Synopsis
Simple methods are described for increasing the fire resistance of
timber floors and doors in historic buildings to help limit the spread of smoke
and heat. The methods are chosen to minimize damage to the appearance of the
building and minimize the amount of work necessary to do the upgrading work.
Upgrading forms an important but small part of the work and should only be done
after a full fire risk assessment has been made. memphis car insurance .
Introduction
Historic buildings must be preserved as a reminder of the past and
as inspiration for the future. Works of art and reminders of our predecessor’s
ways of life may be irreversibly lost due to accidental or malicious fire
damage.
A rigorous property risk assessment associated with continuing
good fire safety management may be the solution which enables the building to
remain free of unsightly structural fire precautions and fixed fire suppression
systems. Occasionally it will be essential and unavoidable to incorporate some
fire compartmentation so as to prevent unrestricted spread of fire horizontally
and/or vertically throughout a historic building. Elements of construction
which can often have their fire resistance improved without obvious external
damage to the construction or aesthetics, include timber doors & floors.
Fire development
Fire resistance only becomes important when the fire becomes fully
developed. Figure 2 shows two real fire development histories, each involving a
growth phase, a fully developed phase and a decay phase. The curves differ
mainly because of different ventilation conditions. The curves, the results of
large compartment fire tests conducted by BRE in the UK, show that in a
compartment with office type fire load it is possible for flashover to be
delayed by keeping all openings closed – in the test curve for the smaller
compartment, panes of glass had to be removed to encourage the fire to develop.
Hence closing doors and other ventilation openings not only prevents smoke
damage beyond the room of fire origin but can also prevent the fire reaching
flashover within the room of origin. This is important for heritage buildings.
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