FIRE SAFETY
In normal use, the fire damper is held open by a fusible link.
When the temperature across the fusible link reaches 72 °C, the blade is released and a mechanical spring closes the damper blade.
Above: Figure 2. Without a fire damper in place, fire and smoke are able to spread rapidly through the ducts into other fire compartments.
Above right: Figure 3. Operation of a fire damper.
requirements for fire dampers. This provides the mechanism for conformity marking against the Construction Product Regulation (CPR) 305/2011, and sets out the requirements for factory production control, documentation, and labelling, as expected from an AVCP 1 system product.
n BS EN 1366-2: Fire resistance tests for service installations – Part 2: Fire dampers, defining the standards that fire dampers must be tested to, including essential characteristics like (integrity (E), insulation (I), and leakage (S) of the fire damper, when installed in, on, or remote from, a supporting construction.
n BS EN 15882-2: Extended application of results from fire resistance tests for service installations – Part 2: Fire dampers, governing effective installation and guidance where buildings are adapted.
The ICB furnace at Trox’s International Centre for Fire Protection Technology in Neukirchen-Vluyn in Germany is ‘large enough to test even the largest tunnel dampers used for extracting smoke from tunnels, or from an underground metro or railway station’.
n BS EN 13501-3: Fire classification of construction products and building elements – Part 3: Classification using data from fire resistance tests on products and elements used in building service installations: fire resisting ducts and fire dampers. This is used by the Notified Body to collate all test data, and provide the final classification against the essential characteristics, for each installation type, within the criteria defined.
Building Safety Act compliance Importantly, requirements placed upon individuals with responsibility for buildings incorporating fire dampers have been redefined in recent years. Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review following the fire at Grenfell Tower (Building a Safer Future, published in May 2018) contributed findings which have been incorporated into the new Building Safety Act, which became law in April 2022. A significant amount of secondary legislation has
been introduced since that time, and guidelines specific to fire dampers were published in the National Association of Air Duct Specialists guidance document (NAAD22). This document (covering design, selection, installation, and maintenance of fire dampers) is available for free download at
https://www.naaduk.co.uk/naad22- guidance-document-app/. The reforms to existing legislation have changed
the way in which custodians of buildings must think, both during design and after construction of buildings. There are important updates for buildings of all types, with specific additional responsibilities for Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs). This category encompasses buildings more than 18 metres in height, or with at least seven storeys. Hospitals, care homes, and buildings containing at least two residential units also fit within this category. HRBs were required to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator by 30 September 2023. Since 1 October 2023 all new-builds categorised as Higher- Risk Buildings must to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator prior to occupation. The testing regimes for fire dampers are dictated by the categorisation of the building involved, with additional responsibilities for those designated as Higher-Risk.
Dutyholders’ increased responsibilities Firstly, under the Building Safety Act 2022, responsibilities have increased for all Dutyholders – for example individuals and organisations that commission, design, construct, or refurbish buildings. Those involved must now go beyond the requirements of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM), ensuring that projects are not only safe to build, use, and maintain, but also that they are safe to occupy. Secondly, the Act introduced the role of Accountable
Person, referring to individuals/organisations that own, or have responsibility for, buildings during occupation, as well as those responsible for the repair or maintenance of common parts of a building – for example corridors and lobbies. Therefore, responsibility falls on Dutyholders to select ‘adequate and proper materials’ that are ‘appropriate for the circumstances in which they are used’, and to integrate these within the building design to facilitate them to be ‘applied, used, or fixed, so as to adequately perform the functions for which they are designed’. This must be achieved while ensuring that routine inspection and maintenance throughout the lifetime of the building can be achieved. In addition to reviewing damper types, NAAD22
provides guidance on minimum regulatory requirements for routine maintenance, testing, and inspection, of installed dampers. It also covers installation, testing, and commissioning, of dampers during initial installation, as well as considerations for the correct design for, and
74 Health Estate Journal October 2025
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