FOREWORD
It gives me immense pleasure in writing the foreword to this book
on firestopping. It is the first book of its kind on the subject in our
country.
India has been going through a phase of rapid urbanization and
construction technology has been developing at a faster rate than
ever before. Along the side, we have also witnessed fire incidents
across India, leading to loss of human lives. Fire safety in a building
has been understood in the industry by referring to building codes
& standards along with historical design practices. And many of
the times our understanding has been limited to either active fire
protection systems like detection systems & Sprinklers or passive
fire protection like fire doors, to state a few. In India, the National
Building Code was revised after more than a decade and it was
released in March 2017. This building code came out with a lot of
significant changes and improvements where a lot of emphases
are also given on passive fire protection. However, it has also been
observed that enforcement of these safety guidelines remains a
big concern. While codes & standards will continue to go through
continuous improvements, effective enforcement methods, like
specifications compliance and inspection methods encompassing
all components of passive fire safety, in our country should be of
utmost importance.
This book aims to bridge the gap in understanding on the subject
due to lack of comprehensive reference guide in our country and
will be useful guidebook for the practicing architects, consultants,
building owners, and enforcement agencies who have to either
Design, Specify, Approve, Install, Inspect or Maintain proper
firestop systems in a building as part of compartmentation. This
book introduces the basic concepts related to firestopping and
explains the design methods of through penetration firestop
systems and Joints Firestop Systems as per both National &
International building Codes. Moreover, several design methods
are also covered in detail along with the introduction of the concept
of Engineering Judgements.
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