AS 3959-2009

This 2009 edition of AS3959 has been published by Standards Australia as Australian Standard. It sets out requirements for the construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas in order to improve their performance when they are subjected to burning debris, radiant heat or flame contact generated from a bushfire. Also includes methodologies for assessing categories of bushfire attack in respect of a site situated in an area that has been designated by a relevant authority as bushfire-prone.

This Standard specifies requirements for the construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas in order to improve their resistance to bushfire attack from burning embers, radiant heat, flame contact and combinations of the three attack forms. Although this Standard is designed to improve the performance of buildings when subjected to bushfire attack in designated bushfire-prone areas there can be no guarantee that a building will survive a bushfire event on every occasion. This is substantially due to the unpredictable nature and behaviour of fire and the difficulties associated with extreme weather conditions. NOTES:1 The construction measures contained in this Standard are not the only measures that can be considered to address bushfire attack as there are other means available that are outside the scope of this Standard. Standards Australia's Handbook HB 36 provides further information on these issues.2 On the basis that the committee is not aware of any clear evidence that smoke from a bushfire entering a building is a risk, this Standard does not address the infiltration of smoke nor any associated health risk.

Originated as AS 3959—1991. Second edition 1999. Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 1 (December 2000). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 2 (December 2001). Third edition 2009 Originated as AS3959-1991. Second edition 1999. Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 1 (December 2000). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 2 (December 2001). Third edition 2009. Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 1 (November 2009). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 2 (February 2011). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 3 (November 2011).