5 Ways To Help Prevent A Fire Spreading

When a fire breaks out in a building, every second counts. While most people understand the importance of preventing a fire from starting, fewer give enough attention to stopping fire spreading once it begins. In commercial buildings especially, the speed at which a fire spreads can be catastrophic if proper measures aren’t in place.

In this blog, we highlight five effective ways to help prevent a fire spreading, helping you to control the spread should a fire occur and reduce the risk of widespread damage. We’ll also explore the different ways a fire can spread, as well as just how quickly a fire can unfold.

How long does it take for a fire to spread?

Fires can escalate with alarming speed. Within just 30 seconds, a small flame can turn into a major fire. In under 2 minutes, it can render a room uninhabitable, and in many commercial environments, it can take as little as 3-5 minutes for a fire to breach initial containment, especially if passive fire protection measures are damaged or missing.

The exact timeframes will vary depending on the building type, layout, materials present, and ventilation, but modern synthetic furnishings burn much faster and hotter than traditional materials. Open-plan offices, retail units, and industrial spaces often have fewer barriers to slow fire spread. That’s why early containment is essential, not just for safety, but for business continuity and legal compliance.

What are the different ways fire can spread?

Understanding how fire moves can help you identify any weak points in your fire strategy. Fires spread through a combination of:

Convection

This is the most common method. Hot gases rise and carry flames and smoke with them, often through open stairwells, lift shafts, roof voids, or ductwork. Convection is why fire spreads vertically so quickly in multi-storey buildings too.

Conduction

Heat can transfer through solid materials – such as steel beams, metal ductwork, or pipes – even if the fire itself doesn’t touch them. This can ignite materials on the other side of fire-resistant walls if not properly insulated.

Radiation

Intense heat from a fire can radiate through the air and ignite combustible materials nearby, even without physical contact. This can cause fires to jump through gaps or spread across different rooms.

Direct flame contact

If a fire isn’t contained, flames can physically spread to other materials, especially if they’re flammable or poorly maintained.

5 ways to help prevent a fire spreading

To help manage the above risks, a mix of fire-stopping techniques and passive fire protection systems should be in place and kept in good working order. Here are five practical ways you can help prevent or slow down fire spread in your building:

1. Install and maintain fire compartmentation

Compartmentation is one of the most effective methods to stop a fire from spreading. It involves dividing a building into fire-resistant walls, floors, and ceilings, each designed to contain fire for a specified amount of time (typically 30, 60, or 120 minutes).

As required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the ‘responsible person’ must take general fire precautions, which includes maintaining passive fire protection. If walls are damaged, ceilings breached, or service penetrations left unsealed, fire can spread rapidly, compromising escape routes and endangering lives.

Regular fire compartmentation surveys help identify gaps, breaches, or poor installation work, and should be the core part of any fire safety strategy, especially in healthcare, education, or residential settings.

2. Use certified fire stopping systems

Fire stopping is the process of sealing any penetrations or openings in fire-rated walls or floors to prevent fire and smoke from passing through. These are commonly found around pipework, cables, ducting, and structural supports.

Using certified fire stopping products – such as fire-rated sealants, collars, wraps, or pillows – is essential. They must be installed by qualified and competent fire stopping contractors, like our engineers here at Fire Industry Specialists (FIS), and in accordance with manufacturer guidelines and British Standards such as BS 476, BS EN 1366, and BS EN 13501-2 (fire resistance classification of construction elements).

Failure to address gaps can render your compartmentation efforts ineffective. Fire stopping installation should be tracked and recorded for future inspections and should always form part of any refurbishment, fit-out, or M&E project.

3. Fit and maintain compliant fire doors

Fire doors are critical to slowing the spread of fire and smoke, especially in corridors, stairwells, and escape routes. A well-installed FD30 fire door can resist fire for at least 30 minutes, buying valuable time for evacuations and emergency services.

However, many fire doors are rendered useless due to:

• Gaps that exceed allowable tolerances
• Missing intumescent seals
• Damaged frames
• Being propped open

Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, responsible persons must ensure regular fire door checks, particularly in high-rise and multi-occupied residential buildings. Commercial premises also require a planned fire door maintenance to stay compliant.

Our team at FIS offer professional fire door surveys, installation, and repair services to ensure your doors provide the protection they’re designed for.

4. Conduct comprehensive fire risk assessments

A legally compliant fire risk assessment should assess not only ignition sources and evacuation procedures, but also how a fire might spread. This includes reviewing fire-resisting construction, fire door effectiveness, escape route integrity, and fire stopping measures.

The assessment should be reviewed:

• Annually
• Whenever there is a significant change to a building or its use
• Following a fire or near miss

Risk assessments should be conducted by a competent fire safety professional, especially in complex buildings. Our third-party certified team helps ensure that your assessment is robust, actionable, and aligned with all legal requirements.

5. Manage combustible loads and escape routes

Fire can spread even more rapidly in buildings with poor housekeeping. Cluttered storage areas, obstructed escape routes, and accumulations of flammable materials create a perfect environment for flame spread.

To reduce this risk, you should:

• Maintain clear access to exits at all times
• Keep service risers, boiler rooms, and plant areas free from storage
• Store flammable goods in appropriate fire-rated enclosures

Staff training is also critical. Everyone on site should know not only how to evacuate safely, but how to report fire safety issues – such as broken fire doors or damaged compartment walls – before they become hazards.

Don’t wait until it’s too late and speak to us today

Fire spreads fast and your building’s safety depends on how well you’ve planned to contain and delay that spread. The faster you can slow down fire progression, the more time people have to evacuate, and the more chance you have of preserving the structure.

At FIS, we help businesses across the UK reduce fire spread with professional passive fire protection measures, fire stopping techniques, and fire risk assessments thanks to the backing of the LS Fire Group. Whether you’re in healthcare, education, commercial, or industrial sectors, our team of experts are here to support you.

Don’t hesitate to contact us today to speak to one of our specialists and to find out more about how to stop fire spreading through your premises.