Does smoke partition require fire and smoke damper at penetration?

Hi @JessicaY,

I’m afraid I had to delete your photo as we do not allow posting of paid Black Spectacles Content or any other 3rd party paid content! Thanks for brining that up though - I get what the question is going for but the wording is a little suspect.

If you have a wall that is acting as both a smoke barrier and a rated partition/barrier then you will have a combination fire/smoke damper. This is one system, and not a separate smoke damper and then fire damper. Sorry I didn’t answer that well!

If the wall is rated and the penetrations are required to be rated, a combination fire/smoke damper should be used unless not required per other sections of the code. There are some instances for example where 1 hour rated assemblies are not required to have fire dampers – for example 717.5.2 exception 3. I think what section 717.5.5 is that smoke barriers must have smoke dampers no matter the rating. It’s not negating that a rated assembly may cause a combination smoke/fire damper combo to be needed, but is insuring that at least a smoke barrier will be present.

I found this lunch and learn that does a good job showing the different types of dampers and when each should be used:

And here’s a resource from the ICC I found describing requirements for firestopping penetrations which does a great job explaining some this better:

I also found this resource helpful:

Hope this helps!
-Darion