Vents' Role in Improved Protection
Automatic fire vents are another option for life and property safety.
FIRE safety is of monumental importance to building owners and managers, individuals whose fire protection decisions affect both life safety and the preservation of valuable assets. There is a variety of products available to these decision makers to ensure their buildings are properly protected. This article will explore the use of automatic fire vents as a viable and necessary option for fire protection in many types of buildings.
The International Code Council (ICC) recognizes that fire vents are one way in which life safety and protection of buildings and contents can be substantially improved. Compliance with its recommendations should not be regarded as an expense, but rather as a long-term investment in a facility.
Fire vents originally were developed in the wake of a tragedy. On Aug. 12, 1953, General Motors' Hydra-Matic transmission plant in Livonia, Mich., caught fire when a cutting torch ignited a drip pan containing rust inhibitor. At the time, the factory was new and state of the art in design; it was considered by many to be the finest plant built since the end of World War II. Yet within 20 minutes, the 1.5-million-square-foot building was nearly destroyed. Luckily, there were not many injuries and few fatalities. The plant, however, incurred approximately $80 million in damage.
Following the fire, standards for fire protection and life and material safety were brought to the forefront because many speculated fire protection products could have saved the facility. Companies began to introduce fire vents shortly thereafter to glowing reviews by many in the fire protection and industrial communities. Unfortunately, there was no consensus on the role of fire vents within the fire protection community or a unified code in favor of vent usage. This fact was not a testament to the products' ability, but merely one symptom of a lack of coordination among the code bodies.
How Fire Vents Work
Fire vents are designed to maximize fire containment and life safety and minimize damages and material loss. They are installed on the roof of a building and are designed with a latching mechanism that automatically opens the covers in the event of a fire. Once a vent is open, smoke, heat, and noxious gases are allowed to escape from the building. As required by UL and FM testing laboratories, vents are required to open against a 10 PSF snow/wind load to ensure operation in adverse weather conditions.
Fire vents offer a variety of proven advantages in a fire emergency, including:
- Increased visibility inside the building to help occupants escape the fire and reduce the risk of smoke inhalation.
- Aiding firefighters in their containment efforts. On a large structure with many vents, open vents indicate the precise location of the fire. This saves time and allows firefighters to fight the fire more safely and efficiently.
- Fire venting has a tendency to restrict the spread of fire across the building floor because it is more inclined to move upward toward the ceiling.
Since their development in the late 1950s, fire vent usage has been codified in different ways. Today, the governing code organization in the United States also requires the use of fire vents for certain buildings.
Understanding the Code
For more than 50 years, fire vents have experienced varying levels of acceptance due to conflicting code requirements. Until the mid-1990s, there had been three governing code bodies in the United States: Building Officials and Code Administrators International (BOCA), International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCO). While the regulations developed by each regarding fire vents were similar, there were still inconsistencies that resulted in different codes in different parts of the country and disparate revision cycles.
In 1994, the three governing bodies decided to join efforts and formed the International Code Council (ICC). Shortly after the merger, this newly formed code authority convened to establish the recommendations that would later become the 12 International Code reports. These reports touch upon every aspect of the construction industry--including two codes, the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Fire Code (IFC), that address fire safety and protection. The IBC and IFC are quite interchangeable with respect to certain stipulations, although the IFC contains greater detail regarding the specific types of buildings that are required to observe the codes.
Prior to the creation of the ICC, fire vents were required in only two types of buildings, Group F1 and Group S1. Group F1 is a moderate-hazard factory and manufacturing classification and includes buildings that produce and store items such as millwork, wood products, metal, machinery, and furniture. Group S1 is a moderate-hazard storage and warehousing designation and includes facilities that house items of varying flammability and combustion levels, such as lumber, aerosols, bags, cardboard, and certain lubricating oils. Both classifications include areas with large amounts of open space and stacks of flammable objects.
This article originally appeared in the November 2006 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.