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Fire protection is the prevention and reduction of the hazards associated with fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies as well as the research and development, production, testing and application of mitigating systems. In structures, be they land-based, offshore or even ships, the owners and operators are responsible to maintain their facilities in accordance with a design-basis that is rooted in laws, including the local building code and fire code, which are enforced by the Authority Having Jurisdiction. Buildings must be constructed in accordance with the version of the building code that is in effect when an application for a building permit is made. Building inspectors check on compliance of a building under construction with the building code. Once construction is complete, a building must be maintained in accordance with the current fire code, which is enforced by the fire prevention officers of a local fire department. In the event of fire emergencies, Firefighters, fire investigators, and other fire prevention personnel called to mitigate, investigate and learn from the damage of a fire. Lessons learned from fires are applied to the authoring of both building codes and fire codes.

Goals of fire protection

Fire protection has three major goals:

* Life safety (minimum standard in fire and building codes)
* Property protection (typically an insurance requirement, or a regulatory requirement where the protection of building components is necessary to enable life safety)
* Continuity of operations (typically an insurance requirement or an item of self-motivation for building owners - not a regulatory issue). Interruption of operations due to fire damage can be very costly. For instance, a nuclear reactor may cost about one million US dollars per day, if it is not making power that is being sold.

Components of fire protection

Structural fire protection (in land-based buildings, offshore construction or onboard ships) is typically achieved via three means:

* Passive fire protection (use of integral, fire-resistance rated wall and floor assemblies that are used to form fire compartments intended to limit the spread of fire, or occupancy separations, or firewalls, to keep fires, high temperatures and flue gases within the fire compartment of origin, thus enabling firefighting and evacuation)
* Active fire protection (manual and automatic detection and suppression of fires , as in finding the fire (Fire alarm) and/or extinguishing it)
* Education (ensuring that building owners and operators have copies and a working understanding of the applicable building and fire codes, having a purpose-designed fire safety plan and ensuring that building occupants, operators and emergency personnel know the building, its means of Active fire protection and Passive fire protection, its weak spots and strengths to ensure the highest possible level of safety)

Each one of these components fails, the fire safety plan would be severely compromised. For example, if the firestop systems in a structure were inoperable, a significant part of the fire safety plan would not work in the event of a fire. Since the overall plan depends on all pieces, it is important to see that each item is in fact functional. Likewise, if there were a sprinkler system or an alarm system, but it's down for lack of knowledgeable maintenance, or if building occupants prop open a fire door and then run a carpet through, the likelihood of damage and casualties is markedly increased. It is vital for everyone to realise that fire protection within a structure is a system that relies on all of its components.

There are many things that can and often do go wrong prior to and during the construction of a building. What happens afterwards, however, can also be substantially hazardous, to the point of entirely defeating the fire protection plan that was put in place during the design-phase of a building. Common operator errors include, but are not limited to, the following: failure to regularly clean grease ducts in commercial kitchens (usually every 3 - 6 months), re-entering firestops without proper repairs, damaging and removing spray fireproofing[1] from structural steel elements, changing of the use or occupancy[2] of parts of a building. Any changes that affect the overall fire protection plan, however small they may appear to the layman, legally require the owner to either gain the approval of the fire prevention officer at the municipal fire department or to apply for a building permit with the local, municipal building department. The permit fee is intended to cover the time and expenses for the Authority Having Jurisdiction to evaluate the contemplated change against applicable code requirements. Failure to obtain such approvals make the owner vulnerable to charges of negligence and culpability in a court of law.

An excellent litmus test for a building, offshore construction or ship owner's degree of due diligence is this question:

How many firestops are there in your building, where are they and where do you keep copies of the certification listings that cover each opening?

Any answer other than a precise number of firestops in the building in question, reference to a set of drawings that shows each one, with a number and hyperlink or paper reference to the certification listings that bound each installed configuration is a clear indication that the owner has absolutely no idea whatsoever about the most important constituent parts of his overall fire protection plan and cannot be relied upon to maintain a building in conformance with the fire code.

Another excellent litmus test for an owner is this request:

Show me your copy of the current fire code and your copy of the building code that was in effect when you applied for the building permit.

If the owner does not have a copy of these two documents, it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that he or she has absolutely no idea about, and/or complete apathy for, what regulations he or she is responsible to be in compliance with. Statements about leaving that up to outside parties, including the local fire prevention officer, are indicative of inherent and systemic problems for that facility, as any routine, seemingly small act, can defeat the overall fire protection plan. All this would take, for instance, is the installation of some piece of equipment in the building. Surely, the piece of equipment would be installed correctly by the contractor or the owner's maintenance staff? After all, you switch it on and it works. BUT, the presence of such equipment could be construed as a change in occupancy, which actually requires a building permit. Likewise, added piping or cable to run the equipment might necessitate the breaching of a fire-resistance rated wall or floor, where now a firestop is required, which would also necessitate a building permit. If no application for a building permit is made, the Authority Having Jurisdiction is unaware of the change and if the change is not immediately apparent to a fire prevention officer who may or may not do a routine inspection, nobody is the wiser and the owner is culpable, not the contractor who installed the equipment. The contractor who installs the equipment cannot be expected to bring anything up about a permit as this would endanger his or her relations with the owner, who can typically be safely counted upon to prefer to avoid the attention of the Authority Having Jurisdiction, particularly if a building permit is required, which may uncover other items in need of upgrade or repair - and, of course, more cost.

It is important to remember that even when a fire prevention officer who conducts an inspection does not find anything amiss, this does not mean that the building is in full compliance with the fire code. There is a limit to the amount of searching and disturbing that a fire prevention officer is legally allowed and financed by the municipality to do. Often, an inspector will be limited to a quick check on fire extinguishers and maintenance records of the sprinkler system. The written OK that results, does not mean that it's OK to have 400 new holes in fire-resistance rated walls above the ceiling tiles, which have not bee firestopped, for instance. This can become a politically charged item of contention in a municipality, as well as a test of the mettle of the Authority Having Jurisdiction, vis-a-vis the executive level of municipal government. A fire prevention officer can only comment upon what he or she has seen. For instance, many fire prevention officers are not given time to lift ceiling tiles to see what is happening in concealed spaces. A passed inspection, therefore, does not absolve a building owner his or her responsibility to maintain a facility in compliance with the fire code, nor does it give him or her carte blanche that everything is OK with the Authority Having Jurisdiction. Likewise, in small municipalities, or "one-horse" towns, with few large employers, municipal inspectors are routinely left out of the larger facilities, for fear that the owner may be angered, especially, where the owner is much larger than the municipality that has have sprung up around or is economically dependent on the plant. In those cases, the only advocate for proper fire protection may the industrial insurance company, who is is subject to pressure from competition that may claim to be more lenient as well as risk and damage assessments.

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