Fire stoppers

Moves by the Civil Defence Authority to enforce even more stringent fire safety measures on buildings has prompted an upsurge in demand for fire-retardant materials and safety products from the construction industry. “In 2005, damages due to fire were estimated at US $15 million (AED55 million) in the UAE alone,” states Philip Mathew, general manager of fire-resistant coating manufacturer Al Gurg Leighs Paints.

The consequences of fire for life and property has made both developers and end-users more aware of the need for increased protection. “They no longer compromise on quality to ensure complete safety and protection,” states Andy Holt, market manager for Leighs Paints.

“Fire safety in the construction industry is a critical issue, especially with the Civil Defence authorities enforcing the use of fire-retardant materials in key areas including entrances, staircases and kitchens,” adds Danube Building Materials chair Rizwan Sajan.

And with buildings climbing ever higher, it has become yet more critical to ensure passive as well as active fire control measures have been put in place. In the event of a fire these measures must act together to ensure that sufficient time will be available for the building occupants to safely evacuate.

“Active measures rely on mechanical and electrical means to operate and when you are faced with a major shutdown these are not adequate, so passive measures are needed,” explains Ian McIntyre of the Australian-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). “These measures include materials and the design of compartmentation to contain the spread of smoke and fire,” he adds.

New buildings are designed to provide maximum physical protection to occupants. It is now common practice to isolate floors from one another, with intumescent barriers containing any potential fire to a single area. Service risers are also generally self-contained and appropriately sealed with fire-rated materials. Products such as fire dampers add to the safety measures, being used to reduce any spread of fire or smoke and direct it away from the occupied areas.

But the design is only the first part of ensuring fire safety measures are adequate. “Equally important when looking at a finished building is to check that what’s been tested [to ensure it meets relevant standards] has been installed properly,” stresses McIntyre.

The distribution routes of mechanical, electrical and plumbing services outwith the main service risers must be carefully planned and installed to ensure that the final system actually meets the original design for fire safety standards. The nature of MEP services mean that penetrations through walls are often necessary and unless the contractor is involved in the early stages of the design process and able to influence the positioning of precast holes for the task, there is a chance that they will need to break through a fire barrier at some point in a project.

In the fight to increase fire safety standards, one of the growth markets is intumescent coatings. The UAE market alone has grown by 200% over the past year reports Al Gurg Leighs Paints.

“In 2005 the intumescent paint market in the UAE was estimated at around AED50 million,” states Holt. “The rapid increase in construction has led to more than double the demand for protective coatings,” he adds.

Such protective coatings act as a thermal insulant against fire. The surge in demand and ambiguity in existing industry standards have led to 18 global paint manufacturers co-operating in the adoption of one common standard to simplify adherance to safety standards. The companies now following the European Standards represent 95% of the total intumescent coatings supplied in the region.

“Many local paint manufacturers are already reassessing their data and we hope that the implementation of these standards will ensure the availability of technically correct data,” states Holt. “We are aware that the movement will take time, but at least it’s a start,” he adds.

“The use of passive fire protection in the Middle East is growing rapidly and we are currently working on 47 projects including Dubai Festival City, the new Intercontinental Hotel, Al Kifaf Etisalat Building, the new Crowne Plaza Hotel and the Emirates Flight Crew training centre,” Mathew adds.

In addition to improvements in intumescent paints, various other products are being specifically aimed at the MEP services sector. Foamglas cellular glass insulation from Pittsburgh Corning is designed to enable a continuous insulation system to be created where services pass through fire walls or floors.

Originally applied in the oil and gas industry, the product is manufactured from glass and is classed as a non-combustible (Euroclass A1) insulation material. It provides up to two hours fire protection at a fire wall penetration when used with cladding, plus 90 minutes without cladding.

Australian-based L&A Fazzini’s solution is a lightweight, three-dimensional wire frame system named Trimesh. Made from high-tensile steel wire, the Trimesh panels, which can incorporate a polystyrene core, are installed on site and then filled by spraying with a choice of materials to produce a complete passive fire protection barrier.

Often the transfer of cabling through a building is the most difficult area to contain and cable management firm Cablofil has developed a fire stop system aimed specifically at this problem. The self-contained EZ-Path system removes the need to remove and replace fire-stopping material when changing cables, allowing building owners more flexibility for altering their systems after the initial build.

The system comprises a square-section of galvanised steel trunking that is sealed in the wall opening. Inside the unit, a lining of specially developed fire-stopping inert material enables cabling to be pushed through the trunking. This lining expands rapidly under fire and smoke conditions to form a high integrity seal against heat, smoke and fumes.

Dubai Civil Defence and Bodycote Warrington Fire are planning to set up a centre of excellence for fire safety testing and approvals of products in Dubai. As well as providing confidence in the products available, this is likely to increase the number of options available.

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