Matthew Stuart, P.E., S.E., P. Eng.

Course Outline

This course will discuss the following topics:

• The reason for firewalls in buildings.
• Fire resistance ratings.
• Construction restrictions.
• Differences between firewalls, barriers, and partitions.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end.

Learning Objective

The objective of this course is to:

• Provide a basic understanding of the distinctions between a firewall, fire barrier and fire partition.
• Delineate the differences in both the design and ratings of the four major types of firewalls.
• Provide recommendations concerning the construction requirements of firewalls.
• Describe restrictions on openings and penetrations in firewalls.
  

Benefit to the Audience

This course will enable a design professional to understand the basic types of firewalls used in buildings, and enable the participants to become familiar with the restrictions associated with openings and penetrations in firewalls.

Course Content

This course content is in the following PDF document:

Firewalls, Barriers & Partitions

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

In summary, there are four types of walls that help mitigate the spread of fires and protect building occupants. These walls include standard firewalls, firewalls, fire barriers and fire partitions. A standard firewall must provide a minimum fire resistance rating of 4-hours and cannot include openings. A firewall can include openings and must provide a minimum fire resistance rating of either 3 or 4-hours. Fire barriers and fire partitions typically provide a minimum of 2 to 3-hours and 1 to 2-hours of fire resistance rating, respectively.

In addition, openings in firewalls must also be constructed to satisfy the same minimum fire resistance rating as the wall in which they are located. Wall penetrations likewise must also provide a fire rating equal to or greater than the effected wall. Closing mechanisms for both protected wall openings and penetrations must be carefully scrutinized in order to ensure that the equipment intended to prevent the breach of the firewall at the opening or penetration functions properly.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this course, please visit the following websites or web pages:

NFPA Codes and Standards:

http://www.nfpa.org/

Underwriters Laboratories:

http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/

FM Global:

https://www.fmglobal.com/

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