Bunnings Retail Warehouses

The Fire Engineering team at NDY has worked closely with the Bunnings Group to develop the alternative Fire Engineering solutions for their retail warehouse portfolio over a five year period.

NDY recently handed over Bunnings Alexandria, which provides 20,000 m² of retail space and lays claim to being Australia’s largest home improvement and outdoor living store.

NDY’s involvement includes stores throughout regional NSW (Wagga Wagga, Port Stephens, Singleton, Wallsend and Seven Hills); the Sydney Metropolitan area (Chatswood, Greenacre and Castle Hill); and in the ACT (e.g. Fyshwick and Gungahlin).

With the expansion of the Bunnings Group across NSW and ACT, retail outlets have significantly increased in size which has presented an ever increasing challenge to the Fire Engineers at NDY.

To ensure that each project meets the performance requirements from the Building Code of Australia, NDY provided alternative solutions in the following areas:

• Occupant egress – As stores become larger, occupants are required to travel increasing distances to an exit. NDY successfully developed alternative solutions using detailed fire and smoke modelling that demonstrated occupants can safely evacuate over extended travel distances
• Fire brigade access – Similarly, as stores increase in size the demand placed upon fire-fighters increases. Fire-fighters are required to fight larger fires resulting in challenging access arrangements. NDY worked closely with Fire & Rescue NSW to ensure that each building is provided with the necessary equipment in an appropriate location and that access for emergency vehicles is available
• Fire service and equipment – Alternative solutions may require the implementation of additional fire safety systems to support the Fire Engineering analysis. NDY worked closely with the design team to ensure that the fire engineering requirements with regard to sprinkler protection, automatic fire detection, occupant warning, fire hydrants and hose reels are implemented into the building to provide the required safety provisions.

NDY was also involved in the redevelopment and extension of several existing Bunnings stores. These have presented their own unique challenges such as fire spread between existing structures and surrounding buildings.

Additionally, NDY provided fire engineering advice with regard to changes in operational procedures at each retail outlet and their consequences on building egress and fire-fighting. NDY’s advice has resulted in changes which involved:

• New roller shutters in existing stores – roller shutters are provided on entry doors to enhance security however an alternative solution was required since the number of exits outside operational hours is reduced
• Relocation of BBQ areas – BBQs located close to entry areas were resulting in false alarms and activation of occupant warning systems
• High Volume Low Speed (HVLS) fans – NDY managed a complete smoke test in liaison with Fire & Rescue NSW to confirm CFD smoke modelling findings that the provision of HVLS fans would not interact unfavourably with the fire safety systems in the building.

NDY also provided fire protection, hydraulics, mechanical and sustainability advice to assist Bunnings with their continuing commitment to the environment.