According to Article 1 of the Law of July 30, 1979 on this subject, “fire prevention encompasses all safety measures aimed, on the one hand, at avoiding the outbreak of a fire, detecting any fire outbreak, and preventing its spread, and, on the other hand, at alerting rescue services and facilitating both the rescue of individuals and the protection of property in the event of a fire.”
In Belgium, fire prevention is a federal responsibility. Therefore, the federal government can establish basic fire prevention standards that apply to one or more categories of buildings, regardless of their purpose.
In addition to these basic standards, there are sector-specific standards adopted by the federal government, Regions, Communities, and municipalities, based on the competencies specific to these entities. These specific standards supplement the federal basic standards.
For buildings undergoing renovations, repurposing, and/or transformations, there are no legal prescriptions, whether in the form of a Royal Decree (RD), an ordinance, or an order from the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region. The European Green Deal directive merely states that fire safety measures may be foreseen in the case of long-term renovations. In the absence of existing regulations, the fire service outlines additional requirements in its advice, imposed as conditions in the permit or certificate to be issued. The aim is to ensure an equivalent level of fire safety for these unregulated cases, matching or approximating as closely as possible the provisions of the RD on "Basic Standards." These additional requirements are based on the firefighters' experience and general knowledge of fire safety, with the intention of:
- Preventing the formation, development, and spread of a fire;
- Ensuring the safety of individuals present;
- Facilitating proactive intervention by the fire service.
These prescriptions, applicable to existing buildings with multiple independent housing units—apartments and/or studios but not single-family homes—are detailed in the reference document.
What are the different regulatory texts?
There is a significant number of texts issued regarding fire prevention and applicable in the Brussels-Capital Region. Most are listed below: