Fire Protection
Document B
National Building Regulations Approved Document B deals with aspects of fire safety for buildings. This is separated into 5 main sections B1 – B5 and covers the following aspects in the event of fire.
1. The means of warning and escape for personnel.
2. The spread of fire over internal linings.
3. Building stability – this covers fire separation within and between buildings and inhibiting spread of smoke and fire in unseen areas.
4. Spread of fire externally.
5. Access and provisions for fire fighters.
British Standards
The British Standards most relevant to aspects of fire protection incorporating the use of plasterboard and associated products are as follows:
| BS476: Part4: 1970 (1984) | Non-combustibility test for materials. |
| BS476: Part 6, 1989 | Method of test for fire propagation for products. |
| BS476: Part 7: 1997 | Method of classification of the surface spread of flames of products. |
| BS476: Part 20: 1987 | Test methods and criteria for the fire resistance of elements of building construction (General principles). |
| BS476: Part 21: 1987 | Methods for determination of the fire resistance of load bearing elements of construction. |
| BS476: Part 22: 1987 | Methods for determination of the fire resistance of non-load bearing elements of construction. |
| BS476: Part: 1987 | Methods for determination of the contribution of components to the fire resistance of a structure. |
| BS1230: Part 1: 1985 (1994) | Specification for plasterboard excluding materials submitted to secondary operations. |
| BS5268: Part 4: Section 4.1: 1978 | Recommendations for calculating fire resistance of timber members. |
| BS5588: Part 5: 1991 | Code of practice for firefighting stairs and lifts. |
| BS8000: Part 8: 1994 | Code of practice for plasterboard partitions and dry linings. |
| BS8212: Part 1: 1995 | Code of practice for dry lining and partitioning using gypsum plasterboard. |
| Other references | HTM56 |
Note: there are regional differences in regulations for Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
