a must to guarantee that the project in hands is accepted by the relevant authority.
We handle all the coordination, submissions and approvals related to civil defense or any other authority having jurisdiction, including preparation of FLS strategy report, FRA report, technical presentation, FLS drawings and layouts necessary to secure their official consent.

Every day is a new learning opportunity that we must use it well to levitate our knowledge and thrive in everything we do.

Siena offers several types of trainings and educational sessions that help professionals around the world acquiring the needed education and adequate skills to increase their knowledge in the intriguing fire and life safety industry.

• Site supervision and handling over inspection
• Inspection for passive and active fire protection systems
• Site investigations
• Site supervision

• Systems acceptance testing
• Existing systems testing
• For electrical equipment
• For firefighting systems
• For fire alarm systems
• Lux test for the emergency lighting
• Bucket test for sprinkler
• Smoke test for beam detector
• Fire alarm failure analyses