When we think of fire safety, we often envision smoke detectors, fire alarms, and sprinklers—essential components that activate during a fire. However, there’s another crucial aspect to consider: passive fire protection (PFP). PFP involves systems and structures that shield people and property from fire hazards without requiring activation. PFP is the last line of defense against a fire, and provides a physical barrier against flames and toxic smoke. This includes fire-resistant walls, doors, dampers, and compartmentation. These factors are all designed to contain and slow the spread of harmful smoke and flames. Incorporating passive fire protection during construction or renovations enhances safety and ensures a more resilient building. Read on to discover the vial role these elements play in comprehensive fire safety.
Passive fire protection is a method that involves managing, containing, or controlling fire and smoke by means that don’t require mechanical activation. PFP aims to isolate the fire within areas of manageable risk, and maintain the load bearing capacity of structural elements during a fire. PFP also includes compartmentation, which is the practice of subdividing a building into smaller sections using fire-resistant construction. For instance, PFP may include using fireproofing techniques, fire doors, and fire rated walls. PFP reduces the impact of the fire by having smaller sections that isolate smoke and flames for as long as possible. As a result, PFP allows people to have more time to escape before a building collapse or before the fire grows too large.
Passive fire protection measures work in tandem with active systems to effectively reduce the damage caused by a fire. For example, a stairwell duct may have duct detectors to detect smoke, which can activate a damper to prevent further spreading the smoke through ventilation systems. You may require fire-resistant construction and compartmentation depending on your occupancy type. For instance, current building codes specify that residential living spaces, educational facilities, hospitals, and detention centers require fire compartmentation. Additionally, escape routes like stairwells, corridors, and other hazardous locations also require passive fire protection measures.
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A fire-rated wall is an assembly of materials that are tested to withstand a fire’s effects for a certain amount of time. These constructions are subject to standards from NFPA 101, the Standards for Fire Testing of Building Construction and Materials. Fire-rated walls can stop the spread of fire, and can contribute to reducing the amount of combustible materials in your facility. At the same time, fire walls should be accompanied by fire-resistant glass, fire-resistant rated floors, and fire doors to ensure that smoke cannot pass from one area to another.
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Fireproofing refers to the act of adding fire-resistant materials or coatings to important structural components to reduce its vulnerability to fire. Historically, asbestos was used for fireproofing until it was discovered to be carcinogenic. Nowadays, fireproofing materials may consist of intumescents, cementitious mortars, silicone, mineral fibers and rubber compounds. Fireproofing materials can slow down the heating of important load-bearing structures, thus extending the longevity of the building before collapse.
Fire Protection aims to prevent the structural collapse of a building during a fire. This technique is often applied to structural steel with the use of endothermic or intumescent paints or coatings. The key idea behind endothermic coatings is to absorb heat and slow down damage from the fire. In contrast, intumescent coatings undergo sublimation at high temperatures, which causes the coating to expand and form a carbonaceous char that insulates the structure from the fire. Moreover, this char has air pockets, which further insulate the structure from heat. Intumescent coatings are ideal for when aesthetics matter, since they resemble normal paint.
A firestop is a flame resistant object that seals openings, or between joints in a fire-rated wall, floor, ceiling, or duct. Accordingly, we use firestopping to further slow the spread of fire, while also preventing smoke from moving between different compartments. Firestops prevent smoke from leaking through cracks and rendering your smoke and fire protection ineffective. Fire pillows is one popular tool that can be used as a firestop. These are firestop devices that contain intumescent material inside to slow the spread of fire.
A fire damper is a shutter than can be closed to seal off a ventilation system during an emergency. Fire dampers are installed to prevent the spread of smoke through ventilation systems. Although these are often activated by a duct detector, they provide an extra physical barrier against smoke.
Cables and wires are extremely flammable, and are often located in high-heat environments. Fire retardant cable coatings are designed to prevent the propagation of fire along plastic jacketed electrical and data cables. These cable coatings can be based from intumescent materials, acrylic latex, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, thermoplastic elastomers, or polyurethane.
The amount of time passive fire protection lasts may vary based on its build materials, local fire hazards, and your active fire measures. The strongest signal for how long your construction will last is its fire resistance level (FRL). FRL is used in some countries to label how many minutes a wall can resist fire. Consequently, higher ratings will result in thicker walls, and more fireproofing material required. Additionally, there are three numbers in a FRL, which define three different thresholds. The three thresholds in a fire resistance level are:
For example, ‘ – / 60 / 60 ‘ means no structural adequacy is tested or required, an integrity of 60 minutes, and an insulation time of 60 minutes. This time is further influenced by your hazards, which affect the type of fire you may be dealing with; your construction’s fire rating, which affects how resilient your construction is; and your active fire measures, which may further slow down the spread of fire. Structures typically have fire ratings ranging anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours. The duration your building should last will depend on your local building, fire codes, and industry standards. Passive fire protection doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so always take stock of your fire hazards and implement your active fire measures accordingly.
Fires can grow to dangerous levels in seconds. Passive fire protection matters because it ensures that a fire won’t get out of control too quickly. Without passive fire protection measures, fire can spread to more parts of the building, block escape routes, and endanger lives with the spread of toxic smoke. Even a couple of minutes can save lives and prevent your active systems from becoming overwhelmed. Thanks to passive fire protection, authorities and occupants have more time to act and take control of the situation.
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