8. Prevention

Recent thinking on safety, both for installations and equipment, has led to the conclusion that compliance with standards, however detailed, and/or regulations alone is not enough. An ethic of prevention is emerging, based on a better theoretical and practical understanding of the conditions conducive to the genesis and development of a fire.

These preventive measures begin at the design stage, continue during installation, and are present throughout the life of the equipment.

• Hardware design

  The first aspect concerns the choice of materials or components and their layout (distance between heating elements and their surroundings). It's up to the design office to consider the "fire risk" aspect right from the design stage. For example, the committees dealing with electronic components have...