1. Current conditions of application in the French building industry

Three texts were the precursors of the opening up of fire safety engineering in France.

First of all, the decree of August 3, 1999, on the fire resistance of products, construction elements and structures, has made it possible to justify the fire resistance of these elements by referring to thermal actions established in relation to the specific situations encountered, and no longer solely in relation to conventional fire. It should be noted that this decree follows on from the decree of July 22, 1997, an order amending the decree of April 21, 1983 on fire resistance, authorizing the use of the "fire" parts of the structural Eurocodes associated with their French national application document for verifying the fire resistance of load-bearing structures; these fire parts of the structural Eurocodes have taken into account the "natural fire" aspect in addition to...