What passive fire protection is
Fire safety in a building works in two ways. Active measures respond to a fire: alarms, sprinklers, emergency lighting. Passive measures are part of the structure and are always there: the fire-resisting construction that divides a building into compartments, the fire stopping that seals the gaps through it, and the fire doors that protect the openings.
Passive protection is easy to forget because there is nothing to test with a button. It is also easy to damage. Every refit, new cable run or replacement door can open a route for fire and smoke that nobody notices until it matters.
Your legal duty
The responsible person has a duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to keep the building’s fire precautions maintained and in good repair, and passive fire protection is a core part of those precautions.
Why passive fire protection fails
The failures we find are rarely dramatic. They are small, repeated across a building, and hidden above ceilings and behind panels: a penetration left unsealed after a new service went in, a product used outside the system it was tested with, a fire door with a gap that has drifted open or a closer that has been disconnected. Each one is a weak point in a compartment line that the rest of the building’s fire strategy depends on.
A fire risk assessment is not a compartmentation survey. An assessment looks at the whole of your fire safety arrangements and will often recommend that the passive protection is checked, but it does not open up ceilings and trace every compartment line. That is the job of the services below.
Our passive fire protection services
- Compartmentation surveys Checking fire-resisting walls, floors and service penetrations for breaches, with a clear record of what needs putting right.
- Fire stopping Sealing the gaps and penetrations a survey finds, using tested, certified systems, and recording every seal.
- Fire door inspections Door by door checks of gaps, seals, closers and hardware, with a prioritised schedule of anything that fails.
- Fire door remedial works Bringing failed doors back into compliance, from seals and closers to full replacement.
One coordinated team, from finding to fix
Passive fire protection is usually split between a surveyor who finds the problems and a contractor who fixes them, with the building owner left to manage the gap between the two. We bring the survey, the remedial works and the evidence together, so the accountability stays in one place and the work keeps moving.
It sits alongside the rest of our fire safety work. A fire risk assessment often shows where the passive protection needs attention, and on new and altered buildings a fire strategy sets out the compartmentation it has to deliver. You can see how we combine these in our residential portfolio case study.
Not sure where the gaps are?
Tell us about your building and anything a fire risk assessment has already flagged, and we will recommend where to start, whether that is a survey, fire stopping or the fire doors. Call us, send a message or drop us an email, and we will come back to you, usually the same working day.