This paper seeks to identify a linkage between the requirements for fire fighting water and building design. This paper reviews existing methods to calculate fire fighting water requirements and comments on their applicability in the context of fire service tactics. Defining what constitutes an adequate supply of water for fire fighting is also central to planning fire service operations. The provision of water for fire fighting operations is a significant infrastructure cost borne by the community as the fire fighting requirements dominates the sizing of the network elements. This paper reviews work undertaken to date and seeks to offer a methodology that supports the fire engineering approach being adopted in performance based building codes.