FIR3305 Columbia Southern Unit VIII Fire Protection Systems Paper Discuss how you will be able to apply what you learned in this course to your current or

FIR3305 Columbia Southern Unit VIII Fire Protection Systems Paper Discuss how you will be able to apply what you learned in this course to your current or future work.Your journal entry must be at least 200 words. No references or citations are necessary.If you need anything Please let me know But I believe you have everything from the prior assignments.Thank you UNIT VIII STUDY GUIDE
Smoke Control and Property Security
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VIII
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Explain the benefits of fire protection systems in various types of structures.
3. Explain why water is a widely used extinguishing agent, and describe how water extinguishes fires.
4. Identify the different types and components of sprinkler, standpipe, and foam systems.
6. Identify the different types of non-water-based fire suppression systems.
7. Explain the basic components of a fire alarm system.
9. Defend the hazards of smoke and the four factors that can influence smoke movement in a building.
9.1 Explain the purpose of a smoke management system.
10. Classify the appropriate application of the different types of sprinklers.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
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Learning Activity
Unit VIII Essay
Unit VIII Essay
Unit VIII Essay
Unit VIII Essay
Unit VIII Essay
Unit Lesson
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Unit VIII Essay
Unit VIII Essay
Reading Assignment
Chapter 12: Smoke Control and Management Systems
Chapter 13: Property Security, Emergency Response, and Fire Protection Systems
Unit Lesson
As discussed in the course, fire protection systems play a critical role in the overall life safety and property
protection for buildings, critical infrastructure, and target hazards within a community.
The purpose of this unit is to understand the hazards of smoke, the movement of smoke in buildings, the
types of smoke management systems, and how firefighters can use these systems to their tactical advantage
in building fires.
It is known through after-action reviews, fire investigation reports, and firsthand accounts that smoke kills the
majority of the fire victims in a building fire. Fires generate smoke, toxic gases, and heat that can travel in
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unprotected areas throughout a building. While the location of the fire may be UNIT
in onexpart
of the
building,
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smoke may affect occupants in different areas, including different levels far from
the fire.
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Building codes require consideration of smoke control or smoke management as part of the total life safety
protection of the building. High-rise buildings and buildings with atriums are required to have the systems
installed prior to occupancy. The purpose of the smoke management system is to reduce occupant deaths
and injuries and to aid in the safety of firefighters by removing and controlling the spread of smoke.
Smoke management is a system that limits the exposure of
building occupants to smoke. This may include a combination of
compartmentation, control of smoke migration from the affected
areas, and a means of removing smoke to the exterior of the
building. Smoke control is an engineered system designed to
control smoke by the use of mechanical fans to produce air flows
and pressure differences across smoke barriers to limit and direct
smoke movement. The National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) published two smoke management systems standards in
which systems should be designed and installed to: NFPA 92A
and NFPA 92B.
Response to smoke-filled building
(Abeyasekere, 2012)
There are several factors that affect smoke generation and spread
throughout buildings. These include the stack or chimney effect,
buoyancy, weather, mechanical air handling systems, and the
products of combustion.
The stack effect is a phenomenon of a strong air draft moving from the ground level to the roof level of the
building. It may be affected by building height, configuration, and temperature differences between the inside
and outside air.
There are several smoke control strategies that may be employed in order to maintain life safety within
buildings. Passive smoke control incorporates fixed components that provide protection against the spread of
smoke and fire and may include fire doors, firewalls, fire-stopping barrier penetrations, and stair and elevator
vestibules.
Pressurization systems may be used to prevent smoke flow into critical areas such as the means of egress.
These systems rely on pressure differences, which may be created by mechanical fans and ventilation.
Stairway pressurization is a type of positive pressure that limits the spread of smoke into stairways in highrise buildings. Another method is the exhaust method, which uses mechanical ventilation. Regardless of the
systems used, firefighters should be familiar with the Firefighter’s Smoke Control Station or Panel (FSCS).
These systems should be located in the fire command center or other approved locations and allows
firefighters to have control capability over all smoke control system equipment or zones within the building.
As with other fire protection systems discussed, testing, inspection, and maintenance are critical to ensuring
effective operations of the smoke control system. Firefighters should be involved in the testing process to
ensure the capabilities and limitations are understood by the responding companies.
These systems provide a tactical advantage for firefighters. Pre-fire planning provides responders with
information about the building system and operation. When responding to a building involving these systems,
it is important for the incident commander to take control of these systems for firefighter and occupant safety.
With the growing need to protect people, products, equipment, materials, and information from criminals,
thieves, corporate espionage, and terrorism, property protection and personal safety have become very
important parts of building, facility, and property management (Jones, 2015). To balance security and life
safety, various methods to deal with ingress and egress at buildings, tenant spaces, offices, and operationally
critical areas are outlined in the model codes. Chapter 13 of your textbook outlines the various specialized
locking arrangements for ingress and egress and how they interface with fire protection systems.
Before we discuss ingress and egress control, we must fully understand the components of the means of
egress. Means of egress is the continuous and unobstructed path of travel used by building occupants from
any point in a building or structure to the public way (Jones, 2015). A means of egress consists of three parts:
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exit access, exit, and exit discharge. Exit access is the path from any location UNIT
withinxaSTUDY
buildingGUIDE
to an exit. An
exit is typically a door leading to the outside, or in a multi-story building, an enclosed
Title exit stairway. Exit
discharge is the path from the exit to the public way. A public way is a space that is permanently deeded and
dedicated to public use, most often a street or alley.
Maintenance of the means of egress is critical to occupant safety. History is loaded with incidents that have
resulted in mass fire casualties due to the inability of occupants to escape as a result of locked, blocked,
removed, obscured, or damaged exit doors. To prevent these tragedies from recurring, the model codes
contain requirements for door hardware, locks, latches, the number of exits, travel distance to exits, direction
of door swing and door inspection (Jones, 2015).
Exit doors must be side-hinged and swing in the direction of exit when serving an area with an occupant load
of 50 or more (International Code Council, 2011). Generally, buildings must have at least two separate exit
doors that are remote from each other. Locks on exit doors that prevent free escape from the inside of the
building are prohibited.
Under certain conditions, it is appropriate to lock an exit door to delay a person’s ability to exit a facility or an
area within a facility (Jones, 2015). Delayed egress locking systems are door-locking systems that prevent a
door from opening immediately when egress is attempted in a non-emergency situation. Depending on the
design, the delayed egress may be triggered by door movement pressure on the door or pressure on a
separate triggering device. In some cases, the triggering device is a switch built into a mechanical exit device
or a push-bar designed for use with electromagnetic locks. Model codes vary with respect to requirements for
delayed egress locking arrangements. However, they all have a similar set core of rules, which are listed
below.
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The delayed egress lock must be approved or listed and shall be permitted for installation on doors
serving occupancy levels as specified per prevailing code.
The doors must unlock upon activation of an automatic sprinkler system or automatic fire detection
system.
The door(s) must unlock (allow immediate egress) upon loss of power controlling the delayed egress
locking device.
The delayed egress locks shall be unlocked by a signal from the fire command center.
Applying not more than 15 pounds of pressure for a maximum of one second (one second nuisance
delay) will start an irreversible process to unlock the door in 15 seconds.
A local (at the door) alarm must sound at the opening upon initiation of the release process.
A sign must be applied to the door stating, “PUSH UNTIL ALARM SOUNDS. DOOR CAN BE
OPENED IN 15 SECONDS.” Letters must be one-inch high by 1.8-inch stroke. Emergency lighting is
required as prescribed per code.
A building occupant shall not be required to pass through more than one delayed egress equipped
door in order to escape the building (O’Leary, 2013).
In addition to controlling who exits a building, there are also situations in which it is critical to control who
enters a building or tenant space. In an effort to manage this process, many building owners have installed
security devices on the entrance doors to their buildings. As with delayed egress locks, model codes have
developed requirements for access-controlled egress doors. The code requirements for access-controlled
egress doors are very similar to those for delayed egress locks (Jones, 2015).
Fire department access to secured buildings can be challenging in emergency and non-emergency situations.
To address this problem, emergency building entrance systems have been developed. Key boxes (also called
access boxes or lock boxes) are small lockable key vaults mounted on buildings. The fire department service
retains the master key to unlock the boxes, which contain keys or key cards to the building doors, elevators,
and other equipment.
In addition to property owners, tenants, and managers wanting to restrict who enters a building, it is also now
common to restrict access to entire facilities or communities through the installation of security gates or
barriers. Fire departments must be involved in the planning process of any site access security system to
assure the ability to access the site in an emergency. Further, facilities or communities that have site access
security systems should be identified during the pre-fire planning process.
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References
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
Abeyasekere, K. (2015). ORE kicks off with response to smoke-filled building [Photograph]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ORE_kicks_off_with_response_to_smokefilled_building_121203-F-EJ686-024.jpg
International Code Council. (2011). 2012 international building code. Country Club Hills, IL: Author.
Jones, A. M., Jr. (2015). Fire protection systems (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
O’Leary, T. (2013). Delayed egress: What, where, why and how? Retrieved from
http://www.locksmithledger.com/article/10951359/delayed-egress-what-where-why-and-how
Suggested Reading
To access the following resource, click the link below.
For more information on the application of smoke control systems, read the article below.
Chacon, J., & Kerber, S. (2012). Smoke management in high-rise structures. Fire Engineering, 165(2), 69–74.
Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc
t=true&db=a9h&AN=71822899&site=ehost-live&scope=site
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