Fire Curtains: Fire safety regulations
The official fire safety regulations state that all properties must not only provide occupants with a clear and effective means of escape, but also, where required, provide a way of restricting a fire to a small area in order to contain the spread. This is the same for domestic, commercial and public properties alike.
Fire Curtains are the perfect way of complying with these fire safety regulations, whilst also allowing for open space living in domestic environments, open plan office layouts and large open public buildings (e.g. Concert halls, museums, art galleries, shopping centres, etc.)
Fire Curtains in Domestic Environments
The creation or design of a highly desired open-plan living environment usually requires the elimination of non-load-bearing walls and therefore sees the redundancy of fire doors and glazing. This is not just the case in new build homes, but also a common difficulty faced by those building an extension or conversion of some sort.
By installing a fire curtain you can comply with the fire safety regulations whilst avoiding any compromise on your beloved designs and rest easy knowing that you and the other occupants are kept safe.
Fire Curtains in Offices
For the day to day running of any business in an office environment, a large open plan space is often an essential. Such spaces – like open-plan domestic environments – exclude separative walls, which, in the event of a fire, act as a barrier restricting its blaze and often stopping it in its tracks.
Including such a wall would compromise the daily activity of the company, but to be without can often deem such a structure not fire safe.
Like in domestic properties, fire curtains in these situations provide the all-inclusive solution. They can be installed in the ceiling so that they are not obtrusive in any way, whilst allowing for large open spaces that also comply with fire safety regulations.
Fire Curtains in Public Buildings
Very large open spaces are essential for many public buildings and without such their functionality would be dramatically altered. Buildings such as museums, galleries, historical sites and concert halls rely on their large spaces as their key benefit or even their main attraction.
The major objective and role of a fire curtain is to compartmentalise a fire in a particular section of a building or large room, allowing successful evacuation of the space. This makes them an ideal solution for public properties that feature large, open rooms, whilst ensuring that they are deemed fire safe to enable them to continue to be open to the public.
For many years fire curtains have been protecting major public sites. For instance, some of the nation’s most iconic buildings, such as Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall have fire curtain systems in place.
Fire curtains therefore provide the perfect solution for all buildings regardless of their function. It is the discrete nature of the fire curtains and reliable safety features that set them head and shoulders above alternative options.
Whether it is fire curtains that have been tested to UL or BS EN standards, here at Coopers Fire we help designers to replace non-loadbearing fire walls and doors, fire doors, fire rated glazing, and sprinklers to achieve modern, open plan environments in line with stringent fire regulations.
If you want to discuss your options further, please visit our fire curtains page or contact us directly.