On 10 December 2024, members of the SFPE Benelux Board participated in a “Fire Safe” afternoon with peers at Brussels Airport. Fire safety experts from Brussels Airport Company shared valuable insight into the strategy behind the iconic Sky Hall, which has undergone a comprehensive and sustainable renovation.

The programme included a guided visit to the Sky Hall, a lively professional debate about airport fire safety challenges, and an informal networking reception. Together, these elements connected design strategy with the operational realities of one of Belgium’s most critical transport hubs.

Airport fire safety brings building design, complex systems, emergency response, and uninterrupted operations together.

Fire safety strategy for the renovated Sky Hall

The Sky Hall visit demonstrated how fire safety must be integrated into the sustainable renovation of an existing landmark. The challenge is not limited to meeting individual requirements: protection measures must work together within the architecture, support changing uses, and remain compatible with airport operations.

Seeing the building in operation gave participants a practical perspective on how design assumptions, management procedures, technical systems, and occupant behaviour interact in a complex public environment.

Five airport fire safety challenges

Airports combine high occupancy, varied functions, critical infrastructure, and continuous operations. The Brussels Airport visit highlighted five areas that demand particular attention:

• Large passenger flows: evacuation strategies and routes must be robust, intuitive, and carefully coordinated.
• Diverse functions: retail, baggage handling, tunnels, technical areas, and public spaces create different ignition and fire-spread scenarios.
• Continuous operation: fire safety measures must be maintained, tested, and upgraded without unnecessarily interrupting critical processes.
• Multiple stakeholders: airport management, airlines, contractors, emergency services, and security teams need aligned responsibilities and procedures.
• System resilience: detection, suppression, smoke control, communication, and supporting systems require reliable and appropriately redundant design.

What fire safety engineers learn from technical visits

Site visits add a dimension that drawings, calculations, and models cannot fully reproduce. For fire engineers, the Brussels Airport visit offered three particularly valuable learning opportunities:

• Understanding where prescriptive regulations provide the answer—and where engineering judgement is needed to bridge gaps.
• Observing how fire safety systems behave as part of a complex operational environment rather than as isolated design elements.
• Learning from building operators and peers whose practical experience reveals operational constraints, behaviours, and interdependencies.

Connecting knowledge with real-world practice

SFPE Benelux regularly visits distinctive buildings and infrastructure sites, each with its own fire and life safety complexities. These visits connect technical knowledge with the decisions, systems, and procedures that shape safety in daily operation.

A special thank you goes to Thilde Jacquemyn and Peter Meersschaert for making the Brussels Airport event possible and enabling this valuable professional exchange.

Explore upcoming SFPE Benelux events or become a member to participate in future technical visits, expert meetings, and knowledge-sharing activities.