Analysis of Areas of the Development of Requirements for Fire-Resistant Structures of Buildings and Facilities

The analysis of areas of the development of requirements for fire-resistant structures of buildings and facilities in order to prevent progressive collapse of buildings during fires and restrict the fire spread between fire compartments has been provided. The necessity of the development of requirements for fire-resistant structures functioning as load-bearing elements to prevent objects’ progressive collapse caused by a fire impacting structures after a local collapse until the moment of the complete evacuation and rescue operations is demonstrated. These additional requirements must completely exclude progressive collapse for objects whose destruction is considered specifically hazardous for adjacent buildings and facilities. The existing procedure of identification of structures functioning as load-bearing elements that enables to register, during the development of a list of load-bearing elements of buildings, structures are not load-bearing under normal operation but involved as load-bearing elements of buildings and facilities upon a local collapse must be specified. A conclusion regarding the objective possibility of introducing requirements stipulating that in buildings with one staircase, its walls must be protected against destruction in case adjacent structures are damaged, which is a mandatory condition to ensure safe evacuation and rescue operations, has been made. For the optimization of design solutions, areas of the development of requirements for fire-resistant structures have been elaborated on to ensure a transition from the need to design a Type 1 firewall along the entire length of a building to possible restriction of its size equal to the size of a standard firebreak and later to the size of a required firebreak.