Fire and smoke curtains offer an innovative fire safety solution allowing public entertainment and retail premises to meet stringent fire safety requirements while helping designers of such facilities to retain large open plan spaces says Coopers Fire Ltd.
Places of public entertainment such as theatres, concert halls and shopping malls often showcase the skills of architects in designing landmark buildings, and feature large open plan designs incorporating multi-storey atria, with multiple escalators and complex architectural features.
Nevertheless such buildings must meet stringent fire safety requirements which aim to protect the lives of occupants by ensuring a safe means of escape and slow the spread of fire and smoke.
Fire and smoke curtains can help designers of such facilities to create large open plan premises, without compromising safety. Used in place of traditional compartmentation like walls and doors, smoke and fire curtains offer greater flexibility, enabling open plan areas to be greater in size since they remain invisibly retracted until activated by an alarm or detector signal, at which time they descend safely to their operational position to stop and control the spread of fire and smoke in a building.
What are fire and smoke curtains?
Fire and smoke curtains give designers a modern alternative to non-load bearing fire walls, fire doors, and fire rated glazing, offering them a means to help create modern, open plan environments which are compliant with fire legislation.
Active fire and smoke curtain barrier assemblies comprise of technologically advanced fire-resistant fabric barriers encased in a compact steel housing. Fire curtains are intelligent fire safety systems that can interact with a building’s alarm panel or building management system (BMS) in a number of different configurations, depending on the building fire strategy requirements.
Remaining retracted until activated by an alarm or detector signal, they can be used to divide buildings such as entertainment complexes or large open spaced retail units into compartments; to close openings in compartment walls or ceilings; or to close open compartment shafts such as escalators or stairwells. They can also provide protection to atria and lift lobbies and offer boundary protection to prevent vertical fire and smoke spread or building proximity issues.
Fire curtains offer three levels of critical performance; integrity (fire), smoke (leakage) and radiance (heat) and can replicate a fire door, shutter or non-load bearing wall. Meanwhile, smoke barriers form a critical element of smoke and heat exhaust ventilation systems (SHEVS). Such systems create a smoke free layer above the floor by removing smoke and heat and improve the conditions for safe escape. This assists the evacuation of people from buildings, reducing fire damage and financial loss by preventing smoke logging, facilitating fire-fighting, reducing roof temperatures and retarding the lateral spread of fire.
When smoke barriers deploy from the ceiling they are intended to control the movement of the hot buoyant smoke within buildings in the event of fire. Smoke barriers in their fire operational position provide essential smoke containment and channelling of the smoke for extraction from the building.
While fire curtains will descend to floor level in operational position, smoke barriers operate within the ceiling space, where they will contain hot smoke. Deployment of fire curtains can be linked to building management systems and set with a split drop time delay or double knock to initially act as smoke control in the ceiling space, enabling occupants to escape before closing fully.
Shopping complexes
Coopers Fire has installed smoke and fire curtains in a number of shopping complexes around the world, including Westfield in London, The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
At Bluewater, one of Europe’s largest shopping malls, Coopers Fire assisted Bluewater’s appointed fire consultant to develop a smoke containment strategy designed to protect the shopping mall’s means of escape from smoke migration and allowing for the safe evacuation of the complex in the event of a fire.
Coopers Fire manufactured, installed, and commissioned some 300 SmokeStop smoke barriers, which were designed to fit the shopping mall’s vaulted ceiling, curved features and critical evacuation points. All 300 barriers remain hidden within the ceiling until activated by a fire alarm, meaning that the aesthetics of the building are not compromised.
As part of a service agreement, Coopers Fire also conducts periodic testing, service and inspection of the systems, helping to guarantee the facility’s continued compliance with fire regulations and has embarked on a phased upgrade of Bluewater’s smoke curtain barriers’ control systems, necessary for ensuring that the barriers remain up to date with the latest technological advances.
Retail stores
The use of Coopers fire curtains to provide a fire break around escalators is illustrated by its fire curtain solution for the new Topshop and Topman store in Oxford.
The ground floor and basement of the store are connected by a two-way escalator for the shoppers and staff to use. Since a fire break is required between these floors, it was necessary to install a fire curtain.
To retain an open plan feeling to the basement and allow more usable space at the bottom of the escalator for clothes rails and displays, Coopers Fire installed the FireMaster Concertina fire curtain. This was an ideal solution since no corner posts are required.
An L shaped, open FireMaster Concertina, measuring 5.76m by 3.75m with a drop of 3.94m, was installed at the bottom of the escalator. Once deployed, the FireMaster Concertina creates a ‘virtual wall’ around the escalator providing 240 minutes of integrity in accordance with BS EN 1634-1: 2008.
At the Adidas Superstore, Paris, the world’s largest Sports Performance Store, Coopers Fire smoke curtains protect the store’s multi-storey retail configuration from smoke.
The flagship store in Paris has been designed to provide clients with a high-tech shopping experience across multiple floors that are connected by a central network of escalators. The architects stipulated that a series of smoke curtain barriers should be installed to protect the upper floors of the 1.75m2 store from filling with smoke in the event of a fire.
Coopers Fire designed and manufactured a bespoke curtain barrier system which resulted in the installation of a series of Smoke Stop vertical smoke curtains above each escalator. These are specifically designed to protect the means of escape for customers, whilst at the same time reducing the transmission of smoke and life threatening gases generated by fire.
Public entertainment complexes
Coopers Fire also developed a smoke curtain system to protect the open plan atrium at the SSE Hydro entertainment venue in Scotland. Designed by leading architects Fosters + Partner, SSE Hydro features unique exterior walls formed from a sequence of translucent cushions and a large central open plan atrium, purposely designed to complement the venue’s unique exterior looks.
Coopers Fire developed a smoke curtain system which forms an integral component of the SSE Hydro’s life safety system, by providing a nonintrusive method of controlling smoke migrating from the lower floors of the atrium. Coopers Fire also provided a fire curtain barrier system to protect the un-insulated glazing installed above the atrium’s reception area.
Coopers manufactured, installed and commissioned two SmokeStop smoke curtains above the atrium’s glass elevators to control smoke generated in the event of fire and effectively channel it away from occupants during evacuation.
Two FireMaster Plus² fire curtain barriers were also installed. These deploy vertically to protect the atriums angled glazing on the first floor, providing an insulating zone approved to protect a means of escape for up to 2 hours.
Coopers Fire was appointed directly by Sydney Opera House to provide smoke curtains to protect it. Upgrades to the playhouse, drama and studio theatres were undertaken in order to improve the fire and life safety within the building. As an extremely complex structure, there were many challenges that needed to be addressed in order to effectively manage the migration of smoke in the event of fire.
Working in conjunction with the building’s state of the art mechanical air handling systems to provide a fully integrated smoke control strategy, SmokeStop smoke curtains were developed to deploy from the ceiling to compartmentalise the backstage area of the theatres and protect the auditoriums from filling with smoke.
Once fully installed and commissioned, Sydney Opera House’s management team approached Coopers to provide its staff with comprehensive training on how the smoke curtains operated, before initiating a planned programme of weekly fire and smoke testing that would include the full deployment of the curtain barriers. Coopers were also appointed to undertake a programme of planned preventative maintenance of the smoke systems.
Assured performance
Fire and smoke curtains offer a modern alternative to firewalls, fire doors, and shutters, giving designers the freedom to design modern, open plan spaces without compromising fire safety. However, when specifying a fire or smoke barrier system, it is essential to consider the whole package, from quality, performance, installation and maintenance, to after sales care.
Specifying Coopers Fire smoke and fire barrier systems is the best way to ensure that every fire or smoke curtain will operate exactly as expected in the event of a fire.
Coopers Fire recently became the first manufacturer to achieve full compliance to the new British Standard BS 8524: 2013 Parts 1 & 2 for active fire curtain barrier assemblies. BS 8524 requires that planned inspection, testing and maintenance should be carried out by a ‘competent person’ and in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
Coopers Fire offers third party certificated products that have been tested to the most rigorous standards, as well as third party accredited installation and specialist after care packages, tailored to your specific requirements.
For more information, go to www.coopersfire.com
About the Author
Mike Ward is Sales Director for Coopers Fire.
