Safety is most important when it comes to your home or business. The impact of a fire can be overwhelming, and it is but natural for you to want to protect all you hold dear from its destructive force. 

Categories of Fire Prevention

The categories of fire protection are:

  • Active Fire Protection – The main goal of this category of fire protection is to prevent the start or ignition of a fire and to stop or extinguish it in its initial stage. 
  • Passive Fire Protection – Passive fire protection systems allow people to evacuate homes or buildings in the safest way possible if the active protection fails to stop the fire.

Active Fire Protection

AFP or active fire protection is made of the elements of fire protection that require some action, manual or automatic, to work. AFP measures work only in the event of a fire; they require to be switched on automatically or manually to be effective. Examples are fire alarms, smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, and vents and fans on corridors and stairwells.

Passive Fire Protection

The main aim of passive fire protection or PFP is to prevent the spread of smoke and fire throughout a home or a building. 

The nature of the passive fire protection approach will depend on your home or building, as well as any industry requirements. Typically, it is one or more of the following:

  1. Intumescent Fireproofing – involves the use of protective coatings on structural steel usually either in spray form or film layer. The coatings are meant to expand during high temperatures which creates an extra layer around columns, steel beams, and other structural elements allowing the steel to withstand the heat of a fire for an extended time without compromising its function. 

  2. Compartmentation – This passive fire protection system aims to protect the structural integrity of a home or building and allow a path for evacuation or escape during a fire. Fire doors are also good examples.

  3. Firestops and Fire-rated Seals-It involves using fire-resistant seals and other materials to fill gaps and openings in cables, pipes, joints, walls, floors, and ducts to slow the spread of smoke, fire, and toxic gases from one area or another.

There is no such thing as one category being better than another. You will need both working in tandem for prevention, detection and alert, restriction, and possible suppression of a fire. Both of these systems work hand in hand with one another.