Designing a Building That’s Set on Fire… Every Single Day

Not every day do building services engineers get asked to design a building that will literally be set on fire every day. But that’s exactly the challenge EP Consulting embraced for Derbyshire Fire & Rescue.

The brief

“We need a building to train in. We’re going to set it on fire every day and then put it out. If you can design M&E systems that can manage that…”

We’re proud to be part of the design team for their new Fire Training Building, where mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems must withstand daily live fire exercises and perform under extreme heat, smoke, water, and operational stress.

The goal

Create the most realistic, high-intensity training environment possible for frontline firefighters.

To truly understand what that means in practice, our Director Paul suited up and took part in a live fire training exercise — experiencing first-hand the heat, smoke, and intensity this building will face every day. That insight directly informs how we design resilient, high-performance building services.

This is high-risk, high-performance engineering, requiring technical skill, creativity, and deep operational understanding. We’re grateful to Derbyshire Fire & Rescue for their trust, helping us design systems that truly perform when it matters most.

Take a look at the photos below to see Paul in action.