- Fire Compartment
A fire compartment is a type of passive fire protection and defined in the Building Code of Australia and describes either; (a) the total space of a building; or (b) any part of a building separated from the remainder by barriers to fire such as walls and/or floors having an appropriate resistance to the spread of fire. A fire compartment helps prevent the movement or spread of a fire within a building or between buildings or structures.
Fire compartmentation is used in construction for two primary purposes;
- to subdivide a building into smaller compartments to help limit the spread or contain a fire; and
- to protect one compartment from another fire affected compartment to enable the safe means of escape from a building.
Within a fire compartment there may also be installed active fire protection facilities such as an automatic fire sprinkler system, fire detection & alarm system or the heat and smoke control measures of mechanical ventilation systems. Each of these active systems also contributes to the early warning of the occupants of a building of the presence of a fire and to help prevent the spread of fire between fire compartments.
Fire compartment means
NCC 2019 Building Code of Australia - Volume One —
- the total space of a building; or
- when referred to in—
- the Performance Requirements — any part of a building separated from the remainder by barriers to fire such as walls and/or floors having an appropriate resistance to the spread of fire with any openings adequately protected; or
- the Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions — any part of a building separated from the remainder by walls and/or floors each having an FRL not less than that required for a fire wall for that type of construction and where all openings in the separating construction are protected in accordance with the Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions of the relevant Part.