Compartmentalizing buildings against the spread of fire and smoke is critical to maintaining the safety of occupants and the building itself. Compartmentalization prevents the passage of fire and smoke between building wings, which allows for safer evacuation and reduces fire and smoke damage. Compartmentalization is measured by two main parameters, the stability of the compartmentalization system and its thermal insulation capacity.

The goal:

Protecting human life:

Preventing fire damage:

Compliance with standards:

Method:

Construct fire-resistant walls and ceilings for each planned fire compartment. These will enclose the fire compartment with a fire resistance system, typically for 120 minutes. The system will prevent the passage of flames, toxic gases, and thick smoke from one fire compartment to another.

In existing openings in walls and ceilings, at points where electromechanical systems pass from one fire wing to another, standard fire barriers will be installed whose function is to restore the fire resistance of the wall or ceiling even when systems penetrate them.

Fire and smoke doors in the openings in the fire walls will allow the movement of the building's occupants between the various fire wings, but in the event of a fire, will prevent the passage of flames and smoke from one wing to another.

Active automatic fire detection and extinguishing systems that aim to detect the fire as early as possible, extinguish it while it is still relatively small, and at the same time, alert the rescue and firefighting forces to arrive at the building in the shortest possible time to extinguish the fire and rescue the population. Sometimes, the compartmentation system is required to withstand a longer time than usual, 3 or 4 hours or even more.

Unique solutions:

Sometimes, there is a requirement to create a compartment with non-standard features, such as: extremely high, extremely thin, blast and impact resistant fire walls, or 4 or 6 hour fire resistance. Our company specializes in the design, approval and construction of such unique compartment systems.

Mandatory standards:

There are many standards that require the compartmentalization of the building, starting with the planning and building regulations, in the passive field the 931 series of standards and standard 2174 and the door standards in the 1212 series, standard 1001 for release, and in the active field the smoke control standard and the standardization of sprinklers and detection and extinguishing systems.