Fire Compartmentation Laws for Buildings in London

The London Building Acts (Amendment) Act, 1939 Part III, Section 20 requires that large buildings are sub-divided into fire-containing zones to both protect occupants and property and slow the progress of fire throughout the building. BLE smoke and fire curtains are ideally suited to achieve such protection whilst facilitating the incorporation of open doorways and spectacular open atria that would otherwise have to be closed off using walls and fire doors.

Section 20 applies where:

• a building is to be erected with a storey or part of a storey at a greater height than (i) 30 metres; or (ii) 25 metres if the area of the building exceeds 930 square metres
• a building of the warehouse class, or a building or part of a building used for the purposes of trade or manufacture, exceeds 7,100 cubic metres in extent unless it is divided by division walls in such manner that no division of the building is of a cubical extent exceeding 7,100 cubic metres.