The provisions relating to fire ensure the protection of the public, the teams and the installations. The main principles of prevention concern limiting the spread of the fire in the building and its surroundings, rapid evacuation and measures to facilitate the intervention of the emergency services. A brief overview of the fire regulations and a reminder of a few concepts...
Fire regulations depend on the type of building
In a company, the provisions relating to fire differ according to the type of building concerned.
- Establishment under the Labour Code. The fire prevention and protection provisions that employers must respect in the workplace are found in articles R. 4227-1 to R. 4227-41 and R. 4227-55 to R. 4227-57 ;
- ICPE. In addition to the regulations of the Labor Code, an establishment subject to ICPE legislation (installations classified for environmental protection) must comply with the Environmental Code (Book V, Title 1);
- ERP. Establishments receiving the public are subject to a double classification according to their activity and the number of people they can accommodate. The decree of June 25, 1980, as amended, lists the provisions relating to fire;
- IGH. For high-rise buildings, the modified decree of December 30, 2011, applies to the Labor Code in terms of fire;
- Residential buildings. Fire protection in residential buildings is governed by the modified decree of January 31, 1986.
Also read: Industrial fire training
Fire regulations on reaction and resistance to fire
Reaction and resistance to fire are two different concepts. They are described below.
The reaction to fire of a construction product in terms of fire safety
Reaction to fire is defined following approved tests. It is the way in which a material behaves as a combustible. L'decree of 21 November 2002 defines the reaction to fire by distinguishing 3 types of materials.
- The furnishing materials, classified by the French standard NF P92-507. The classification goes from M0 for incombustible materials to M4 for the most flammable materials;
- Construction products classified according to the Euroclass (European standard EN 13-501-1). The Euroclasses are a system of classification in categories of requirement which take into account two other essential criteria (after laboratory tests): the opacity of smoke (quantity and speed) and the droplets and ignited debris;
- The other products (conventional classification), which do not need to be tested to justify their reaction to fire, are defined in Annex 3 of the order.
Also read: Industrial fire, the risks of battery fires
Fire resistance of building elements in terms of fire safety
The fire resistance is the capacity of the construction element to preserve the stability of the building and to oppose the rapid propagation of fire, during a given time. The fire resistance allows to characterize how the construction element (door, wall, floor, ceiling...) keeps its physical and mechanical properties during a fire.
The French classification thus distinguishes 3 categories:
- SF (Fire Stable): the building element retains its load-bearing capacity for the specified time;
- PF (Flameproof): the element is fire stable and prevents the advance of flames for the indicated time;
- CF (Fireproof): the element is flameproof and prevents the propagation of combustion gases, smoke and heat on the healthy side for the specified time.