Compartmentalization in structures, such as land-based buildings, traffic tunnels, ships, aerospace vehicles, or submarines, is an objective of passive fire protection, in which a structure is divided into fire compartments, which may contain single or multiple rooms, for the purpose of limiting the spread of fire, smoke and flue gases, in order to enable the three goals of fire protection:

• life safety
• property protection
• continuity of operations

This article does not cite any sources. (March 2015)

• Bulkhead (partition)

• Wisegeek.com article on fire compartments
• Province of Alberta Code Interpretation Concerning Fire Compartments
• National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Research in Construction Article entitled Fire Compartmentation and Fire Resistance
• Article by William E. Koffel entitled Fire compartments and building height