Fire safety in offices and buildings
Approved fire safety concepts are required for public or commercial buildings, which relate not only to the building materials used, but also, in some cases, to the furnishings.
In the case of furniture, reference is sometimes made to B1 classification “flame-retardant”, which is used for building materials. Unlike individual building materials, however, upholstered and contract furniture consists of several different materials that are closely interconnected. Even if individual materials are classified as flame-retardant on their own, they exhibit completely different fire behaviour when combined.
Upholstered and contract furniture are, therefore, subject to their own standards that take these special features into account – and their test methods allow a reliable evaluation of their actual fire behaviour. In addition to European standards, some countries have their own national classifications that are also applied.
