FIREFLY® Zeus Horizontal Barriers Protect East Midlands Office’s Stair Cores

High performance but lightweight fire barriers from the range of FIREFLY® have been specified by one of the manufacturer’s Preferred Installers, to upgrade the fire protection within the stair cores to a large office property in the East Midlands continuing a burgeoning business relationship between the two specialists.   The work on the two-storey commercial property, which dates from the 1990s, has been carried out by Coventry based KRASI Fire Protection using the FIREFLY® Zeus Horizontal 60:30 barrier, with FIREFLY’s Technical Manager for the region attending site to offer design guidance, as well as during the contract period.  The improvements were confined to the first-floor ceiling voids above each of the building’s four staircases, but will help ensure escape routes are maintained in the event of any future emergency. 

The Contract Manager for KRASI Fire Protection Limited, Daniel Oldacre, commented: “We have come to rely on the performance and technical expertise of FIREFLY® over the past couple of years since we switched away from using rigid mineral wool systems, while we also get very good on-site support. In this instance the FIREFLY® Technical Manager, Dave Allen, carried out a survey of the area involved prior to producing a report for the client; assisting us in being awarded the contract.  He also attended site during the installation to confirm everything was in accordance with the requirements, and inspected it on completion for sign off. Basically, the installation was carried out by securing the standard Unistrut channels to the face of the blockwork walls at ceiling level – and also installing hangers into the joists at intervals – so supporting the Zeus Horizontal, while the manufacturer’s high temperature adhesive and fixings were also used to secure all of the overlaps.  FIREFLY® is easy to cut and fix in place and saves us a lot of time compared to traditional systems.  Recently we have had all 10 of our operatives trained up on FIREFLY’s Horizontal systems as part of the annual update on installation of the systems.”   

FIREFLY® Zeus Horizontal is a lightweight flexible fire barrier designed to provide fire compartmentation of larger concealed spaces and voids within buildings, offering 60 minutes integrity and 30 minutes insulation.  It has been specifically developed and tested for horizontal installation, including fitting around service penetrations.      

Manufactured from woven and non-woven glass, the FIREFLY® range is designed to optimise resistance to flame and smoke as well as offer heat protection in a wide range of scenarios.  The barriers are easy to install horizontally or vertically using a full selection of FIREFLY® ancillary products to ensure a fully tested and certified installed system.