Maintenance and fire safety regulation in Spain and Portugal

Abstract

Published studies focused on analyse the development of European regulations regarding maintenance and fire protection, their differences, requirements, strategies and implementation, are really scarce. For this reason, the present study aims to develop a comparative analysis of the Regulation on Fire Safety Installations in Spain and Portugal. For this, differences related to content and levels of requirements are studied. Both regulations, leading in Europe, place special emphasis on the participation of maintenance and installation companies, as well as in the intervention of the Engineer as a competent technician in the field. As a result, it could be concluded that programs that encourage the analysis of the degree of effectiveness of fire protection regulations and their difficulties in their implementation and adaptation to new technologies should be developed. Similarly, the harmonization of requirements regarding regulation in fire protection within European countries is considered very necessary, as well as the competencies of engineers for the project writing with this scope.