There are numerous hazards that can occur in a building, but one of the most feared ones is the fire hazard. We all know how dangerous fires can be and how quickly they can swallow the entire building, along with the people inside it. So, engineers came up with an amazing idea and introduced us with the fire curtain.
For those of you who are not familiar with this term yet, a fire curtain is a specially constructed curtain that is supposed to descend from the ceiling to the floor during a fire hazard, to stop the fire and smoke that is going to spread between two areas. In large buildings, there are a few fire curtains that are supposed to divide the entire construction into a few fire compartments.
In this article, we are going to talk about the importance of having fire curtains and why every building should have at least a few already installed and ready to use in case of an emergency. Let’s begin.
The importance of fire curtains
During a fire, people don’t have a lot of time to make decisions. Their only option is to grab their loved ones and evacuate from the building as fast as they possibly can. There have been many cases where a person or even entire families get stuck inside a certain part of a building, and they cannot escape because of the fire. We never want this to happen to anyone, so we advise everyone to understand the importance of fire curtains because they can save many lives during such unfortunate events.
There are a few things that can happen after the fire alarm is being pushed in a building. First, the closest fire department will get alerted and will start moving towards the location with all of their forces, and second, the fire curtains will start closing, if there are some installed in the building that is. Next, you should be evacuated from the building as fast as you possibly can, and if you are not able to do that because the fire is in your way, you need to get behind the fire curtains and wait for them to close. In most cases, they will completely isolate you from the fire and the smoke, so you will be safe until the fire department finishes extinguishing the fire. In other cases, if the fire is not that large, you might want to consider attempting to put it off yourself, but if you realize that the threat is way too high, you should give up and run to safety. Most buildings that are well prepared for a fire hazard will already have fire curtains, but they will also have fire extinguishers. So, if the fire is a smaller one, try using the extinguisher yourself in an attempt to put the fire off, you can do this to prevent further damage that can be done to the building or your property. But, we will mention it again, if you see that the fire is just too large to be handled by you, get to safety and wait for the professional help to arrive.
