Whether you are responsible for fire safety in a residential or commercial property, you need to know about both active and passive fire safety measures.

Read on to discover what is the difference between active fire protection systems and passive fire protection systems. Plus, how to plan ultimate fire resistance with a fire safety strategy.

What are active fire safety measures?

Active fire safety measures are a type of fire protection that detect or act in the event of a fire. As the name suggests, active fire protection requires an action to work. This action could be manual, such as fire extinguishers, or automatic, like fire alarm systems.

These actions trigger the fire protection, such as sounding fire alarms or setting off a sprinkler system.

In a nutshell, active fire safety measures are designed to both stop the spread of fire and also to alert people to evacuate a building.

Active fire protection is highly effective at fire-stopping and detecting fires early on and are a crucial aspect of a fire safety strategy.

What are passive fire safety measures?

Passive fire safety measures, on the other hand, are a type of fire protection that is always operating and do not need to be activated in the case of an emergency.

Often forgotten, passive fire safety measures are equally as important as active ones when it comes to good fire protection and fire safety. It is worth knowing that passive fire safety measures are not always visible, although some, such as fire doors and fire curtains, are.

One of the most common and important types of passive fire safety is structural fire protection. This means safety measures that have been built into the building, such as fire stopping, which helps the walls, floors and ceilings to slow down the spread of fire and to keep it contained.

How to create a fire safety strategy

Both types of fire safety measures are needed in a fire safety strategy, as both help to keep a building safe and protected from fire and smoke.

When creating a fire safety strategy, it can be a good idea to factor in the cost of having trained professionals install your chosen fire safety measures, as they will be able to ensure that each element works as it should.

You also need to ensure that you keep on top of the maintenance of your fire safety measures, as there is no point in having a smoke detector that doesn’t work or a fire extinguisher that is empty. In other words, make sure to double-check your system is working to prevent the spread of fire.

A fire can have devastating effects on both businesses and homeowners, so a high standard of fire safety and protection should be seen as a priority rather than an afterthought.

If you would like more information on either the Active or Passive Fire Industry and how you can keep your buildings and the people within them safe, then we can help you.