Fire spread scenarios associated with concealed cavity spaces have been relatively less discussed. The variation in studies with respect to geometry, influential parameters, and protection strategies has been an obstacle to deriving more generalized solutions in terms of cavity fire in buildings. A systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA method to identify the conclusive fire behaviour, safety risks, and protection strategies to enable future researchers to address cavity fire scenarios effectively, avoiding catastrophic disasters. This study identified that relative to open-fire scenarios, cavity fires could result in up to 10 times higher flame spread, up to 14 times higher heat exposure, and temperature conditions 13 times higher. Increased toxicity and smoke velocity are also found with cavity fires. Fire protection strategies and their efficiency were identified for a range of cavity geometries. Altogether, cavity spaces, especially narrow ones, cannot be neglected during fire safety, and proper risk identification is required to ensure the safety of the buildings and the occupants in a fire scenario.

Fire safety is one of the critical concerns for the design and construction of modular structures. The lack of understanding of cavity fire spread in modular construction could create variations in the fire performance of structural members. This study aimed to assess the impact of cavity fire spread in modular buildings initiated by a room fire using validated fire dynamics and structural numerical models. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted to identify critical thermal conditions affecting adjacent structural members under plausible cavity fire scenarios. The identified critical cavity fire thermal conditions were used to examine the structural performance of cold-formed steel intermediate column specimens while varying geometric configurations, material properties, and boundary conditions. The results highlighted two distinct phases of restrained thermal expansion and lateral deformations under material yielding and buckling, resulting in the loss of structural integrity. The restrained thermal expansion significantly increased axial/restraint forces, reaching up to 155% of the initial load. This behavior decreased axial load capacity by 2.4% to 35% of the ambient capacity. Further, the study identifies a requirement for designing the intermediate columns and the connected intermodular connections for increased design action equivalent to 56% of the service load.

Ventilated façades are beneficial for improving buildings efficiency and comfort. However, the benefits are accompanied by additional risks of rapid fire spread through the ventilated cavity. To address the fire safety issue, ventilated façades incorporate open-state cavity barriers that allow airflow through under normal circumstances and react to compartmentalise the cavity to retard fire spread in the event of fire. Existing test methodologies cannot accurately assess the fire performance of open-state cavity barriers when applied to a full-scale façade system. They are often questioned on their suitability to assess effective closure during a fire. The existing test methods concerning the performance of open-state cavity barriers during fire have been reviewed to identify their limitations and discuss solutions to provide improved evaluation of fire performance. It is clear that existing test methods should not be used to assess the fire performance of open-state cavity barriers in ventilated facades. However, they can be used to compare the relative performance of different cavity barrier types and configurations. The parallel panel test arrangement was identified as a suitable test configuration to address some of the identified limitations. The performance evaluation criteria used by existing test methods are suitable for use in future test methods; however, the exclusion of failure within the first five minutes should be reviewed.