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What’s the Difference Between Passive and Active Fire Protection?

What Is Passive Fire Protection?

Basically, Passive Fire Protection is fire protection that is completely passive. It does not require any stimulus in order to do its job. A 60-minute fire screen constructed using the appropriate plasterboards and insulation will resist a fire merely by virtue of its construction and materials. It is essential to create and maintain fire compartmentation in buildings (which is intended to contain fire within the source zone and prevent spread).

COMPARTMENTATION

Good compartmentation within a building will help to limit the spread of a fire from one room to the next. By compartmentalising a fire, we can mitigate the damage caused to a building and make it easier for fire fighting professionals to extinguish the blaze.

Effective Compartmentation:

  • Restricts spread of fire, heat, and smoke by containing it in a single compartment
  • Protects escape routes and providing crucial escape time for occupants
  • Prevents further structural damage to a building

FIRE STOPPING – this means making sure that any breaches in a compartment wall/floor/ceiling are filled and sealed with appropriate materials in an appropriate manner to prevent the spread of fire and smoke. These breaches may be caused by cables, pipes, ventilation ducts, etc. We offer 4 types of fire stopping, as follows:

  • Penetration Seals – where cables, pipes, etc. pass through compartment walls/floors
  • Linear Joint Seals – where fire rated panels meet, between door frames & surrounding wall, etc.
  • Cavity Barriers – under raised access floors or above ceiling grids.
  • Air Transfer Grilles – between compartments (these will have intumescent blocks in them that expand and close the grille).

All of the services provided by Worksmart Fire Door Inspection – fire doors and fire stopping – are passive fire protection elements. Of course, some of the components of a fire doors are activated by heat (intumescent products) and expand to close gaps and prevent the door from moving under the extreme pressures caused by a fire – but they are classified as passive because, when closed, they form an integral part of the compartment barrier.

What is Active Fire Protection?

ACTIVE fire protection systems, on the other hand either require power/data stimulus in order to work. These would include simple smoke/fire alarms like you would put in your own house, complex zonal fire alarm systems in commercial buildings, sprinkler systems (which can be linked to fire alarm systems or be activated by heat), automatic dampers in ventilation systems that shut the ventilation shafts to prevent passage of smoke, etc.

Worksmart Fire Door Inspection Services

INDEPENDENT FIRE DOOR INSPECTION – completely independent survey/assessment of fire doors to provide a detailed report of the condition, compliance and functionality. Accredited under the FDIS scheme.

FIRE DOOR MAINTENANCE – maintenance of existing fire doors using UKAS approved repair techniques to ensure fire doors remain functional, despite the abuse they are subjected to. Accredited under the BM Trada Q Mark Fire Door Maintenance Scheme.

FIRE DOOR INSTALLATION – installation of new fire doors. Accredited under the BM Trada Q Mark Fire Door Installation Scheme.