240
The Fire Section
241
BASIC DESIGN
It is the intent of the Prototype Design to provide a system for the design
and construction of buildings in complete compliance with current fire
safety codes and regulations. The role of the fire section as a planning
module is to ensure that the requirements for fire safety are fully met in a
manner that is compatible with the other objectives of the Prototype
Design, in particular, functional and mechanical adaptability.
The fire section is a unit of area bounded by two-hour fire partitions,
service bay walls and exterior walls, from which it is possible to exit in at
least two different directions. The main purposes of the fire section are to
contain a fire long enough to enable fire fighting personnel to deal with it,
to prevent the migration of smoke and fumes to adjacent occupied areas
and to allow the exit of occupants in a safe and expedient manner. Thus,
any floor in a hospital can be conceived as an assembly of fire sections.
The size, and therefore the number, of fire sections is determined by
current codes and regulations, and the overall fire-safety strategy for the
building.
In the Prototype Design, the two-hour fire partitions are regarded as
permanent components as they must span from structural slab to
structural slab, and consequently interrupt the continuity of both the
functional and service zones. To the greatest practical extent, the
boundaries of the fire section should coincide with the boundaries of the of
the service module. A fire section may consist of one or two service
modules depending on the size of the service module. (See Figure 240-1.)
The correlation of the service module with the fire section minimizes the
disruptive effect of the two-hour partition on the organization of the service
zone since the service module is conceived as a mechanically
independent unit.
Typically, all other partitions including smoke stop and corridor partitions
stop at the one-hour fire-resistive ceiling-platform. They do not interfere
with the service zone and thus can be easily relocated during alterations.
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