Passive Fire Protection is a vital part of fire design – designed to restrict the spread of fire and smoke within the building, safeguarding human life and reducing the risk to property.
Passive fire protection encompasses many different building elements. Many fire rated walls and floors will have openings for services such as cables, pipes, ducting or for the installation of fire rated glazing, doors, inspection hatches or service risers - these need to be protected and tested to AS 1530.4 / BS 476 parts 21/22 to ensure they maintain adequate structural stability and integrity for a specific design period.
Fire Separations, in many instances, will require seismic movement joints using a suitably tested product, or some designs may require additional passive fire protection measures such as structural steel, kitchen extract ducting, large open ceiling voids and specialist surface coatings.
Passive fire protection is a specialist skill requiring experience in specifying, sourcing or installation to ensure the chosen system is building code compliant.
