What is passive fire protection?
Passive fire protection is a part of the fire protection system that attempts to contain and slow fire spread. Fire safety consultants for industries use the passive fire protection system to minimise the impact of fire on life and property. In contrast to the active fire protection system, the passive fire protection systems usually are not visible.
Since the way both the systems work is different. The purpose of both active and passive are complementary. It is necessary for the fire design for industrial projects to have a combination of both active and passive protection systems in industries.
Role of Passive fire protection system:
The reasons why fire safety consultants select passive fire protection systems with active fire protection systems are:
- They reduce the spread of fire from one part of the building to another
- They are constantly working even before a fire incident occurs.
- The passive fire protection systems assist in the safe evacuation of occupants during a fire.
What are the components of a passive fire protection system?
Some of the components that form a part of the passive fire protection system are:
- Walls and doors: Fire-rated doors and fire-rated walls prevent the horizontal passage of fire. Firewalls, fire partitions, smoke barriers etc usually are the passive fire protection systems in use.
- Floors and ceilings: The floors and ceilings also can compartmentalise the horizontal spread of fire. The fire safety consultants prefer a combination of Concrete slab, protected steel floor, fire-rated ceiling system for industrial projects..
- Fire stopping materials: like sealants, cable coatings, joint systems, perimeter fire barriers etc.
Since an unprotected opening renders the passive fire protection system ineffective. So the fire safety consultants for industries their design should have to ensure no unsealed openings in the partition.
The penetration in the fire-rated components should be minimal. In industries, pipings, cables, and other utilities may penetrate the fire-rated components. In which case, the penetration should be sealed.
A properly segregated system isolates fire and prevents the spread of fire.
Drawbacks of a passive fire protection system
- It is difficult to check the fire barrier for issues, weaknesses etc.
- Maintaining a fire barrier is not easy as new utilities, cables etc. are put up in industries regularly. Often, the contractor is not aware of the fire rating and the opening is not sealed.
As the main objective of putting up a fire protection system is to reduce loss to life and property, so the fire safety consultants choose a combination of active and passive fire protection systems.
