Vertical fire curtains have been a part of fire and smoke safety plans for quite a while now. They can easily be placed at a stairwell, elevator shaft or expansive hallway to segment portions of a building in the event of a fire.
Much like vertical curtains, a horizontal fire protective curtain may eliminate the need for costly additional structural support, sprinklers, and complex smoke evacuation systems saving the building owner a great deal of money. The horizontal nature allows you to easily divide a large space such as a multi-level atrium. Keep in mind that the building code allows for two stories to be interconnected without smoke control. If the atrium design and space is appropriate then it is possible to divide a taller than two story atrium into a series of two story connections.
If you are looking for a solution to meet the building code requirements for smoke control for an atrium and haven’t explored the use of smoke curtains, you should. They have the potential to save a lot of cost and complexity.
