Construction Consulting
J.S. Held Strengthens Forensic Accounting Expertise for Marital and Commercial Disputes with Acquisition of Forensic Accountants & Consultants
Read MoreWe help clients protect people, assets, and operations by evaluating fire risk and establishing compliance strategies that reduce liability and support confident decision-making from design through occupancy.
Our fire engineering services support building owners, property managers, risk managers, architects, designers, and construction professionals across all phases of a building’s lifecycle.
Our engineers apply performance‑based methodologies, advanced digital and physical modeling, and practical risk assessments to help clients navigate complex code compliance, alternative solutions, and evolving construction practices while maintaining operational and functional objectives, preserving design flexibility, and effectively negotiating acceptance with the Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
Our experts deliver industrial fire risk assessment services to identify and evaluate fire risks associated with industrial facilities, processes, and activities. Our experts analyze site‑specific conditions to understand how fires can initiate, develop, and impact operations. This structured approach supports a clearer understanding of fire risk exposure in industrial environments.
Our assessments focus on evaluating realistic fire scenarios and their potential impacts, including:
Industrial fire risk assessments may be performed for new facilities, changes to existing operations, or evaluations of current conditions. By identifying vulnerabilities and understanding potential fire outcomes, we help industrial stakeholders better characterize their fire risk profile and support informed decisions related to fire safety and risk reduction.
We provide comprehensive fire code compliance reviews for organizations handling hazardous materials and chemicals, including flammable and combustible liquids, toxic gases, oxidizing agents, and bulk storage of combustible materials. Our experts support laboratories, museums and galleries, manufacturing facilities, and specialized retail establishments, such as microbreweries.
We apply deep knowledge of fire codes and NFPA standards to advise clients on code compliance and best practices, while meeting their operational needs. Where prescriptive compliance proves challenging, we develop performance-based alternative solutions to address compliance with fire code provisions and negotiate acceptance with the Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
We also assess operational procedures and provide recommendations to help clients maintain compliance with evolving regulations that arise throughout a building’s lifetime.
Our fire modeling and analysis simulates fire and smoke behavior to support building design, evaluation, and analysis. Using simulation—including digital, zone, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based modeling—as an alternative to full‑scale furnace or laboratory testing, we help building owners and project teams understand how a building is likely to perform under fire conditions and evaluate critical life safety and structural performance factors.
Fire modeling enables detailed evaluation of key fire and smoke characteristics, including:
Our fire modeling expertise is leveraged during the design phase to study anticipated fire behavior and smoke movement before construction, supporting design development and technical evaluation. We support architectural and mechanical design decisions, including ventilation and smoke extraction strategies and evaluate alternative fire safety solutions against the performance requirements of international, national, and state/provincial building codes, particularly where prescriptive measures are difficult to implement. Our analyses also support the design of smoke management systems for large or complex facilities outside the scope of widely recognized building codes, including stadiums, auditoriums, airports, tunnels, and bridges.
Our fire modeling services may also be applied following a fire or disaster to analyze how the fire developed within a building, or to reproduce standard or laboratory fire tests under controlled, defined conditions.
We provide fire alarm and sprinkler system analysis and verification services to assess whether fire protection systems are designed, installed, and operating in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements.
Our experts analyze existing fire alarm, detection, and sprinkler systems, as well as the unique building conditions surrounding these systems; develop system design criteria and performance specifications for fire alarm and sprinkler systems; and prepare reports in response to requests to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
Our analysis includes review of:
We apply our expertise in projects spanning new construction, safety audits of existing buildings, heritage buildings, and system upgrades and modernizations, as well as following fire events where system performance must be evaluated to verify system configuration, activation, and overall functionality of these systems during a fire event.
Our evacuation simulation services evaluate how occupants are expected to move through a building during a fire or emergency, as well as how evacuation conditions evolve over time. By modeling occupant movement and behavior in relation to fire and smoke development, we help project teams understand how building layout, occupancy characteristics, and fire safety strategies influence life safety outcomes, particularly in buildings with complex layouts, large occupant loads, or challenging egress conditions.
During the design phase, evacuation modeling is used to evaluate proposed building configurations before construction, assessing evacuation times, movement patterns, and potential constraints. This early analysis helps teams understand how architectural layouts, exit arrangements, and fire safety measures affect occupant movement and evacuation timing.
Evacuation simulation is also used to support discussions with regulatory authorities and the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). Our digital modeling produces advanced 3D video simulations that demonstrate evacuation performance and support compliance evaluations where performance‑based approaches or alternative solutions are proposed.
We deliver specialized fire engineering expertise focused on the unique fire and performance considerations associated with wood and mass‑timber construction projects of all sizes and complexities. We evaluate fire development, fire resistance, and the interaction between combustible structural elements and fire protection systems to support safe, code‑compliant building designs.
We combine extensive fire engineering experience with advanced technical analysis and practical design insight to help clients manage fire risk in wood buildings, while supporting architectural intent, constructability, and regulatory review and approval of wood and mass‑timber construction. Our experts provide a clear understanding of how wood structures are expected to perform under fire conditions, supporting informed decision‑making for increasingly complex and innovative timber projects.
Read insights from our forensic engineering experts on the benefits and safety standards of mass timber construction projects and the future of the regulations governing them: Mass Timber Fire Resistance: Sustainability, Code Compliance, and Fire Safety in Tall Buildings
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