Fire Protection

The first object of fire protection is to ensure safety of life; the second is to preserve from damage, resulting from the occasional outbreak, the activities (or occupancies) housed in buildings. Occupancies are usually of greater value, both intrinsic and monetary, than the buildings themselves. Fire protection can be subdivided into three parte namely: (1) Fire prevention, which is or should be mainly the concern of the occupants of buildings. (2) Fire fighting which is the business of firemen, but which includes attack on incipient outbreaks with band or automatic equipment. (3) Structural fire protection which is the responsibility of architects and local authorities. This last is the subject which I shall principally discuss. When an aircraft crashed into. the Empire State Building, hurling some 1,500 gallons of flaming petrol into it, the New York Fire Brigade were able to fight the fire at a height of 700 feet above the street, getting it under control in 19 minutes and out in 40, while the occupants of the 10 storeys above the firs walked down through the protected staircases to safe storeys below. That achievement was made possible only by the proper application to the original design of structural fire protection principles