This evaluation studies the fire performance of upholstered furniture across Europe and demonstrates the differences in the fire safety of sofas in different countries. Real sofas were purchased from the consumer market across Europe and tested in several room scenarios. The evaluation results clearly showed the effect of stricter regulations, on the time available to escape, which is critical in many fire scenarios.1 Source: Guillaume E, de Feijter R, vanGelderen L. An overview and experimental analysis of furniture fire safety regulations in Europe. Fire and Materials. 2020; 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2826
Key Takeaways:
- Fire safety regulations should focus solely on the fire performance, irrespective of the solutions chosen by the industry to achieve the desired fire performance.
- Furniture fire safety regulations should ideally be based on the fire performance of the full piece of furniture, and not just mockups, to reach the expected level of fire safety.
- The sofa complying with higher level of regulations showed significant delays of ignition and development of the fire.
