Fire Curtains for Commercial Premises
Modern commercial buildings are designed around open spaces - atriums, double-height lobbies, escalator voids, open-plan floors. The problem is that open spaces allow fire and smoke to spread vertically and horizontally through a building far faster than compartmented spaces. A fire curtain solves this by providing a concealed fire barrier that remains invisible during normal operation and deploys automatically when the fire alarm activates, restoring the compartmentation that the open design removed.
Fire curtains are constructed from high-performance, fire-resistant fabric reinforced with stainless steel wire. They are housed in a compact headbox concealed within the ceiling or above the opening. When deployed, they descend at a controlled speed to form a barrier that prevents the passage of fire and smoke for up to 240 minutes depending on the product specification. Once the event is over, they retract and disappear from view.
Electrifire arranges fire curtain installation, servicing and repair for commercial premises across London, Kent and the M25 corridor through specialist passive fire partners within the New Path Fire and Security Group. Whether you need a new fire curtain specified and installed as part of a fit-out, or you need existing curtains brought into a regular servicing programme, we manage the process as part of your wider fire safety contract.
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Vertical, horizontal and concertina fire curtain installation
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Smoke curtain variants for smoke control and channelling
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Fire resistance ratings up to 240 minutes
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Concealed headbox design - invisible during normal operation
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Gravity fail-safe descent with battery backup
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Integration with Honeywell Gent Vigilon fire alarm systems
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Servicing and functional testing to BS 8524-2
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Fire Curtain Types and Applications
The type of fire curtain required depends on the opening, the fire strategy, and the compartmentation purpose. Fire curtains are not a single product - they are a family of products designed for different applications, and the correct specification is critical to compliance and performance.
The most common type. Vertical fire curtains descend from a concealed headbox to form a barrier across an opening. They are specified for atriums, lobbies, reception areas, corridor separations, lift lobbies, stairwell openings and boundary protection. They can achieve fire integrity ratings of up to 240 minutes and can include radiation control (EW classification) where the fire strategy requires protection from radiant heat on the safe side of the barrier.
For openings wider than a single curtain can span, overlapping curtain assemblies are used. Each curtain overlaps its neighbour by a specified margin, maintaining the fire barrier across the full width. This makes fire curtains suitable for very large openings - atriums, malls and open-plan commercial spaces - where a fire shutter would be impractical.
Horizontal fire curtains deploy laterally beneath ceilings or between floors to seal escalator openings, floor voids and stairwell penetrations where a vertical barrier cannot be installed. They are a specialist product, typically specified by the fire engineer where the building geometry does not allow a vertical solution.
Smoke curtains are designed to control and channel smoke rather than resist fire. They deploy from the ceiling to create a smoke reservoir or to direct smoke away from escape routes and towards smoke extraction points. They are tested to BS EN 12101-1 for smoke and heat control systems. In many buildings, smoke curtains and fire curtains work together - the smoke curtains channel smoke while the fire curtains contain the fire itself.
Concertina fire curtains use a folded fabric design that allows them to form closed shapes - squares, rectangles, circles and L-shapes - around openings such as escalator voids and atrium wells. They do not require side channels, which makes them suitable for complex geometries where a standard flat curtain cannot achieve a seal. They are available in fire integrity ratings of up to 240 minutes.
Fire Curtain Servicing and Maintenance
BS 8524-2 provides the code of practice for the installation and maintenance of fire curtains. It requires regular inspection and functional testing by a competent person, with full records maintained. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the legal duty on the responsible person to ensure all fire safety equipment is maintained in efficient working order.
Fire curtains should be serviced at least every six months. Each service includes a visual inspection of the curtain fabric for damage, contamination or degradation, an inspection of the headbox, guide channels and bottom bar, functional testing of the deployment mechanism including controlled descent, verification of the gravity fail-safe by disconnecting power and confirming the curtain deploys correctly, battery backup testing, and verification of the fire alarm interface.
For premises managed in accordance with SFG20 building maintenance standards, fire curtain servicing aligns with the passive fire protection tasks specified in that framework.
- Visual inspection of curtain fabric, headbox, guide channels and bottom bar
- Functional deployment test at controlled descent speed
- Gravity fail-safe test (power disconnection to confirm automatic deployment)
- Battery backup verification
- Fire alarm interface test (curtain deploys on correct alarm zone activation)
- Motor operation check
- Full service record issued for fire logbook and insurance compliance
For FM and property management companies, fire curtain servicing can be coordinated across your portfolio as part of a wider planned maintenance contract. We schedule curtain servicing alongside fire alarm maintenance visits so that the integration between the two systems is verified at the same time.
If you have inherited a building with fire curtains that have not been properly maintained, or if your current provider is not meeting your requirements, we can inspect the existing curtains, assess their condition and certification, and bring them into a regular servicing schedule. This is particularly important given the BS 8524 certification changes - we can advise on whether your existing curtains remain compliant and what action is needed if they do not.
Fire Alarm Integration
Fire curtains are activated automatically by the fire alarm system. When the alarm triggers in a specific zone, the fire alarm cause-and-effect programming signals the relevant curtain control panels to deploy. The curtains descend at a controlled speed (typically 0.1 to 0.15 metres per second as required by BS 8524) and the deployment event is logged.
Getting this integration right is essential. A fire curtain that does not deploy because the fire alarm interface is incorrectly programmed, or that deploys in the wrong zone, is a compliance failure that could have serious consequences in a real fire.
Vigilon Integration
For buildings with Honeywell Gent Vigilon fire alarm systems, curtain activation is managed through the Vigilon cause-and-effect programming with the mains switching interface range. The correct curtains deploy for the correct zones automatically, with full event logging through the panel and optional cloud reporting through the CLSS platform. See our fire alarms page.
Because Electrifire manages both the fire alarm system and the fire curtain servicing, the interface between the two is tested as part of every maintenance visit. This eliminates the common gap where one contractor services the alarms and another services the curtains, and neither verifies that the integration works.
Frequently Asked Questions
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