Many people directly or indirectly involved in the design, construction or management of buildings in the area of Real Estate in India views compliance with safety regulations as an awkward problem to be overcome with minimum cost. Typically, also the safety of fire fighters and protection of property are merely given token consideration. And even if comprehensive legislation existed at the national level it may not be effectively monitored or controlled on the ground. Fire of certain intensity and duration will nearly eventually affect every building component. However, it is necessary to have building components to retain their stability and integrity at least for a sufficient period to ensure safe evacuation of all the occupants. Moreover, a fire should be prevented from spreading from one building to another and to prevent the sudden collapse of assemblies for the safety of the fire fighting personnel. A practical fire engineering approach involves examining and thinking through problems associated with aspects of fire safety and protection in buildings, in this case fire resistance performance, and to base solution on principles of reason, common sense, science, mainstream engineering, practicality and cost-effectiveness. The benefits accrued by such an approach include the provision of better and more reliable fire safety and protection in buildings, more cost-effective safety and protection measures and more options with regard to their choice and operation and better communication with other disciplines involved in the construction sector. Most important is that the fire resistance has to be designed as per codal regulation and cannot be assumed.

The fire resistance ratings of various structural components such as walls, columns, beams and floor are given in ARE Codes. The rating could be improved to the required level by protective coatings. The fire resistance ratings vary generally from one hour to about four. In codes, the stability criterion is the ability of a specimen of a load bearing element to support its test load, where appropriate without exceeding the specified criteria with respect to either the extent of or rate of deformation or both.