Fire-retardant materials should not be confused with fire resistant materials. A fire resistant material is one that is designed to resist burning and withstand heat, however, flame retardant materials are designed to burn slowly. An example of a fire resistant material is one that is used in bunker equipment used by firefighters to protect them from the flames of a burning building. In the United Kingdom, after two significant construction fires which resulted in a combined loss of £ 150 million, the Common Practice Code was introduced by the National Fire Safety Organization, FPA, to prevent fires in buildings that construction work is carried out. The Joint Code of Practice provides advice on how to prevent fires such as the use of flame retardant temporary protective materials such as some high quality floor protectors that are designed to burn slowly and prevent the spread of fires.
Residential fires kill more than 2,500 people per year in the United States alone. And most fatal fires occur when people sleep in their homes, as the smoke can silence a person in deep sleep. Although no practical construction material is truly fire resistant, well-constructed houses and buildings can help prevent such tragedies by using relatively fire resistant materials.
Consequently, it is not a question of knowing whether a fire can damage a structure, but a question of when. It simply takes longer for the fire to affect fire resistant materials. The key is to build a building in which a fire would take effect slowly, allowing the occupants enough time to escape. This is also the reason why the materials themselves are classified as to how long it would take fire to affect their structural capacities. Even heavy wood can be considered fire resistant. It is combustible, however, whereas metals such as aluminum or steel are not combustible - instead, they tend to buckle under the intense heat.