What Is Compartmentation? One of the fundamental principles of passive fire protection is the compartmentation of buildings. To limit the spread of fire and smoke within a building, we need to divide the space into several sections. In this way, the fire remains confined to where it started and the time needed for evacuation is provided.

How Is Compartmentation Achieved? To ensure that a building is effectively compartmented, partition walls and floors must have a degree of fire resistance appropriate to the type of building. Compartments are fitted with and overlaid by a large number of elements such as doors, hatches, partitions and penetrations by plastic and metal pipes and cables. All fire-stopping systems around these elements must provide a fire resistance at least equal to the fire resistance of the building's structure, in order to re-establish the fire resistance rating of the wall.

By this method, we can achieve a robust sub-compartmentation. To understand the necessity and importance of sub-compartmentation, it should be noted that 57% of people who die in fires are not in the room where the fire started.

An Example to Understand the Importance of Effective Compartmentation: We are in a room six metres long, six metres wide and six metres high. A fire breaks out in the adjacent room. If there is a pencil-sized hole in the wall, the smoke generated in the adjacent room will fill our room in record time. Just 3 minutes and 40 seconds later, the smoke will be so dense that we will not be able to see our hands in front of us — visibility will be less than 40 cm.

Flames, heat and smoke have a terrifying capacity to spread and are difficult to bring under control. The purpose of compartmentation is to halt this progression with appropriate passive fire insulation solutions adapted to regulations. By providing effective compartmentation, the passage of smoke or fire from one room to another is prevented for a specified period.

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