There was one good thing that came out of history’s most destructive conflagration. The famous Rome fire in 64 AD that destroyed two-thirds of the vast and ancient city sparked the invention of passive fire protection. After Emperor Nero supposedly orchestrated this disaster from a remote coastal location, his plan was to rebuild the city with his own vision. Wanting to prevent such a fate from befalling his new architectural feats, his buildings featured non-combustible materials and space separation to slow the spread of fire. This was the first recorded attempt at passive fire protection methods.

However, it would be many more centuries before effective techniques would become part of modern building codes and regulations. Here’s a brief history of the events that lead to the invention of the modern fire protection methods we know and use today.

Dated Techniques

It was Emperor Nero who was the first to introduce ‘bucket brigades’ after the great fire of Rome. These rudimentary fire fighting teams known as ‘Vilgiles’ often consisted of slaves who would douse fires, somewhat ineffectively, with buckets of water. More innovative fire fighting techniques can be traced to Egypt in the second century when a man named Ctesibus built a basic hand pump that could squirt a jet of water. Ctesbius’s idea of the fire pump was lost until it was reinvented about AD 1500.1

While active fire fighting methods are well documented, proper preventative and passive fire protection measures wouldn’t be heavily utilised for at least another half-century.

During the first half of the millennium, fires continued to devastate major cities across the European continent with active methods doing little to contain or stop the extensive destruction. It wasn’t until the middle of the 17th century when one of history’s most famous disasters resulted in serious fire protection reformation.

On the night of September 1st, 1666, a baker named Thomas Farrinor didn’t extinguish his oven before going to bed. This is how the Great Fire of London was ignited. The houses of London at this time were still medieval in architecture. Their construction was predominantly oak timber with some poorer houses featuring tar-coated walls to keep out the rain. Houses were also lit with oil lanterns and heated with coal or wood fires while streets were very narrow with houses crowded together. 13,200 houses and 87 churches were lost.

The Act for the Rebuilding of the City of London was passed in February 1667. It proposed that all new buildings had to be constructed of brick or stone against the future perils of fire. This was one of the earliest recorded specifications of using less combustible materials as a passive fire method. It also imposed a maximum number of storeys per house for a fixed number of abodes to eliminate overcrowding. The medieval ancient system of Guilds was reformed and there would be a clarion call to ‘all carpenters, bricklayers, masons, plasterers & joiners’ to help with reconstruction.2

Some massive fires in multi-storey tenements like Edinburgh’s Great Fire of 1824, watched by Walter Scott, propelled action in Scotland ever further towards fire safety conscious urban planning, directed by the Deans of Guild.3

In 1774, the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act was created. This set guidelines around the required thickness of external and party walls for various categories of buildings and set a maximum size of warehouses.

20th Century Innovation

In 1904, a US man named Charles Dahlstrom invented the world’s first fireproof door. It was the beginning of a new century of major fire safety reforms that would produce some of the passive fire protection methods we use today. Designers and architects began incorporating compartmentation into their plans to limit the spread of fire, smoke and heat in large commercial and industrial buildings. Advances in technology yielded more affordable steel products that were used as an alternative to timber and formed the framework for larger buildings such as skyscrapers.

In the 1970s, a substance called vermiculite was employed as an effective fireproof and soundproof form of insulation in homes. Its ability to withstand high temperatures saw it go on to become a cost-effective passive fire protection material that is still used today on the most expensive modern constructions.

Firestopping in buildings using sealants or wraps was invented in the late 1970s when the need arose from the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant disaster. At that time, urethane foam was used as a firestop.4

Although patented in the late 1940s, fire-retardant intumescent paint started to become widely available for use in the latter part of the 1980s. Even at the end of the 20th century, the regulation of passive fire protection methods was still largely up to the building owners and developers.

A Safer Today

The 21st century has seen a genuine advancement of passive fire products including innovative fire-retardant formulas, treatments, firestopping penetrations and fireproof materials to achieve legally required fire-ratings. We have also welcomed much-needed restrictions on using cheap and highly combustible building materials.

There are now serious legal ramifications for developers, builders and architects who do not follow the official guidelines as set by the regulatory bodies, including jail time. All new and existing buildings are now protected through a full suite of passive fire protection methods.

Ask PROFINISH Fire Protection for a multisystem fire protection solution to protect your assets.

1 https://www.merrimacknh.gov/about-fire-rescue/pages/the-history-of-firefighting

2 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/great-fire-of-london-begins

3 https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/towns/
collections/collections-great-fire-1666/1666-act-to-rebuild-the-city-of-london/

4 https://insulation.org/io/articles/evolution-of-firestopping/