What is active and passive fire protection?

When planning any type of infrastructure, it is essential to design a fire safety plan tailored to the specific needs, characteristics, activities, and risks of the site.
While this plan must be customized for each space, it is critical to include both **active** and **passive fire protection** systems.

But what exactly is the difference between these two categories? To answer that, we must begin with the basics: their definitions.

What will you learn in this article?

• What active fire protection is, the different types, and how each system works.
• What passive fire protection involves, its solutions, and its preventive role against fire and smoke.
• What combined active and passive protection methods are available.

Active Fire Protection

What is active fire protection?

Active fire protection (AFP) refers to all systems and devices designed to detect, control, and extinguish fires directly.
These measures are intended to act immediately when a fire starts, alerting building occupants and intervening to suppress or reduce the fire.
Their role is therefore corrective.

Types of active fire protection

There are various types of active protection systems, including:

• Water systems: Ideal for large commercial and industrial areas with high fire risk. These systems use water to extinguish or control the fire by cooling materials and removing heat.
• Foam systems: Used where water is insufficient, such as in chemical storage facilities. Foam smothers flammable liquids and blocks vapors from feeding the flames.
• Inert gas systems: Common in server rooms or sensitive areas. These use inert gases like argon or nitrogen to displace oxygen, suffocating the fire without damaging equipment.

Active fire protection systems

These systems vary widely and are designed for specific roles in different environments:

• Fire detection and alarm systems: Include smoke, heat, and flame detectors that trigger alerts to occupants and emergency personnel.
• Automatic sprinklers: Discharge water automatically when a fire is detected.
• Portable fire extinguishers: Handheld devices for suppressing small fires by trained individuals.
• Fire hydrants and hose reels: Manually operated water delivery systems connected to a hydrant network.

Passive Fire Protection

What is passive fire protection?

Passive fire protection (PFP) plays a preventive role by limiting the spread of fire and smoke.
It includes building solutions that mitigate the consequences of fire and allow the structure to maintain its stability for a specified duration.

Types of passive fire protection

Common passive protection strategies include:

• Compartmentation: Divides the building into fire-resistant sections to prevent the spread of fire and smoke between areas.
• Structural protection: Uses special coatings like intumescent paints or fireproof mortars to protect load-bearing elements from collapse.
• Fire retardant treatments: Applied to combustible materials (e.g., wood, textiles) to improve their fire resistance. Can be factory-applied or added onsite.
• Luminescent signage: Ensures visibility of escape routes during low visibility conditions, facilitating safe evacuation.

Passive fire protection systems

• Fire doors: Automatically close to contain fire and allow safe passage of people and goods.
• Fire curtains: Textile barriers that isolate fire and smoke. Ideal for large open spaces, retractable when not in use.
• Smoke control curtains: Help channel and extract smoke, improving visibility and reducing smoke inhalation during evacuation.
• Penetration seals: Seal openings around pipes and cables that pass through fire-rated walls and floors, preventing spread of fire and smoke.

What combined active and passive protection methods are available?

To ensure comprehensive fire safety, it is essential to integrate both active and passive protection methods, always adapted to the unique conditions of each project.

In this context, Tecnitex specializes in textile-based compartmentation systems, offering advanced fire and smoke curtain solutions.
These curtains are highly versatile, aesthetically discreet, and easy to install in a wide range of applications.

Their benefits include helping prevent flame and smoke spread, protecting stored materials and personnel, and reducing risk during evacuation and fire suppression operations.

In summary, integrating both active and passive protection systems is key to any effective fire safety strategy.
This dual approach maximizes protection and safety for all building occupants.

Need expert advice? Let’s talk.