Fire Risk Assessors Passive Fire Protection Awareness Course
Aim: to enable delegates to familiarise themselves with what to look our for when looking at the passive fire protection in a building and be aware of the do’s and don’ts for installing such products, providing an overall understanding of why it is important that the passive protection is in place and complete.
Understand that passive fire protection is only one part of the overall assessment of risk in a building. Provide knowledge regarding what is acceptable under passive fire protection at least from a ‘duty of care’ to the building owner/occupier
Delivery: The 1-day course will be delivered using mainly PowerPoint presentations and group discussion. Photographs and samples are used to emphasize certain aspects of the course.
Award: Each candidate will receive a certificate if a successful understanding has been gained.
Description
This module is a 1-day presentation that looks at the general requirements of the passive fire protection requirements in a building.
The module highlights the effects of real fires. The regulations and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order applicable to England and Wales are then examined looking at some of the requirements, the processes and solutions.
We then look at fire, the properties of fire, how it starts and the behaviour of fire in a building. Some of the specific fire tests are examined starting with the small scale ‘Reaction to Fire’ tests and then the large scale ‘Fire Resistance’ tests.
After lunch the passive fire protection systems in a building are looked at in more detail.
An example of a guidance checklist is provided to assist in the risk assessment of a fire rated timber doorset.
Other areas of passive fire protection are then examined with respect to their installation and compared to photographic examples encountered over years of inspection visits, many displaying an obvious inability to maintain fire separation.
The areas covered include compartmentation walls, floors and ceilings; glazed screens; external walls including curtain walling and ‘sandwich’ panels; fire rated steel doorsets; fire rated ductwork and fire rated dampers; fire rated rolling shutters, fire rated motorised curtains and cavity barriers. Protection to structural steel is covered with respect to board, spray and intumescent protection systems. Whilst examining the penetration sealing systems some of the generic products used for fire stopping are suggested. Specific topics such as the wall and ceiling linings on escape routes are also discussed with respect to spread of flame.
