Fire protection in a building, offshore facility or a ship, is a system with equally important components, including:
- Active fire protection, which is detection and suppression by automatic or manual means,
- Passive fire protection, which is compartmentalization of the fire through the use of walls and floors, and their components, that are proven to bear a prescribed fire-resistance rating on the basis of fire testing and product certification, organized into fire compartments, which may consist of one or more rooms or floors, allowing emergency evacuations and protection of critical building components, such as an area of refuge, and
- Fire protection education, to ensure that occupants and operators of the facility, ship or structure know how to operate and/or maintain applicable systems, how to evacuate or where to seek refuge and how to be sure that they do not inadvertently disable any of the active or passive fire protection systems.
