Piergiacomo Cancelliere, PhD Italian Fire and Rescue Service piergiacomoncelliere@vigilfuoco.it

1. Decree of the Ministry of Interior 3rd August 2015The “so called” Italian Fire Prevention Code - IFC:S8 – Smoke Management: Heat and Smoke Control in case of Fire • Piergiacomo Cancelliere, PhD • Italian Fire and Rescue Service • piergiacomo.cancelliere@vigilfuoco.it

2. S.8: Smoke Management Introduction Performance Levels Generally accepted criteria for selecting the performance level Firesafety Design Solution: Deemed to satisfy solutions Alternative solutions

3. S.8 Introduction The heat and smoke control fire-safety measure identifies the equipment to be installed in the activity to enable control, evacuation or extraction, both natural and mechanical, of the combustion products in case of fire; The IFC implements the smoke management strategy by means of the following technical provisions: emergency smoke exhaust provisions to evacuate the combustion products during firefighting operations performed by fire rescue teams; smoke and heat venting extraction systems for the controlled removal of the combustion products mainly for the safety of the occupants during the egress operations and for firefighting operations performed by fire rescue teams.

4. S.8 Introduction Emergency smoke exhaust provisions: do not have the purpose of creating a smoke-free layer during a fire, They only facilitate the firefighting operations of fire rescue teams. Smoke and heat venting systems are capable to create and maintain an undisturbed layer of fresh air in the lower portion of the protected environment by the natural or mechanical extraction of heat and smoke due to a fire; help to keep escape routes free of smoke facilitate firefighting operations, delay or prevent flashover limiting damages to building contents reducing the thermal effects on the structures of protected compartments.

5. S.8 Performance Levels

6. S.8 Performance Level Criteria Selection

7. S.8 Deemed to satisfy solutions In case of “deemed-to-satisfy solutions”, the IFC provides prescriptive technical solutions for the performance requirement level II and III . In particular, for the performance requirement level II to design smoke exhaustion, venting openings in each fire compartment shall be provided according to:

8. S.8 Deemed to satisfy solutions • Level II SE must: • enable the extraction of smoke and heat from the floors and rooms of the compartment toward the outside of the activity (either directly or through appropriately sized ducts, ...); • be protected from accidental obstruction while the activity is operational during normal conditions; • management must procedures be included in any emergency plan in order to be able to open or maneuver SEs

9. S.8 Deemed to satisfy solutions SEs should be uniformly distributed in the upper portion of all rooms, to facilitate extraction of hot smoke from all areas of the compartment. The uniform distribution of SE vents could be verified imposing that each Fire Compartment floor area is completely covered by the vents' areas of influence (see Illustration above), by setting in a “radius of influence” roffset equals to 20 m, unless otherwise determined based on risk analysis outcomes.

10. S.8 Deemed to satisfy solutions • For the performance requirement level III, a smoke management system design able to guarantee acceptable life safety parameters in the fire compartment affected by a fire shall be designed. • To properly design the system, a “state of the art standard” must be chosen and respected by the designer. In Italy, the reference standard are the UNI 9494 series standards: • UNI 9494-1: Smoke and Heat control systems – Part 1: Design and installation for natural smoke and heat exhaust ventilation systems (NSHEVS); • UNI 9494-2: Smoke and Heat control systems – Part 2: Design and installation for powered smoke and heat ventilation systems (PSHEVS).

11. S.8 Alternative solutions • For all the aforementioned deemed-to-satisfy solutions proposed by the IFC, an alternative solution can be adopted. • IFC offers three ordinary fire safety design methods in order to demonstrate the achievement of the connected performance level requirements:

12. S.8 References

13. Thank you for your kind attention • Piergiacomo Cancelliere, PhD • piergiacomo.cancelliere@vigilfuoco.it