Building owners and employers are required by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to take full responsibility for fire safety within their premises. As part of the risk assessment process, the building structure’s fire-rated elements must be shown to adhere to current legislation.
This is all basically focused on one critical objective: preventing fire, hot and poisonous gases, and smoke from spreading to other parts of the building.
But this isn’t just about sprinklers and fire extinguishers. Yes, they are important – but so is ensuring the building has had the appropriate fire-stopping materials installed in its very fabric.
This is what we mean by Passive Fire Protection (PFP), otherwise known as Built Fire Protection – and it is a crucial part of any fire safety strategy. PFP is the invisible firefighter that’s always on duty, silently protecting people, buildings, assets, stock, and business-critical data from the flames.
But its invisibility sadly also means that it is often neglected. Whilst fire doors, for example, and the walls they are in, are in plain sight, they often go above ceilings and below raised floors, respectively. These hidden ceiling or floor voids, as we call them, are where compartmentation can often be inadvertently breached by tradespeople.
So, what are some examples of PFP – and how does it do what it does?
How passive fire protection works
PFP works by using fire-resistant floors, walls, doors, fittings, and coatings to stop fire, smoke, and heat from spreading, containing them instead in the area in which the fire began or took hold.
It protects escape routes, gaining crucial time for people inside the building to evacuate it. What’s more, it safeguards a building’s critical structural members, helping to ensure it stays standing, and preventing total destruction.
PFP works in unison with active fire suppression systems – like the extinguishers and sprinklers mentioned above – and a carefully developed fire safety strategy based on assessments, surveys, and certification.
Who’s responsible for passive fire safety?
It’s the responsibility of managers, occupiers, building owners, and other responsible persons to perform the necessary assessments and surveys with the necessary frequency, and these must incorporate an evaluation of the passive fire safety provided.
To clarify, that means your building’s original specification should incorporate a clear-cut fire protection strategy that includes the fitting of certified passive fire components.
However, this can be a challenge for many building owners and others who bear fire safety responsibilities to manage, as it involves closely policing and controlling the number of people who have permission to adjust the specification, yet often managing a significant number of amendments over time.
This is where the help of a PFP expert can prove invaluable, and this process often starts with the assessments and surveys we describe below.
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Fire Risk Assessment
This should be carried out prior to occupation – but often isn’t. However, whether it is or isn’t, it’s important to understand that it also becomes out of date owing to changes over time.
These can include the installation of additional services (electricity, data, HVAC etc.) that cause breaches, for example, or changes to internal partitioning and office furniture layout, or even the recruitment of additional members of staff who might need to exit the building in an emergency.
Worn-out door sets and fire doors with non-conforming ironmongery added are common faults that occur over time.
Essentially, the assessment specifies works needed throughout the building to safeguard occupants by eliminating possible risks, and by improving the clarity and positioning of escape routes.
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Fire Protection Survey
This second stage assesses the work or remedial actions required, in more detail.
It is very unlikely that a member of staff could carry out a survey of this kind. Although a suitably trained individual given the time (in addition to their day job!) could detect a breach or a defective or non-conformant door set, they wouldn’t have the Third Party Certification status required to sign off the execution of the work.
From survey to action: next steps
Once the surveys and assessments are complete, action, improvement, and, where necessary, installation of fire protection must proceed apace where shortfalls have been identified. Needless to say, any delay in bringing fire safety up to scratch is a delay in which a fire can do its worst.
Usually, the passive fire protection products below are used within a commercial building to improve its fire safety:
- Fire-resistant floors, walls, ducts, and ceilings
- Fire doors
- Fire protection and fire-stopping for structural members
- PFP sheets
- Spray-applied fire-proof coatings (epoxy, intumescent, cementitious)
Here’s some more detail on each of these.
Fire dampers
Fire dampers prevent the spread of fire within the ductwork and are used in ventilation, air conditioners, and heating ducts. When they detect an increase in temperature, they close automatically and can be connected to fire alarm systems.
Firewalls
Fire rated walls form the Fire Exit Strategy. They slow the spread of fire and smoke through the building and are, essentially, fire-retardant barriers.
Fire doors
Fire doors delay the spread of fire and smoke between parts of the building.
A compliant fire door set is vital to ensure people have more time to escape, and can do so at minimal physical risk.
However, this is far from an exhaustive list; each building’s fire risk dynamics are very different, so there is no “tick-box” template that can be easily followed.
This is no “set and forget” activity, either. Passive fire protection products, once fitted, must be maintained correctly, fit for their purpose. Further, they must have been evaluated, tested, and verified by third-party certification, in order to authenticate the conformity of the installation.
PFP: DIY? Maybe not…
In short, Passive Fire Protection is in many senses a conundrum for those responsible for commercial buildings and their occupants: an indispensable safety requirement, backed by legal force, that delivers genuinely life-saving benefits, but is rarely quick or simple to deal with yourself to ensure legal compliance.
But don’t declare an emergency just yet – because help is at hand.
Contact Us
From planning to post-installation, Commercial Fire Protection UK is a one-stop solution for all your passive fire protection needs, encompassing a whole host of products and services that keep your building compliant now and protected for the future.
Working with owners, employers, facilities managers, construction professionals, and architects and other responsible persons on commercial building projects and refurbishments across the UK, we look after the PFP so the building and those in it can get on with doing business.
