In the event of a fire, a smoke control system is used to keep a building's escape routes and access routes free from

smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrainment (engineering), entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commo ...

, assist fire-fighting operations and delay or prevent

flashover A flashover is the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated, they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flashover occurs wh ...

, thereby reducing the risk that the fire will escalate. In the United Kingdom, the Smoke Control Association operates as a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

and advisory organisation in this field.

Standards

Within the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...

(ISO),

Technical Committee Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

ISO/TC 21/SC 11 is responsible for the development of standards concerned with smoke and heat control systems and components.ISO
ISO/TC 21/SC 11: Smoke and heat control systems and components
accessed 6 October 2021 In Australia and New Zealand, joint standard AS/NZS 1668.1:2015 aims to provide: Requirements for the

maintenance Maintenance may refer to: Biological science * Maintenance of an organism * Maintenance respiration Non-technical maintenance * Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English * Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doctrine ...

of smoke control systems fall outside this standard.

References

{{Firefighting-stub Smoke Fire protection