What is Reaction to fire performance?
• How materials behave in the early stages of a fire, from ignition to flashover is vital and this is referred to as Reaction to Fire performance. It considers combustibility, energy available for release, fire growth rates, spread of flame, generation of smoke and the formation of burning droplets or particles. One of the most important issues of reaction to fire performance is the potential for flashover to occur – the spontaneous ignition of hot smoke and gases – which can lead to a fire spreading uncontrollably Non-combustible materials do not support combustion, nor release hot smoke and flammable gases.
