Fire stopping

[Guest Craig]

Hi 

In our office block of 2000 people we have several service cupboards that run from the ground floor to the 4th floor of the building, they all house all sorts of cabling running up them, including an 11kv cable running through one of them. All doors to the cupboards are fire doors and all cupboards have fire detection in them. However there is no fire stopping at all, if you look up or down these service shafts you can see from the ground floor to the 4th floor. Should there be fire stopping at each floor level??

Thanks

[AnthonyB]

In a word, no. It's a protected shaft and complies with the guidance for shafts in Approved Document B (Fire Safety) to the Building Regulations. As long as the horizontal service penetrations are sealed then it's fine.