What is a fire compartment?
A fire should stay where it starts. The fire compartment is the tool for that, and OIB guideline 2 says how large it may be and what must bound it. Piloti checks the compartmentation as a table, with a citation and a result per row.
In short
A fire compartment (Brandabschnitt) is an area of a building separated from other areas by compartment-forming walls and floors so that a fire does not spread for a set time; OIB guideline 2 governs its permitted size and requirements depending on building class and use. Piloti checks the requirements once the building class stands, with a citation and a result per row.
What a fire compartment does
A fire compartment limits how much of a building a fire can reach. It is formed by walls and floors of a set fire resistance, and every opening in them, every door, shaft and service penetration, must keep that fire resistance.
The requirements are in OIB guideline 2, “Fire safety”, with separate parts for industrial buildings and garages. The state decides which edition applies; per the OIB overview, it is not the same everywhere.
How Piloti helps
The “Brandschutz” way of working covers fire compartments, escape routes and fire resistance once the building class stands. It separates what the guideline demands from whether this building meets it, and shows the check as a table with a citation and a result per row, for example “2 met · 1 open”. Piloti sets two compartment layouts side by side.
What size and design depend on
- On the building class: the fire resistance required of the separating elements rises with it.
- On the use: housing, office, industry and garages have different rules.
- On the area and, for some uses, on the extent of the compartment.
- On the facade: a fire must not leap across the outer wall into the next compartment, so the guideline sets distances and projections.
- The limits are in the guideline’s tables. We do not state them here, because they differ by edition, building class and use.
What it is not
A fire wall is a building element; the fire compartment is the area behind it. Under certain conditions the guideline also requires fire walls at the plot boundary, which is a separate question. An escape route, in turn, governs how people get out of the building, not how far the fire gets. The three terms interlock but are demonstrated separately.
Good to know
Larger or special projects call for a fire safety concept and a fire safety engineer; Piloti supplies the requirements with their citations. It takes areas from your documents instead of measuring them in the drawing.
Questions
What is a fire compartment?
An area of a building separated from other areas by walls and floors of a set fire resistance. That keeps a fire confined to the area for a set time. The requirements are in OIB guideline 2.
How large may a fire compartment be?
OIB guideline 2 sets that depending on use and building class, with separate parts for industrial buildings and garages. The edition your state has declared binding is what counts. Larger compartments are usually possible only with additional measures or a fire safety concept.
What is the difference between a fire compartment and a fire wall?
The fire wall is a building element with high fire resistance; the fire compartment is the area such elements bound. Not every compartment-forming wall has to be a fire wall; which requirement applies is set in OIB guideline 2.
Who defines the fire compartments?
The design team, for larger or special projects with a fire safety engineer and a fire safety concept. In the procedure, the building authority checks whether the requirements of state law and the binding OIB guideline are met.