Our Mission IFC's mission is to promote the technology of fire containment in modern building construction through research, education and development of safety standards and code provisions. Firestopping is an integral part of fire protection engineering. The integrity of fire-rated assemblies is restored by firestop systems. Active fire suppression includes mechanical systems such as sprinklers, that are designed to extinguish fires after they have started.
Fire is a dangerous enough phenomenon that redundancy in fire protection is necessary.
Having passive protection in place helps assure building occupants that there will be time to exit before gasses, fire and smoke spread throughout the building. If active systems fail, as they often do, then there is still a passive system in place for life safety.