We wrote recently about the legal requirement commercial building owners, landlords, and other “responsible persons” have to ensure fire safety within their premises, but there is still much confusion about passive fire protection (PFP) as compared to active fire protection, and the distinction between the two.
Let’s be clear here: the terms “passive” and “active” are not indicators of relative quality or effectiveness; you do not choose one over the other, you choose the right combination of both. It’s for this very reason that fire safety legislation requires you to have both in place in order to be certified as fire safety-compliant.
What then, is the difference between active and passive methods, what are their relative merits that enable them to complement each other, and what does active and passive fire protection even look like?
What is passive fire protection (PFP)?
Let’s start with PFP, purely because this is the part of fire protection that is often invisible or non-evident, and so isn’t as readily understood.
PFP is fire protection built into the fabric of the building. It doesn’t need activating, it doesn’t need turning on and off, and it’s on duty 24/7/365. It typically includes fireproof walls, partitions, ceilings, and roof cavities, as well as fire doors and fire-stopping – intumescent sealants that expand to close gaps around ducts and service apertures, such as heating and ventilation openings.
The core objective of PFP is to prevent the spread of a fire through a building through compartmentation – that is, dividing the building up into fire-resistant cells that prevent flames and toxic gases from going any further. It’s a vital element of the building’s fire safety strategy, and is paramount in safeguarding people, as well as limiting damage to buildings, contents, and data from fire and smoke.
But although PFP is “always on” and largely invisible, it must be subject to regular fire protection surveys, maintenance, and, where necessary, breach fixes, as even minor modifications to a building (drilling a hole in a wall for a cable to pass through, for example) can compromise its PFP compliance.
What is active fire protection?
Active fire protection, by contrast, is about detecting and putting out fire, rather than containing it so that it cannot go any further. It often encompasses:
- Emergency escape lighting
- Fire suppression and sprinkler systems
- Smoke ventilation, including automatic vents
- Disabled refuge systems
- Emergency voice communication systems (EVCS)
- Public address voice alarms
- Portable fire extinguishers
If this initially sounds somewhat more sophisticated than the passive variant, it’s worth remembering that it depends ultimately on the reliable activation, whether by human intervention or automatically, of a device of some kind.
PFP, on the other hand, whilst it can only contain a fire once it’s already broken out, needs no such action to be effective.
The point is – and, once again, this is why fire safety legislation stipulates both active and passive fire protection – that both systems work simultaneously and in tandem with each other. Each compensates in some way for the other’s shortcomings, and so, if designed and installed properly, presents the lowest overall risk.
Where can I find PFP expertise?
PFP is generally far less well understood than active fire protection, and has far fewer accredited specialists and installers – yet those accreditations are key, for two reasons.
Firstly, the law says that work involving PFP such as fire risk assessments must only be carried out by a competent and suitably qualified person.
Secondly, these assessments and surveys are, in turn, critical for the building’s overall fire safety compliance, since they must, by law, take into account how active fire protection measures can be supplemented and maximised by the best possible use of PFP. In short, if the PFP can’t be shown to work effectively with the active fire protection, it will not be signed off as compliant, and, more urgently, it will not deliver the intended level of safety.
It makes sense, then, to look out for a PFP specialist with suitable accreditations around compliance, but also for associated disciplines such as Health and Safety and quality.
For more information on passive fire protection, and how we can help, get in touch.
