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Fire protection engineering is a comprehensive project that involves various specialties, and its inspection process also covers a wide range of aspects. The editor has compiled a list of the common issues encountered in the fire protection inspection of high-rise buildings; you may find it useful for reference. Inadequate fireproofing of building structures: 1. The water supply pipes passing through floors and walls are not properly sealed. 2. The electrical conduits and cable trays passing through floor slabs and walls are not sealed. 3. No fireproof sealing has been used in the horizontal and vertical cable trays. 4. The ventilation, air conditioning, and smoke prevention/drainage ducts are not sealed at the locations where they pass through floors and walls. 5. The openings created after preparing holes for civil engineering work were not sealed. 6. The civil engineering air ducts are not sealed. 7. The gaps at the junctions between glass curtain walls and floor partitions are not tightly filled with non-combustible materials. 8. The firewall has not reached its limit. 9. Fire compartments have not been established. Civil engineering fire doors: 1. The fire doors are installed in the wrong direction, not facing the evacuation route. 2. Non-evacuation doors and openings have been created in enclosed stairwells and smoke-proof stairwells. 3. The fire door inspection report does not match the actual condition of the door, and the identification label for the fire door is not installed. 4. Door closers and sequencers are not installed. 5. Corresponding opening devices should not be provided at the one-way escape exits. 6. Fire doors were not installed as required by the design. Safe evacuation: 1. The installation of railings during renovation has resulted in insufficient width for stairway evacuation. 2. Due to renovations and structural changes, the number of evacuation exits is insufficient. 3. Due to renovation and structural changes, the distance to the evacuation exits exceeds the standard. Fire truck access roads: 1. The width of the roads does not meet the regulatory requirements. 2. The fire suppression coverage has not been established. 3. The circular lane or turning area has not been formed. 4. There are tall trees or obstacles in the area where firefighting operations take place. Positive pressure ventilation: Smoke stairwells that do not have a vestibule, or those sharing a vestibule with fire elevators, are not equipped with a positive pressure ventilation system. Fire shutters: 1. The guides are not sealed between the wall and columns. 2. The top of the roll is not fully sealed. 3. One side of the double-track roller shade is not sealed to the top, resulting in a single-track roller shade. 4. The pipes and cable trays passing through the rolling-shutter booths are not sealed. 5. Manual control buttons are not installed on either side of the rolling shutters in the evacuation passages. 6. The manual zipper for the roller shutter lacks a zipper hole. Building decoration: 1. Improper selection of building decoration materials, especially those used for ceilings and walls, whose fire resistance limits do not meet the specified requirements. 2. Building decoration finishes impede the proper functioning of fire safety systems. 1) After being decorated, the doors of fire hydrant cabinets cannot be opened. 2) After renovation, issues such as air leakage between the positive pressure air supply vents and smoke exhaust vents and the finishing layer, as well as difficulty in maintenance, occur. 3) Grid ceilings affect the sprinkling effect from above, while nozzles in the light troughs influence the sprinkling effect. 3. The locations and sizes of the inspection holes provided for building decoration do not meet the requirements for proper maintenance. 4. Rooms larger than 60 square meters should have only 1 door. 5. The doors of rooms such as meeting rooms and auditoriums do not open outward. Smoke exhaust outlet: 1. The installation location is too low, below 2 meters. 2. The smoke exhaust outlets and valves located at the top lack manual control devices. 3. The horizontal distance from the smoke exhaust outlet to the farthest point exceeds 30 meters. 4. The distance between the smoke exhaust outlet and the emergency exit is less than 1.5 meters. Missing smoke exhaust system: 1. There are no interior corridors with a length of over 20 meters that lack natural ventilation. 2. Corridors exceeding 60 meters in length. 3. Areas with a surface area of over 100 square meters are not equipped with a smoke exhaust system. Fire dampers: 1. When air ducts pass through fire compartments, no fire dampers are installed at those separation points. 2. The installation distance from the fire damper to the wall exceeds 200 mm. 3. The normally open and normally closed smoke exhaust fire dampers are installed incorrectly. Net opening area: The net opening area of windows in the natural smoke exhaust area does not meet the requirements of the specifications. Positive pressure air supply system: 1. Positive pressure air supply outlets are not installed in some partially enclosed stairwells, smoke-proof stairwells, or vestibules. 2. The number of air inlets is relatively low. The air volume at the terminal vents of the smoke control and exhaust system is low. Possible reasons include: 1. The fan’s air volume does not meet the requirements of the specifications. 2. The civil engineering air ducts are not tightly sealed or not completely closed. 3. There is air leakage in the horizontal ducts of the civil engineering ventilation system, as these ducts have been cut and sealed at the same level. 4. The fan’s air pressure is insufficient. 5. The air resistance of the pipeline is too high. 6. The fan power supply is reversed. Fan outlet and inlet: 1. The vertical distance between the exhaust fan outlet and the intake of the pressure fan is less than 3 meters. 2. The outlet of the smoke exhaust fan is located below the inlet of the pressurized air fan. 3. The distance between the outlet of the smoke exhaust fan and the inlet of the pressurization fan, when they are on the same plane, must be less than 10 meters. 4. The distance between the smoke exhaust outlet and the air supply outlet is less than 5 meters. Fan control box: The fan control box is not located near the fan. Rainproof louverings: Neither the inlet of the positive pressure supply air vents nor the outlet of the mechanical smoke exhaust system is equipped with rainproof louverings that are exposed to the outside atmosphere. External motor centrifugal fan: External motor centrifugal fans do not have a fan room. Fire sprinkler layout: 1. The upright sprinklers that are not affected by beams are placed too close to the ceiling (more than 75–150 MM). 2. The distance between upright sprinklers affected by the beam and the ceiling does not meet the code requirements. 3. The distance between the nozzle and the side wall does not meet the specification requirements. Fire hydrant layout: 1. Due to changes in the building’s interior decoration, the protected area covered by the fire hydrants exceeds the requirements stipulated in the codes. 2. The fire hydrant door was removed for decorative reasons. 3. Fire hydrants are missing in the lobby of the fire elevator. 4. The self-rescue fire hydrant boxes were not installed in accordance with the specifications. 5. The distances between outdoor fire hydrants and building exterior walls as well as road edges do not meet the requirements of the specifications. 6. Fire hydrants are missing in the interlayer and equipment layer. Water pump connectors: 1. Water pump connectors were not installed according to the system zoning. 2. The number of water pump connectors does not meet the specification requirements. 3. The coupler is located in a location that is difficult to access. 4. The water filling test for the pump coupling was unsuccessful. Outdoor water intake: The location of the outdoor water intake is inappropriate; the suction height of the intake should not exceed 6 meters, and its distance from the exterior wall exceeds the requirements specified in the standards. End-of-line testing device: 1. The end-of-line testing device is installed in an inappropriate location; it is placed at the lowest point of the system rather than at the most unfavorable point within the system. 2. The end water testing device does not use an indirect drainage method. There are areas in the automatic sprinkler system where it is not installed: 1. Air conditioning and fan rooms. 2. Interior driveway in the garage. 3. Bathrooms with a floor area of more than 5 square meters. 4. The bottom of the escalator. 5. Stairs and elevator lobbies. 6. Indoor void areas with a clear height of 12 meters or less. 7. The clear height is greater than 800 mm, and there are flammable materials in the ceiling. 8. Below ducts and exhaust pipes with a width greater than 1.2 meters. 9. Fire control rooms in high-rise buildings of Category I. 10. An automatic fire extinguishing system is not installed in the low-voltage equipment room. Gas fire extinguishing system: 1. The air inlets, fire dampers, and fans within the protected area are not involved in the interlocked control system. 2. The protection area is not equipped with automatic pressure relief vents (pressure relief devices). 3. The protective structure of the protection area fails to meet a fire resistance limit of 0.5 hours and a pressure resistance limit of 1200 Pa. 4. No breather valves or vent pipes are installed in the oil storage room. 5. The power supply of the gas fire extinguishing control panel system cannot meet the requirement of simultaneously activating the gas fire extinguishing devices. 6. The control center cannot perform interlocked control over the equipment in the gas fire suppression area. 7. No manual-automatic transfer switch is installed in the gas fire suppression protection area. 8. Gas fire suppression is not installed in the power distribution room. Areas where the automatic fire alarm system and fire detection system are missing: 1. Detectors are not installed in the residential areas of super-tall buildings. 2. Install detectors in the strong and weak current shafts. 3. Detectors shall be installed in the pump room, fire control center, and various equipment rooms. 4. There are no floor displays installed in common areas. 5. There are no combustible gas detectors installed in the kitchen. Fire protection pipelines: 1. All steel pipes for fire-related circuits that are installed exposed have either not been coated with fire-retardant paint or the coating is unevenly applied. 2. The flexible metal hose at the connection to the equipment is not in place. 3. The cover plates are not installed on the exposed wiring boxes and those inside the ceiling. 4. Some wires inside the ceiling tray are not enclosed in tubes. The interlocked control and related functions are incomplete: 1. The access control system does not have power-off control. 2. The normally open electric fire door is not under interlocked control. 3. The one-way escape lock is not under interlocked control. The logical relationships in the fire linkage control system are chaotic: 1. When detectors in a particular area give an alarm, the positive pressure supply fan for that area does not start. 2. When one fan serves multiple smoke control zones, if a detector in one of those zones triggers an alarm, all air outlets will open. 3. The smoke exhaust vents and positive pressure supply vents were manually opened, but the corresponding fans did not start. 4. Non-fire power shutdowns and forced activation of emergency lighting are not included in the interlocking relationships. 5. When an alarm is triggered in the atrium area, the roller shutters on each floor do not activate. 6. Large-space detection devices such as dual-band, optical cross-section, and linear detectors do not trigger the associated conventional fire alarm systems when an alarm is issued. 7. The fire backup fan is not included in the interlocking sequence that activates during a fire. 8. The smoke exhaust valve at the inlet of the smoke exhaust fan is not interlocked with the fan. Control Center: 1. The wires leading to the fire alarm controller are not bundled together and have not been labeled with numbers. 2. The grounding branch circuit of the control equipment shall be less than 4 mm2. 3. The operating distance behind the control device from the wall should be less than 1 meter. 4. The CRT is not fully functional; when external devices trigger an alarm, the CRT interface does not respond. 5. The fire control panel has shielded and faulty points. Fire alarm phone system: 1. The main unit cannot make calls to extensions. 2. The external fire alarm phone has not been installed. 3. Telephone extensions are not installed in elevator shafts and important equipment rooms related to fire protection. 4. The fire alarm phone extensions are not securely installed, and their placement is unreasonable. Others: 1. The civil engineering and decoration work within the scope of acceptance is not completed. 2. The work related to mechanical and electrical installation within the scope of acceptance has not been completed. 3. Municipal power supply is available, but water supply has not been established. 4. The diesel generator will not start or the automatic startup function is not available. 5. The fire elevator buttons and three-way communication have not been completed. 6. Signage boards were not produced in accordance with the relevant requirements for fire safety labeling. 7. No fire arrestor ring is installed at the locations where PVC pipes pass through floors. 8. Building fire extinguishers, fire hoses, nozzles, etc. have not been properly installed. 9. Escape door locks were not installed in accordance with relevant requirements (Chongqing Landmark). 10. Some equipment rooms and elevator shafts are not equipped with emergency lighting, and the illumination level of emergency lighting in the fire control room and important equipment rooms is insufficient. Source: Luban Alliance for Construction Engineering