About Passive Fire Systems

All structures should have an emergency fire plan in place. The Building Regulations 2019 advise that building(s) shall be designed and constructed so that, in the event of a fire, its stability will be maintained for a reasonable period.”

Therefore, it is incredibly important to abide by these laws and regulations. Passive Fire Protection is a vital component of any emergency fire plan, it was created for three fundamental purposes:

1. Ensuring the structural integrity of building to lessen the financial damaged caused by fire.

2. Making it more difficult for fire to spread from one room to the next, allowing more time for people to safely evacuate buildings.

3. Ensuring that escape routes stay protected to save the lives of those within the building(s).

PFP provision is required in every structure, whether large, small, residential or non-residential. The Building Regulations 2010 are the regulations that must be followed when; constructing new buildings, renovating old ones, or extending existing structures in England.

It states that “If a fire separating element is to be effective, every joint or imperfection of fit, or opening to allow services to pass through the element, should be adequately protected by sealing or fire stopping so that the fire resistance of the element is not impaired”.

As such, any building services that pass through separating elements, such as cables, pipes or fire resisting ducts, need to be fire stopped to ensure that the service does not provide an easy route for fire to spread.

These are critically important since they are often located in concealed spaces, meaning that fire could easily pass unnoticed. It is vital that all protection measures are correctly designed, specified and installed if the building is to behave as expected, should fire break out.

Many construction materials have some natural resistance to fire and as such already have built-in fire protection. An example of such a material would be clay bricks, which, when constructed to form a wall is fire-resisting in its own right.

Other materials e.g. timber used in the construction of a timber floor may have little such built-in fire protection and may require additional protection e.g. in the form of fire resisting boards fixed to the underside of the ceiling below.

Fire resistance may be enhanced by the use of added materials or components that are known by the collective term Passive Fire Protection (PFP)

T: 01202582356 - Mon-Friday: 8am - 5pm - E: fire@acorn-gm.co.uk

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About Passive Fire Systems

PFP provision is required in every structure, whether large, small, residential or non-residential. The Building Regulations 2010 are the regulations that must be followed when; constructing new buildings, renovating old ones, or extending existing structures in England.

As such, any building services that pass through separating elements, such as cables, pipes or fire resisting ducts, need to be fire stopped to ensure that the service does not provide an easy route for fire to spread.

Many construction materials have some natural resistance to fire and as such already have built-in fire protection. An example of such a material would be clay bricks, which, when constructed to form a wall is fire-resisting in its own right.