Smoke control - fire protection engineering:

Smoke control is a complex subject and requires a course of at least one whole week to begin to understand how it is used in buildings and how it can usefully be inspected and checked.  This short section will give an indication of why smoke control is needed in some buildings, what it does and how it works.

There are different forms of smoke control. There are:

• Car park ventilation

• Staircase ventilation

• Residential flat corridor ventilation

• Atrium ventilation

• Shopping mall ventilation

• Pressure differential systems

These are the most common forms of smoke control.

Car park ventilation is necessary where the car park does not have open sides, for example, where it is underground.  Car parks require continuous ventilation to remove exhaust fumes, mainly Carbon Monoxide (CO).  They also need additional ventilation in case a fire occurs in the car park.       

Ceilings are generally very low and horizontal movement of smoke can be expected to be rapid.  Travel distances can be quite long and fire fighter access can be very difficult.  Therefore, if the car park does not have open sides, smoke extraction can be very beneficial for means of escape and for fire fighter access.