Congratulations! You have set yourself up in a place that you will use to help provide a profitable, safe and enjoyable life. This structure you call your office, clinic, school, rental property, store, hotel, club, factory or just work is now an integral part of your life and part of achieving your dreams. In many ways, your life will revolve around it. Firestop maintenance and compartmentation should always be considered for safeguarding it all.
Unfortunately, many people take for granted all the necessary steps that should be taken to make sure this valuable asset is properly maintained both from an infrastructure basis as well as the physical structure itself. Some of these things include insurance fees, wiring, plumbing, or other infrastructure related items. Some are small and generally considered annoying but necessary. Included in that list are utility bills, office supplies, continuing education to maintain licensure, and countless other things that make up your day-to-day routine.
The one item, that if overlooked or neglected, and what can bring your dreams crashing down is fire. Imagine arriving at your place of business ready to dive into work only to discover a nightmare has become reality. At a time when you least expected it and without remorse that terrible “beast,” called Fire, has attacked your dreams.
Sadly, this happens a lot. The NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) reported that during 2020 local fire departments responded to 1.4 million fires in the United States. These fires resulted in 2,730 civilian deaths ,13,000 civilian injuries and $12.1 billion in property damage. The report went on to state that every 64 seconds a fire in a structure is happening, a structure just like the one you may be building your dreams around. Click for more information
However, there are ways to mitigate these numbers and help in making sure your structure does not become part of next year’s terrible statistics! Keeping that dream devouring beast at bay is possible. The three secret weapons you have available to prevent a disaster of this nature are; Detection, Suppression and Compartmentation.
- Detection relates to the alarm systems, smoke and fire detectors that alert you, the fire department and even your own suppression systems of an event.
- Suppression systems are the various types of professionally installed sprinkler systems that will actively fight a source of ignition when detected. These first two weapons depend heavily on the third, compartmentation.
- Compartmentation refers to the separation of spaces in a structure to manageable sized areas using fire and smoke rated walls and floors with distinct paths of exit. The floors along with the walls, which are like the high walls of a castle, are made to keep the bad out and the good in. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much of a breach in these barriers to allow the “bad” to get through and start spreading to the entire “castle.” Barriers must be maintained through consistent visual inspection to stay in proper working condition so if a fire occurs the smaller spaces can contain it while the alarm system alerts everyone, and the suppression system can begin putting it out before it is able to spread to other parts of the structure.
What about the smoke and toxic gases that form during a fire?
Approximately 80% of deaths in a fire related event are from the smoke and toxic gases NOT the flames themselves. This is another important reason to maintain barriers so they can contain the smoke and gases since the suppression systems only put out flames. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230152/
There is help!
Fortunately, local Fire Marshals and other authorities with jurisdiction are tasked to help through minimum annual inspection of your fire/smoke barriers. They need you to make sure whomever is performing your inspections is knowledgeable in the proper construction and maintenance of these life and property saving barriers. Annual inspections are a worthwhile code compliant part of keeping your dreams form being destroyed by that beast, FIRE.
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