You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Maximize Your College’s Passive Fire Protection
Familiarizing yourself with fire codes, conducting well-timed assessments and making the necessary repairs can make an enormous difference in limiting the impact of a fire on your campus.
Building officials may see a door closing and assume it’s fine, but if it doesn’t latch properly, it can be blown open in the event of a fire. Other common issues with fire doors include dysfunctional magnetic locks and holes that can allow fire penetration.
Yuen served as the University of California Berkeley’s fire marshal for 13 years before switching to his current position, so he’s seen firsthand the sometimes-casual approach to fire safety on campus.
“Modifying fire doors is especially a problem in stairwells or heavily-travelled areas,” Yuen says. “But it’s so important to have those doors functional because it prevents fire and smoke from migrating from one fire compartment to another quickly. Oftentimes, it can go up the stairs and spread to other parts of the building.”
NFPA 105 dictates that smoke doors (which in some cases double as fire doors) must also be inspected annually. The code also gives requirements
for smoke dampers, which are barriers that prevent the spread of smoke in ventilation systems or other parts of buildings that may allow smoke to spread. The code requires dampers to be tested and inspected one year after they’re installed, then tested and inspected every four years after that.
There are similar codes, both from the NFPA and other organizations, that dictate standards for the main components of passive fire protection, such as caulking material, floors and walls. Some of these codes have been adopted throughout the United States while others are regional. Campus officials should know which ones they’re required to follow.
Get Inspected by the Professionals
Inspections, even when they’re not enforced by the local AHJ, are a great way to get an idea of where you stand in terms of the compliance of your fire safety systems. Companies like Red Hawk can conduct campus-wide inspections to point out any deficiencies they find.
“We just educate them first so they realize fire safety’s important and so they talk about it and budget for it,” Lohr says. “Then when they start taking action, we take digital photos of everything we inspect before and after, so that has a lot of sizzle from a customer standpoint because they know it’s actually been done and that the new devices were actually inspected.”
Those photographs can also serve as valuable records for campus officials to reference at a later date.
“There can be a lot of turnover in some of these industries, so sometimes we go to the fire official and ask when the last time something was inspected, and they’ll say ‘I don’t know, I don’t have the records from the last guy,'” Lohr says. “So when we perform an inspection, it goes onto a website that they can access anytime they want. Our clients’ records never go away.”
RELATED: Parents, Students Must Call for College Dorms to Have Fire Sprinklers
Some fire safety inspection companies will also rank the severity of the issues they find on campus to give hospital, school or university administrators a better idea of where to start when improving their fire safety systems. The rankings help campuses budget for the most pressing needs. In some cases, the organization could be in direct violation of codes. Yuen points out that sprinkler heads must be tested every 20 years, and in some cases campuses could be forced to replace some or all of them.
Another benefit of inspections is that they can correct common misconceptions of building managers. A common problem inspectors encounter with passive fire protection systems is the application of fire stopping material.
“Some building officials think they can just pump a bunch of fire stopping caulking into a penetration and that takes care of it,” Lohr says. “The reality is there’s a real art to applying fire stopping materials. You’ve got to make sure it’s the right kind of material for the type of penetration, and a lot of times you need to put mineral wool in the penetration as a foundation to keep the caulking from being blown out if there’s a fire.”
Another misconception is that fire alarm companies are testing the fire dampers. Alarm officials typically only test the output of a fire panel from an electronics standpoint, which falls short of the inspection requirements mentioned above (NFPA 105).
“In a lot of cases, schools simply don’t even know there’s a problem until we point it out to them,” Lohr says.
It’s always an easier outcome for campuses when inspectors find deficiencies before the AHJ does.
Keeping Campuses Prepared
It’s no secret that on most campuses, fire safety often takes a backseat to security systems like access control and video surveillance.
“Schools would just rather spend their dollars on security instead of fire systems,” Lohr admits. “Security is just the hot button topic right now.”
That doesn’t mean that schools can ignore fire safety altogether, however. Annual training is critical. For example, UC Berkeley holds fire safety training every year for all residential and custodian staff.
“It’s basically just the dos and don’ts of fire safety,” Yuen explains. “It’s mostly general stuff, but it doesn’t necessarily have to do with passive fire protection.”
RELATED: Inside New Smoke Detection & Alternative Signal Path Reports
Indeed, passive fire protection seems to be the safety system that gets thought about the least in the campus community. That’s okay, however, as long as schools are keeping up with their code requirements. To maintain effective passive fire protection, it doesn’t take much more than a maintenance staff that knows what to look for.
“It all boils down to preventive maintenance so that all systems are working at peak performance,” Lohr says. “Then, if someone does find an issue, they can call a locksmith or whomever they need to fix it.”
But the relative ease of maintaining passive fire protection doesn’t mean it’s any less important than other life safety systems on campus. Passive fire protection can make a world of difference for firefighters trying to control a fire.
“Keeping flames contained is one of the keys to fire response success,” Lohr says. “We really feel like we’re helping schools do their job for the community.”
It’s also worth noting that passive fire protection’s beneficiaries aren’t limited to firefighters.
“If all other systems fail, whether its fire sprinklers or smoke alarms, what’s going to give students a fighting chance to evacuate?” Lohr asks. “If fire doors, dampers and walls are working properly, that’s what’s going to give kids a chance to survive.”
If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!
Related Content
Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century
This new webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments. Register today to attend this free webcast!
