Ignis Fire Testing urges stakeholders to verify fire test reports following cases of altered documentation
Ignis Fire Testing, Africa’s most advanced privately owned fire testing company located in Blackheath, Cape Town, has identified instances in which fire test reports issued by its laboratory were altered after they were distributed to clients.
While these incidents appear limited, they raise significant concerns about the integrity of the documentation relied upon by engineers, regulators, and approval authorities in the built environment.
Fire test reports are technical records that document the performance and behaviour of construction materials and systems (or any other products) under controlled fire conditions. These reports are used to inform engineering decisions, demonstrate regulatory compliance, and guide fire safety design in buildings. Any modification to such documentation (including changes to performance ratings, scope of testing, drawings, or classification conditions) may misrepresent the actual performance or behaviour of materials or systems as tested.
As part of the report issuance process at Ignis Fire Testing, clients are required to acknowledge that reports may not be altered, edited, or modified and must only be distributed in their complete and original form. Once a report has been issued, however, the company has no control over how that document is subsequently circulated.
Therefore, they encourage all industry stakeholders to obtain fire test reports directly from the laboratory – with the report owner’s consent – whenever documentation attributed to Ignis Fire Testing is used or relied upon, to ensure its accuracy.
“Fire testing exists to provide objective, verifiable data that engineers can rely on when making critical safety decisions,” says civil engineer Dirk Streicher, owner of Ignis Fire Testing. “Guaranteeing that the reports being used are authentic and unaltered is imperative for maintaining confidence in the fire safety of the built environment. It could save lives.”
Ignis Fire Testing maintains records of all official reports issued by its laboratory and can confirm the authenticity of any documentation attributed to it.
The company states that its discovery of altered reports underscores the importance of strict document integrity throughout the construction and compliance chain.
Sustaining confidence in fire performance data is critical to protecting buildings, infrastructure, products, and – most importantly – human lives.
For verification or confirmation of reports, engineers and industry professionals are invited to contact Ignis Fire Testing directly at info@ignistesting.co.za or +27 (021) 905-0322 / +27 (021) 905-4814.
