S 1.9 Fire sealing of cable routes

Initiation responsibility: Head of Site Technical Services; Fire Protection Officer

Implementation responsibility: Site Technical Services, Fire Protection Officer

In buildings with several fire cuts, it is inevitable that some cable routes will lead through fire walls and ceilings. Following installation of lines, breaches must be shielded in keeping with the fire-resistance value of the wall/ceiling. To facilitate retrofitting, appropriate material (e.g. fire-resistant padding) should be used. The relevant VdS guidelines should be complied with.

Often a variety of cables, e.g. telephone, LAN and site services, are conveyed in a single route. If any changes are to be made to the cabling, it should be established already at the planning phase whether any other cable systems are scheduled for replacement in the foreseeable future. Combining projects in this way minimises downtime and can save additional costs entailed by repeated fire sealing.

Example

In a multi-storey office building in Bonn, several networks were run through a common rising line from the basement to the uppermost storey. All the ceiling breaches had been on the generous side but had not been closed up once the wiring and pipe installation work was complete. In the basement, large quantities of paper and cloth were stored in the vicinity of the start of the line. The rising line beginning immediately above would, in case of fire, have had acted like a chimney. Smoke and fire would have spread to all floors in no time.

Additional controls:

• Has the person responsible for fire protection been consulted with regard to route planning?

• Have possible alternative routings been examined?

• Once fire sealing has been installed is it checked regularly?