Ensuring fire safety

Ali Sharif, business development executive of Gulf International Trading Group.

Ali Sharif, business development executive of Gulf International Trading Group, explains the importance of using fire-rated materials together to ensure a building's full protection.

There is nothing more important than protecting human lives; hence all the advances in safety products and procedures in the construction industry. However it is not worth it if materials are either not used correctly, or not used at all. Fire protection is a major safety consideration for those working in the building industry.

Let’s take this from the top. In the UAE it is mandatory for all buildings to be equipped with fire-rated materials to ensure maximum safety. Indeed, fire-rated materials were and are being used, but when we look at how many fires still happen in the UAE, we notice the number is still very high.

Official figures show some 14,000 major fires were reported in the past five years and most of these destroyed the entire building because the fire was not confined to the area where it originated. If fire-rated material is being used to block the fire then why is it not effective?

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There are numerous reasons as to why fires spread, but a major reason is that the building’s fire protection system is lacking.

Firstly, the quality of the glass being used should be considered. There are three different classifications of fire-resistant glass; Integrity (E), Integrity and Radiation (EW) and Integrity and Insulation (EI). Integrity (E) can block fire, but not the heat, smoke or toxic fumes, therefore it does not fully serve the purpose of protection as the heat travels through to the other side and causes materials to ignite. Integrity and Radiation (EW) and Integrity and Insulation (EI) type-glass have a toughened mechanical strength and most importantly block thermal heat. If a fire isn’t confined you can conclude that the classification of the glass used is not totally serving the needs of fire protection.

Next up is the profile or frame. Now, if you have a fire-rated glass that is inserted into an ordinary profile, when the fire ignites, your profile melts away. With nothing holding the glass the fire is not contained and can spread drastically.

So, when the Civil Defence mandates the law to use a fire-rated door, this means it has to have fire-rated glass and a fire-rated profile or frame, together known as a Fire-Rated System. It does not make a difference in terms of effectiveness if you have glass which can block the fire for two hours along with a profile that cannot resist fire at all.