Can a Simple Stencil and a Can of Spray Paint
Crevent a Fire from Spreading?

I was in one of the newer malls in Western Pa when I saw an ingenious method of making sure contractors know they are penetrating a fire wall. The walls were spray painted with a stencil with the message (Fire and Smoke Barrier protect all openings) every 16 feet above the ceiling line. The message was displayed so that contractor’s know they are in fact penetrating through a fire wall.

This is a very big problem where fire walls get penetrated and then not resealed and when a fire does break out instead of being contained it takes off through a structure.

Recently there was a fire in a small strip shopping center along Pa.19 in Cranberry Pa.where a fire broke out in a Play It Again Sports and the majority of the fire stayed within the Play It Again Sports. The other merchants only had smoke and water damage because a fire wall was properly designed and kept sealed. This is because Cranberry Pa. has a strong code enforcement presence in the community.

But for this one success story there are 3 fire walls that fail because of improper penetrations through them by contractors who either deliberately chooses to ignore fire wall rules or have not educated themselves about what a fire wall is and why penetrations must be properly sealed.

Electricians often violate fire wall regulations when they double back electrical boxes in a fire wall which is prohibited unless special expanding boxes or procedures are followed to insure against the spread of fire. A typical fire wall involves the use of 2 layers of 5/8 “ drywall and all openings through the wall require the use of an intraluminescent caulking usually red in color which is put around pipes etc penetrating the wall. When the caulking comes in contact with heat, it swells up and protects the opening.

Sometimes though it is not always the contractors fault and it can be hard to determine if a wall is really a fire wall. However, many areas of a structure can be automatically assumed a wall is a fire wall such as around stairwells etc. It takes education and vigilance for an effective fire wall to operate properly and by using this simple measure of marking fire walls many such failure incidents could be avoided all together.

Article written by:
Nick Markowitz Jr
Fire Inspector

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