Mike Ferreira is the Director or Transportation Services for JENSEN HUGHES and is Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region modeling group. He has 21 years of experience as a fire protection engineer with JENSEN HUGHES. He currently serves as a member of the NFPA Committee on Smoke Management Systems, is a co-author of the ASHRAE Smoke Control Handbook, and is a past instructor for both the SFPE and NFPA smoke control seminars.
Will my smoke control system work properly during a fire? That is the question all building owners/operators should ask themselves. Smoke control systems are unique in that they often sit dormant (sometimes for years) and problems that can affect their operation may not be identified until it is too late. To ensure the right answer when you need it, catch up on device monitoring, commissioning, and why the self-test concept has received a bad rap.
One of the primary objectives of the model building codes is to minimize the impact of fire, including reducing to the greatest extent possible the spread of fire and smoke floor-to-floor.
