From the point of view of the safety and licensing authorities, the structure must be capable of safe evacuation in the event of fire. From the point of view of the purchaser of the structure, the fire protection is often an expensive statutory feature. From the point of view of the operator, fire protection must be maintained to preserve the safety margins declared in the safety documentation. On some structures, weight is critical, and fire protection measures are often heavy. There is, therefore, a need to balance these conflicting requirements when specifying fire protection.
Fire protection falls into two main categories, prevention and protection.
Preventative measures will include control of flammable inventories, control of ignition sources, monitoring of environmental conditions leading to initiation of alarms and automatic process control, and fire detection systems designed to extinguish fires immediately on detection. Protection measures fall into two categories, passive and active. Passive measures include fire barriers, fire resistant enclosures, fire doors, fire retardant coatings and fire protective coatings. Active measures include water and chemical sprays or deluges, foam dispersion and inert gas dispersal. Fire protection can be provided as an all encompassing scheme, or it can be functionally designed to optimise on cost, weight and maintenance.