Sereca - Fire Protection and Life Safety for Railway Systems

Sereca is a globally respected consultant on fire protection and life safety for railway systems. We collaborate with architects, owners, operators, and other engineers, providing certification and code compliance services related to fire and life safety, emergency egress, and station and guideway designs.

From our offices in Canada and Singapore, we help our international clients plan and implement their designs while meeting the safety objectives required by codes and standards.

Fire and life safety consultancy for stations, guideways and tunnels

Through schematic design, design development, construction, commissioning, and operations, Sereca provides a full range of fire and life safety consultancy and engineering services for stations, guideways and tunnels. We provide building and fire code consulting, develop performance-based alternative solutions, facilitate approval of unique products and materials, and perform risk assessments.

Railway fire and life safety expertise

Members of Sereca's team have contributed to many large-scale international railway projects, in a variety of roles. Acting as code review consultant, independent reviewer, or an authority with jurisdiction, we:

• Collaborate with architects to define conceptual station configurations
• Evaluate effectiveness of alternative tunnel ventilation and fire suppression systems
• Develop building code criteria, fire safety principles and guidelines
• Review design drawings for compliance with codes and standards
• Provide independent review services
• Analyse fire propagation, fire development and people movement
• Develop fire control strategies, and operational/control procedures
• Implement and administer construction approvals processes
• Audit the construction-control process

Sereca is committed to advancing the fire safety of the railway industry. Our personnel are members of, or involved with, the US technical committee responsible for the ongoing development of the National Fire Protection Association standard for fixed guideway and passenger rail systems, commonly known as NFPA 130.

Consultancy on innovative designs for transport systems

We can help rationalise novel designs on a performance basis while keeping to the safety objectives of prescriptive codes. We are able to provide alternative solutions to architects, developers, and owners based on our familiarity with codes, standards and methods of testing.

To do this, we evaluate designs from a system-wide perspective, and leverage our extensive knowledge of the objectives and technical origins of building and fire code requirements specific to transportation systems. We provide insight to clients by researching code requirements, by evaluating people movement, smoke-control systems, and ventilation designs, and by managing testing of construction materials.

Computer modelling for station and guideway life safety

We leverage our extensive computer modelling capabilities to help predict and visualise the impact of fire on system design, and to evaluate occupant movement.

With the increased trend towards objective-based design, fire and egress modelling are important means of assessing station and guideway performance. With our experience in Zone, CFD, SES, and egress modelling, our modelling experts can evaluate extremely large and complicated structures and system scenarios.

Fire protection specialists for railways

We are fire protection specialists with a deep understanding of fire science. With a basis in core engineering disciplines, our staff have advanced education in fire science, supplemented by our unique in-house research programme.

We use this programme to challenge broadly defined areas of fire theory, to probe gaps in our profession's knowledge of fire protection design, and to develop a more complete understanding of fire behaviour.

Fire-engineering and life safety advice for railways

With railway design expertise and practical field experience, combined with an investment in research and advanced technology, Sereca has a unique blend of capabilities that allow us to deliver cost-effective, innovative solutions to our clients.