GB/T 50720-2011Technical standard for fire safety of construction site (2025 edition) (English PDF)

Foreword

This document was issued on 6 June 2011 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the PRC and takes effect on 1 August 2011.

It is a GB/T standard: recommended rather than compulsory, but it is the text a Chinese reviewer applies.

The document runs to 62 pages. The identification, the dates, the classification and the table of contents on this page are taken from the cover and the printed contents of the standard itself.

This document is the 2025 edition of the standard: the original code was approved by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development as Announcement No. 1042 and issued on 6 June 2011 as GB 50720-2011 "Technical code for fire safety of construction site", effective 1 August 2011.

By Announcement No. 97 of 2025, dated 30 June 2025, the Ministry approved a partial revision of the code, effective 1 November 2025. With that revision the title became "Technical standard for fire safety of construction site" and the number became GB/T 50720-2011. In the published text the revised provisions are underlined.

The partial revision was carried out by China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau and the China Academy of Building Research together with China State Construction Engineering Corporation and the Tianjin Fire Research Institute of the Ministry of Emergency Management, under the 2019 plan for the drafting of engineering construction codes and standards (Jianbiao Han [2019] No. 8).

The main content of the 2025 partial revision is as follows:

1. the provisions on temporary fire lanes and fire rescue areas have been completed;

2. fire protection provisions have been added for the internal alteration or fitting-out of existing buildings;

3. the minimum provision of fire extinguishers has been revised;

4. provisions have been added for temporary refuge areas during the construction of works more than 10 m high;

5. measures for the effectiveness of the fire water supply on site and requirements for pressure reduction at hydrants have been added;

6. the provisions on the fire safety responsibility system on site, the building of a fire safety management system, and the preparation and rehearsal of fire fighting and emergency evacuation plans have been revised;

7. the management requirements for combustibles and for flammable and explosive dangerous goods have been revised;

8. the management system and approval procedure for hot work have been completed, and fire protection technical and management measures for hot work have been added.

In the 2011 code, clauses 3.2.1, 4.2.1(1), 4.2.2(1), 4.3.3, 5.1.4, 5.3.5, 5.3.6, 5.3.9, 6.2.1, 6.2.3, 6.3.1(3, 5, 9) and 6.3.3(1) were mandatory provisions that had to be strictly enforced.

The code was originally drafted by China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau and China State Construction Engineering Corporation, with the Tianjin Fire Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, Shanghai Construction Group, Beijing Urban Construction Group, China Construction First Group, the Building Fire Research Institute of the China Academy of Building Research, China Railway Construction Engineering Group, Guangdong Engineering Construction Supervision, Chongqing University and the public security fire brigades of Shaanxi, Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan and Gansu.

1 Scope

GB/T 50720 is the Chinese standard for fire safety on construction sites, and this is the 2025 edition, which carries the partial revision that took effect on 1 November 2025 and that also changed the number from GB 50720-2011 to GB/T 50720-2011. A construction site is one of the most dangerous fire environments there is: temporary accommodation and offices built of combustible panel, a structure with no compartmentation yet, hot work going on next to stored solvents, and access roads that change every week. The standard addresses each in turn: the general plan layout, with fire separation distances and temporary fire lanes and rescue areas; building fire protection, covering both the temporary buildings and the works under construction; the temporary fire protection facilities, that is extinguishers, the temporary fire water supply system, emergency lighting and, new in this revision, temporary refuge areas for works over 10 m high; and fire protection management, covering combustibles and dangerous goods, the use of fire, electricity and gas, and the hot work permit system that the revision has rewritten. For a main contractor, a site insurer or a project manager working in China, this is the text a site inspection is carried out against.