Passive Fire Protection
Passive Fire Protection is an essential component of structural fire safety. In accordance with the UK building regulations, all new refurbishments and buildings must incorporate Passive Fire Protection measures.
Passive fire protection is designed to aid with fire compartmentation by isolating the spread of fire and smoke to other parts of the building, effectively keeping the fire in the location where it originated.
Our Passive Fire Protection Services
ClearView is a specialist in passive fire protection. Our team of qualified engineers are trained to at least NVQ Level 2 PFP, and our fire door installers have been third-party audited by the International Fire Consultants. We provide cost-effective fire safety services to ensure the safety of our clients.
We only offer high-quality, certified fire stopping and fire door products from the best UK manufacturers. All products used are independently tested to ensure compliance with the relevant British Standards.
Passive fire protection is essential in maintaining the structural integrity of buildings during a fire. According to the Building Regulations, Fire Safety, Approved Document B – Requirement B3, Internal Fire Spread (structure), “The building shall be designed and constructed so that, in the event of a fire, its stability will be maintained for a reasonable period.” ClearView provides fully compliant and certified processes, as certified by the International Fire Consultants four times per year.
Our Commitment to Fire Safety
ClearView is a member of the Fire Protection Association and the Fire Industry Association. We believe that fire safety is of utmost importance, and that’s why we are certificated for ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety, ISO 9001 Quality Management System, and ISO 140001 Environmental Management System.
Our team follows strict protocols to ensure that all fire-rated elements are reinstated once penetrated by cables, pipes, or ducting services. We also provide compliance with the Approved Document B, which states that all fire-rated elements must be reinstated.
At ClearView, we are committed to providing the highest level of passive fire protection services to keep our clients safe.
Fire Stopping
ClearView is certified by the International Fire Consultants (IFC) for Fire Stopping and ensures all works comply with the appropriate British Standards.
We provide a wide range of high quality, certified products from UK manufacturers that are independently tested to guarantee compliance.
Fire Doors
Following our ISO 9001:2015, we install certified fire doors and frames to the exact quality standards, ensuring your fire doors meet statutory requirements for complete legal compliance.
ClearView also offers fire door maintenance, remedial repair work and surveys to guarantee your fire doors perform as designed if a fire was to occur.
Fire Maintenance
On average, around 23,500 fires occur each year in non-residential buildings in the UK, with around 20 people losing their lives.
ClearView can maintain all your fire safety equipment and provide a bespoke maintenance plan that ensures all equipment is fully functional and operating per current legislation.
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Why do I need Passive Fire Protection?
Passive fire protection (PFP) plays a crucial role in building safety by providing fire and smoke resistance for a predetermined time.
Without PFP, fires can spread rapidly through buildings, causing structural damage and endangering the lives of occupants. Properly installed PFP materials and systems help contain fires, giving occupants more time to evacuate and reducing the risk of widespread damage.
Additionally, UK statutory law requires building owners and managers to understand their duty regarding PFP, including fire stopping and fire door regulations. Overall, PFP is essential for building safety and compliance with regulations.
Don’t leave your building’s safety to chance! Ensure that your Passive Fire Protection (PFP) is complaint with a free audit from our certified specialists using the form.
Protect your assets, equipment, and personnel by booking a free audit today. Our PFP experts will assess your building’s PFP and provide a comprehensive report with recommendations for improvements.
How does it work?
Passive protection provides fire compartmentation for the fire-resisting elements within buildings such as floors, ceilings, and walls. Breaches in compartmentation caused by the installation of services mean that there is a high risk that fire and smoke can quickly move between rooms in a building. The fire resistance of the PFP materials helps protect buildings from structural damage, which can aid the evacuation of personnel in a fire emergency.
When a penetration occurs through fire-resisting elements like walls, PFP installers will seal the breaches with the correct fire stopping products to reinstate the fire rating of the fire-resisting wall. All PFP works, including fire stopping, fire door installation, fire door inspection and maintenance, should be carried out by are certified passive fire protection specialists.
How effective is it?
It is important to note that the fire rating of the materials used will determine how long they can withstand fire and smoke. For example, internal fire doors with an FD rating such as FD30, which means FD30 rated fire doors can protect against fire for 30 minutes. Fire protection is required to allow people and or firefighters to access and egress a building safely in a fire. Fire stopping and fire doors can also reduce fire and smoke damage to equipment and assets through fire compartmentation following the building’s design.
Who is responsible?
Passive fire protection (PFP) plays a vital role in the fire safety of buildings by providing fire and smoke resistance for a pre-determined time. The responsible person for the building must understand their duty under UK statutory law regarding PFP, including fire stopping regulations and fire door regulations.
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Passive Fire Protection Installer & Product Certification
It is essential that your fire stopping, and fire door installers hold a valid third-party certification. The certification will provide you with peace of mind that installers will complete the work to a compliant and professional standard. ClearView is a certified fire stopping installation and fire door specialist. Our management systems, processes, installation, and remedial works are audited by the International Fire Consultants (IFC) for the following:
- Cavity Barriers
- Fire Doors – Metal
- Fire Doors – Timber
- Service Penetration & Linear Gap Seals
All products must be certified to meet British standards. For professional and compliant installation, remediation and maintenance, a third-party accredited fire stopping, or fire door specialist should be used to ensure compliance. Clearview is committed to providing and installing high quality, certified passive fire protection products from UK manufacturers. All products used are independently tested to ensure compliance with the relevant British Standards. Furthermore, certificates of conformity are issued for all the products that we supply or install.
Examples of Passive Fire Protection
The following gives a summary of the products and examples of PFP. The hyperlinks will provide more detailed information:
- Firewalls are used to divide a building to prevent fire from spreading by providing compartmentation
- Fire protecting steelwork is used for structural passive fire protection in the construction of new buildings
- Fire doors are a critical part of passive fire protection in buildings because they stop the spread of fire and smoke and allow people to exit buildings through escape routes safely.
- Fire Door hardware inclusive of ironmongery is tested for fire resistance as a complete fire door set. They should be fire resistant for the specified FD period, such as FD (60), which provides 60 minutes of passive fire protection
- Fire Resistant Glazing is sometimes called fire-rated glass or glazing, and it is designed to protect from fire for a set time
- Fire rated floors provide passive fire protection for separating floors
- Firestops are physical fire rated barriers that prevent the spread of smoke and flames
- Fire dampers are used to provide passive fire protection for heating, ventilation, and cooling systems. They are initiated by a thermal element that melts in afire and closes the damper to prevent the fire and smoke from travelling through the ductwork
- Fire Proofing is used to make materials such as walls fire-resistant; one example of this is spraying steel to increase the fire rating
- Intumescent Sealant can be applied to fire doors, windows, pipes, joints and other small holes. They create a fire barrier to stop the spread of smoke and fire
- Pipe wraps and collars and collars are designed for plastic pipes that pass-through floors and walls. They have an intumescent material that expands inwards to squeeze the tube, collapsing until the opening is completely sealed.
- Fire batts are often coated in ablative material, and it is used to reinstate the fire integrity of a wall or floor
- Fire protection compound is used for service penetrations and is usually used to fire stop around electrical services such as cables
- Curtain and Cavity Barriers are used to close gaps and stop flames from travelling through to other areas by isolating the flames through compartmentation
What is Boris?
Boris is ClearView’s online client portal. It provides a single location where the client can access all their seal and site-specific information. Here the client can log on and complete remote quality inspections by reviewing the GPS tagged installation images attached to the seal records.
All records contain the installed products, fire ratings, pre and post-installation images, and photos of each label marked with the location on the site drawing. Boris also holds COSHH and material safety data and collates our engineer’s acceptance of site-specific method statements and risk assessments.
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Your Security Questions Answered
Is Passive Fire Protection only required in Commercial buildings?
Fire Protection is an essential requirement for all buildings. Whether they are domestic or non-domestic buildings, Passive Fire Protection is crucial to compartmentalising the spread of fire.
All new builds, extension works, or modernisations must comply with The Building Regulations 2010, Fire Safety, Approved Document B.
Why is it essential to use certified fire protection products?
It is vital to use certified and tested products and have them installed by an accredited company. Each fire stopping product is crucial to your fire safety systems and creates a barrier that slows the spread of fire.
Using certified products means that they have been rigorously tested, which gives confidence that the product is fit for purpose and will perform following all relevant legislation and regulations.
Who is responsible for Passive Fire Protection?
Businesses and landlords must meet Building Regulations, ensuring people can evacuate a building safety in the events of a fire and the building will not collapse. The legislation gives responsibility to building owners, occupiers, managers, and designers to ensure regular fire risk assessments are carried out.
ClearView provides fire risk assessments that meet the regulations set out in current legislation and British Standards, including an evaluation of the protection provided. It is advised that the specification from the original building should include a clear fire protection strategy and contains the components that have been installed. If significant changes are made to the fire protection strategy, then it must be revised by a competent third party.
What is the difference between passive and active fire protection?
For a fully comprehensive Fire Protection strategy, passive fire protection works in combination with active fire prevention. While PFP is built within the building such as Fire doors and Fire-resisting walls, floors, ceilings, and ducts to prevent the spread of smoke and fire.
Active fire protection consists of manual or automatic products that require intervention to work. This includes products such as fire detection and alarms, fire extinguishers, door releases and fire sprinklers. Therefore, active fire protection is the act of detecting and stopping the fire, and PFP prevents the spread of fire.
Read more on the difference between active and passive fire protection.
Why do service penetrations/openings through fire-rated walls need sealing?
Without sealing service penetrations and openings, fire and smoke can easily pass through the fire-rated walls. This increases and allows the spread throughout the building, causing a threat to life.
By sealing these openings, you will delay the fire’s spread, increasing the amount of time staff have to evacuate the building.
What are passive fire protection products?
The fire protection services that we provide utilise fully complaint and tested products of the highest quality.
We install a wide range of installed products that improve a buildings fire safety. As one of the leading fire stopping companies in the UK, we are certified to supply and install products such as fire doors (including fd30 and fd60 for both internal and external fire doors), curtain & cavity barriers, fire batts, fire stopping compound, fire stopping collars & wraps, intumescent sealant and intumescent paint.
Why must fire door maintenance be carried out?
It is essential to carry out regular fire door maintenance to ensure that the fire doors work in accordance with the manufacturers design. The consequences of not maintaining fire doors could be deadly. Fire doors are designed in accordance with the building fire protection strategy to protect against fire and smoke and to provide safe evacuation of a building.
To ensure compliance of your fire doors, periodic checks must be carried out at least every six months. High traffic areas may require to be checked more frequently. The Regulatory reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, states the requirements under the law to ensure fire resisting doors are installed and maintained correctly.
What is passive fire protection?
As opposed to active fire protection, passive fire protection is not electronically or manually initiated, such as a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket. PFP also referred to as passive fire protection or a fire protection system, is a crucial element to a building’s fire safety strategy. As well safeguarding people, it limits the damage caused by fire and smoke to the building and its contents.
PFP is required under the law. More information can be found on the following links: The Regulatory reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and The Building Regulations 2010 UK Statutory Instruments 2010 no. 2214 Part 8 Regulation 38. Failing to comply with regulations puts lives at risk and can result in criminal proceedings under corporate liability.
Read more about passive fire protection.
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