Fire Protection Solutions 

If you have had a Fire Risk Assessment carried out on your premises, one of the action points on your “Fire Action Plan “could be a recommendation to have a Fire Compartmentation Survey undertaken. This tends to be the case where the Fire Risk Assessor has identified numerous breaches in fire compartment walls, ceilings and floors, and feels that the fire compartments within a building is likely to be compromised in a fire situation.

A Fire Compartmentation Survey is intrusive and involves investigative works within roof spaces, ceiling and floor voids, as well as within service risers, behind boxings etc. The objective is to assess whether the existing fire compartment walls (including doors within them), floors and ceilings within the property are likely to restrict the potential spread of fire and smoke for the required period of time (i.e. the time required to enable escape).

Once the Survey has been carried out, a report is then prepared which will typically include photographs of issues identified and show the main fire compartmentation lines on floor layout drawings. Importantly, the report will also include the recommended remedial action required to provide the appropriate fire resistance and prevent the potential spread of fire and smoke.

The scope of a Fire Compartmentation Survey will typically include: –

• An inspection of the overall condition of the existing fire compartments.
• An assessment of the condition and effectiveness of the sealing of wall/soffit interfaces.
• An inspection of existing fire seals applied to service penetrations through fire compartment lines.
• An assessment of the materials used to seal existing service penetrations/linear joints and in particular whether or not appropriate fire rated materials appear to have been used and whether they appear to have been applied/installed in an appropriate manner.
• The reporting of any damage to fire compartment lines that is likely to reduce the effectiveness of the fire compartment.
• The reporting of unprotected structural steelwork within fire compartments which may have an impact on the overall effectiveness of the expected fire performance of the building.
• The reporting of fire damper omissions within ducts passing through designated fire compartment lines (where this can be ascertained).
• An assessment of the materials and methods used to construct any dry lined walls which form part of the fire compartmentation.