Passive fire protection protects the structure of a building by delaying the spread of a fire until extinguished by fire brigade. More importantly it prevents the spread of fire enabling people to get out of the building safely.
To protect the structure of steel framed building the steel is either painted or coated with fire rated products, or boarded using fire rated boards. Construction materials are often treated, or manufactured so as to prevent them adding to the fire and spreading the flame. In some cases the materials used must be low smoke and low toxicity, particularly in underground situations
A building will be divided into compartments so that any compartment will be protected from fire spreading from or to another, this is called compartmentation. To achieve this, a compartment will be completely sealed. All cables, ducts, areas above ceilings, and doors must be "fire stopped". All doors must be fire rated. Compartments are protected from half an hour to 4 hours depending on the risk.
The Fireseal Division had to under go a number of certification tests, which clearly demonstrate how successful the passive fire protection techniques the division uses are. More information including photographs can be found here.
