Where there’s smoke there’s fire the old adage goes, but smoke is a potential killer and spoiler of goods and property, moving rapidly to

find gaps in walls, ceilings and compromised or poorly built passive fire protection systems encouraging flames when they should be contained.

Keith Newman uncovers the worsening crisis in passive fire protection and what’s being done about it.

Lawyers and investigators are ramping up efforts to identify culprits ahead of litigation as widespread breaches of fire safety regulations  and passive fire protection (PFP) are being exposed during leaky building investigations.

The leaky building crisis along with health and safety and other code and regulation reforms are forcing people to be more conscious of risk, creating a trail of accountability that places faulty workmanship under a legal microscope.

PFP is now is becoming something of a blame game, with property owners, builders, tradies, installers, councils and those responsible for signing off compliance and potentially building warrants of fitness in the firing line.

The irony is that passive fire protection is a largely unregulated area, with the various parties involved often unaware of the requirements for such systems and how interdependent they are.

Read more here… pfpa-in-active-crises-article

Published in Fire NZ March Edition 2016