The Most Important Step of Life Safety Checklist: Install a Fire Damper
The article focuses on the importance of installing a Fire Damper in a building to create a passive fire protection system. It is better to find a UL classified model that prevents the spread of smoke and fire efficiently.
In order to create a robust fire protection system, you need to invest in a fire damper. With the help of this equipment, you can greatly improve the fire safety ratings of any building, whether it’s an office, hospital or a school building. Therefore, for a substantial protection of lives of the occupants and the property at the premises, you must know everything about buying and installing a fire damper.
Importance of a Fire Damper
According to studies, more than 80% of casualties during the event of fire occurred due to the spread of toxic smoke. Therefore, you must invest in dampers and regularly inspect your fire protection system. A fire damper is a crucial element for creating a passive fire protection system in the complex infrastructure of modern day buildings. During the event of a fire, the device restricts the spread of fire and smoke to offer following advantages:
-It protects lives of the occupants
-It protects egress routes in a building
-It minimizes property damage
Fire dampers prevent significant damage by preventing smoke fire entering into the ducts. Therefore, it is important to invest in up to date fire protection equipment that functions properly.
The method of compartmentalizing smoke
Regulatory authorities and engineering methods have compartmentalized the buildings into fire rated separations which include walls, doors, and fire dampers. All these elements are thoughtfully compartmentalized to confine fire and smoke in smaller areas.
The idea behind compartmentalizing is to give more time to the occupants to evacuate the building safely. During the event of afire, equipment that closes itself to create fire separation in buildings can be of varied types:
-Fire Damper: It closes itself to prevent the spread of flames.
-Smoke Damper: It is used to prevent the spread of toxic gasses into the air ducts.
-Fire Smoke Damper: It a combination damper that performs both the above-mentioned operations.
An efficient fire damper must maintain the required resistance ratings for all the fire separations. For instance, you can invest in a UL listed fire damper that maintains the integrity of walls, floors, partitions and ventilation duct openings.
Tips to invest in a compliant Fire Smoke Damper
Apart from UL555 standards of safety for fire dampers, you must know a few important things that indicate that your fire damper is compliant to the set industry standards for creating passive fire protection.
- Buy a UL classified fire smoke damper from reputed entities. For instance, KAD Air Conditioning deals in robust, durable and civil defense approved models of fire and smoke dampers. You may find their product range helpful to minimize the damage during a fire.
- It is advised to perform physical inspections of the damper every 4 years. Besides, always invest in a robust quality model that is designed to withstand the rugged conditions.
- You must get in touch with experts who know how every type of damper works and with the help of their immense knowledge about damper inspections you can be sure about the compliance of your model.
- During the inspection, the few important things that need to be included are damper type, its location, inspection results and mandatory corrective actions.
- It is better to hire third party personnel to inspect the dampers, and when there is any deficiency found, try to replace it immediately.
Smoke travels faster, and inhaling the smoke causes serious damages. So, make sure you create passive fire protection system right now by finding the best entities offering the latest and industry compliant models. KAD Air Conditioning, for instance, is a reliable company offering easy to install models for the modern day ventilation system, try their product range to prevent any chances of damage to property and lives.