Description

Cavity barriers are not well understood and have been causing some controversy. Here, we clear up some of the confusion around these building elements and their role in fire spread.

When we think of fire in a building, we generally think of occupied spaces like rooms on fire or exterior fires. Often when fighting a fire, the initial fire knock-down on a building exterior or in a room takes very little time, in the order of seconds to minutes.

Scope

This article includes:

• Problem of fire spread in cavities
• Cavities need barriers to stop spread
• Cavity barriers versus firestops
• Compliance document cavity barrier requirements
• Cavity barrier performance
• Open and closed-state cavity barriers
• How well do open-state cavity barriers work?
• Improving the test method