Fire Protection Abbreviations List: 189 Terms in a Free DWG Legend

A ready-made fire protection abbreviations legend for drawings, with 189 terms covering systems, agents, fire pumps, valves and trim, hydrants, sprinklers, piping, detection and release, and hydraulic design.

About

What is in this legend

This fire protection abbreviations legend collects 189 terms in one table, ready to paste onto a drawing sheet. The terms are grouped by how they appear on a fire fighting drawing set: systems, extinguishing agents, pumps and water supply, valves and trim, hydrants and hose, sprinklers, piping, detection, alarm and release, portable equipment, hazard and hydraulic design, passive fire protection, units, and codes, approvals and general terms.

The table is drawn at paper size in millimetres, 510 mm wide and about 280 mm tall, in four columns. It fits beside the title block on an A1 or A2 sheet at a scale of 1 in paper space. All text is plain single line text on its own layers, so rows can be edited, removed or added without exploding anything.

NFPA terms and Gulf terms side by side

Fire protection drawings in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf mix two vocabularies. The design follows NFPA 13, NFPA 14 and NFPA 20, so the drawings use NFPA terms such as standpipe system, fire department connection, inspector’s test connection and hose stream allowance. At the same time, many consultants and contractors trained on British practice still write wet riser, dry riser, landing valve and breeching inlet. Both sets are in this legend, because both turn up on the same project, and a site engineer reading the drawings needs to know they describe the same equipment.

The agents group covers the clean agents used in electrical rooms, server rooms and archives here: HFC-227ea, sold widely as FM-200, FK-5-1-12, and the inert gases IG-541 and IG-55. Writing the agent’s chemical name on the drawing, rather than only the brand, keeps the submittal valid if the approved supplier changes. The codes group includes SBC 801, the Saudi Fire Code, and SCD, Saudi Civil Defence, the authority that approves the drawings and witnesses the final tests.

Fire protection abbreviations that clash

A few fire protection abbreviations carry two meanings, and the most dangerous one is PRV. In this legend PRV is the pressure reducing valve on a standpipe or hose outlet. The pressure relief valves on a fire pump are listed separately as MRV, the main relief valve, and CRV, the casing relief valve. Mixing them up on a pump room drawing leads to the wrong valve being ordered, and the two do opposite jobs.

Other fixed choices: SP is static pressure in hydraulic and hydrant flow test figures, so standpipe is written in full or as SPS for the system. FM is FM Global, the approval body, so the flow meter is FLM. WFS is the waterflow switch, which leaves FS free for firestopping. Sprinklers are written SSU and SSP, standard spray upright and pendent, so PS can stay as the pressure switch.

Across disciplines, FD has three meanings on a coordinated MEP set: a flame detector in this legend, a fire damper in HVAC and a floor drain in plumbing. SD is a smoke detector here and a smoke damper in HVAC. FP is the fire pump here and a feeder pillar in electrical, and LV is the landing valve here and low voltage there. Agree with the other trades which abbreviation changes before the composite drawings are issued.

Using fire protection abbreviations on a drawing set

Put the full legend on the first sheet of the fire protection set or on a dedicated legend sheet with the symbols, and refer to it from the rest. Cut it down to suit the project. A residential building with a wet sprinkler system and hose reels does not need deluge, pre-action, foam and ESFR terms on its legend.

Keep the names consistent across the hydraulic calculation, the riser diagram, the floor plans and the valve schedule. If the riser diagram shows ZCV-3 on the third floor, the hydraulic node list, the BMS or fire alarm monitor point and the valve tag on site should all say ZCV-3. Civil Defence inspectors check the installation against the approved drawings, and matching names save a lot of time during the witness test.