Views of building surveyors and building services engineers on priority setting of fire safety attributes for building maintenance

Fire safety is a major concern of most maintenance managers in Hong Kong, especially since many recent, serious fires. To maintain a building at an acceptable fire safety level, the building fabric (structural fire protection means), as well as the building services (fire services installations), should be kept to good and efficient standards. However, maintenance budgets do not always meet ever‐increasing needs. Priorities must be set for different aspects of maintenance works, including fire safety. Priorities setting is normally based on the professional knowledge and experience of the maintenance managers, whose attitudes may affect the priority setting, as well as the decision making. Describes a study to investigate the attitudes of maintenance professionals of different backgrounds on the priority setting of various fire safety attributes. It was found that the professionals’ backgrounds do influence their priority setting. Nevertheless, they all perceived that structural means of escape and maintenance planning are important areas.