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Stopping Fires with Fire Dampers

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New construction buildings go up and are fully functional faster than ever before. New technology has made the construction process more efficient. For instance, engineered wood beams are lightweight and easy to maneuver, so they take less effort to build with.  However, quick construction and new technology have some risk factors to consider.

A building with an engineered wood structure, filled with new-age synthetic material, can ignite, burn, and collapse shockingly fast. As you can imagine, a speedy structural failure leaves little to no time for the people inside to escape. For these reasons and more, fire-stopping should be a critical piece of the building’s design and construction. This is especially important in defend-in-place facilities like hospitals or other health facilities.

Fire-stopping refers to passive methods of fire safety and can include:

fire dampers

– sealants

– firewalls

– smoke barriers

Another health piece to consider, especially in defend-in-place facilities, is a backdraft damper to help filter out toxic fumes and smoke. Installing HVAC equipment with these things in mind can lead to fewer fatalities and injuries due to a fire.

 

How Can Fire Dampers Assist in Firestopping?

Compartmentalizing a building during construction is essential to planning for fire emergencies. Compartmentalizing can be done with any combination of the fire stoppers mentioned above, and fire dampers are one of the best tools to utilize at construction time.

Fire dampers are pieces of equipment installed by a contractor in the air ducts of an HVAC system.

There are two kinds of fire dampers:

– static fire dampers, which work in static airflow conditions

– dynamic fire dampers, which work even if the HVAC fan continues to run

The type of fire damper a contractor installs depends on the HVAC system. Fire dampers work directly with the HVAC system. When the temperature rises due to a fire, the fire damper closes. This single act restricts the flow of air and starves the fire of oxygen. Preventing oxygen from feeding the flames can contain a fire in a single room.

The contractor will typically install a static or dynamic fire damper in conjunction with other fire-stopping measures like fire-resistant rated floors and walls.

 

How Can Fire Walls and Fire Partitions Assist in Firestopping?

Firewalls are walls on the building’s exterior and are designed to prevent collapse and contain a fire for up to four hours. A firewall extends from the base of the building to the roof.

Fire partitions are walls that divide a building into rooms on each floor. These partitions extend from the floor to the ceiling and are designed to contain a fire in a single room. These interior partitions can typically withstand a fire for up to two hours.

Other means of fire-stopping inside a building include sealing the tops and bottoms of walls where there might be a gap between the rooms. Using a fire-rated sealant can help to contain the spread of fire and smoke.

 

How Can Backdraft Dampers Assist in Firestopping?

Backdraft dampers don’t specifically prevent the spread of fires or contribute to fire-stopping. Still, they are critical to fire safety, especially in defend-in-place environments, because they can minimize damage from harmful fumes and smoke.

Backdraft dampers are a necessary piece of HVAC equipment designed to allow dirty air and smoke to exit the building and prevent the contaminated air from flowing back into the building. Backdraft dampers are fittings, like other dampers, that have blades contained by a metal frame. When a change in air pressure happens, the blades open. This allows the air to flow from the high-pressure zone into the lower-pressure area. Backdraft dampers have other purposes aside from fire-stopping and smoke safety, too.

 

Other Helpful Backdraft Damper Applications

Backdraft dampers should be considered during the design and construction phases for reasons beyond fire safety, including temperature control, odor control, and air purity. Temperature control is critical to most buildings to keep inhabitants comfortable. Backdraft dampers are especially helpful in cold months as they keep the frigid outdoor air from entering the building structure. In this way, backdraft dampers save on electricity used to heat a building.

Backdraft dampers help purify the air in the same way they help to get rid of smoke—they direct contaminated air out and prevent it from flowing backward into the building. For the same reason, these dampers also prevent unpleasant odors from accumulating and permeating the building. We’ve now all lived through a global pandemic, so we can understand that air purity in medical facilities has been highlighted as a means to limit the spread of viruses and other potentially dangerous contagions.

 

Other Means of Fire Safety

Other devices and systems should be planned for and installed in buildings to act in the event of a fire, these are known as active fire protection.

Active fire protection:

– fire extinguishers

– fire sprinkler system

– smoke detectors and alarms

 

A fire sprinkler system is triggered when flames are detected and can fight the fire with water. Knowledgeable people can use fire extinguishers to fight small fires, and smoke detectors can detect and alert the building to the dangers of a fire.

A later stage of fire preparedness includes a complete fire emergency plan that accounts for any person caught inside a building.

 

Fire Safety Inspections and More

Many of the systems and pieces of equipment mentioned in this article require regularly scheduled maintenance, cleanings, testing, and inspections. It’s critical to learn the fire safety codes and requirements and abide by them. Fire dampers must be inspected one year after installation and every four years after in many settings. In hospitals and some other medical facilities, dampers need only be reviewed every six years following the first initial inspection. Fire extinguishers must be checked in intervals ranging from one to six years, depending on the type.

As you can see, fire dampers, backdraft dampers, and other means of fire-stopping are critical to the passive fire protection of a building. They should be considered from the very beginning planning stages of a new construction project. By taking these proactive measures, building owners can save lives and prevent property loss. Fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems are active means of protection from fires and should also be planned and installed early in the construction process.

The local representatives with Lloyd Industries are leaders in the industry with the best fire dampers, backdraft dampers, and other HVAC equipment on the market. Lloyd Industries has been a leader for over 35 years with an excellent reputation for customer satisfaction.

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