Sectors
Sectors
PLC provides professional engineering services in fire and explosion protection and prevention to clients across Canada and internationally.
We excel in the development of innovative, practical, and cost-effective fire safety and engineering solutions for clients across many sectors. If you don’t see your industry, sector, or facility type in the list below, that doesn’t mean we can’t be of service— please contact us so we can understand your needs.
Nuclear
Nuclear facilities—including power plants, waste management locations, research labs, mines, and fuel processing facilities—are incredibly complex, and present unique fire safety challenges.
Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas facilities (e.g., Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream) present unique and complex fire safety challenges including the risk of explosion. Our experience includes large oil- and gas-related projects—both for governments and for private sector organizations—in which we provided important services for refineries, marine and tank terminals, and pipelines.
Transportation and Transit
Transportation hubs and systems—including airports, railways, subways, ports, and marine facilities—present significant fire and life safety challenges. Every facility is unique, and each transit type offers different potential dangers and complexities, particularly around evacuation. Compounding matters is the human element—transit facilities are often overcrowded, loud, and chaotic.
Health Care
The main risk from fire within a health care facility is the danger to patients—including infants, the elderly, mental health patients, and the immobile—because they are often unable to follow safety procedures independently. Adding to the challenge, health care facilities are often very large, very crowded, and are filled with specialized equipment, materials, and chemicals.
Industrial
Fire and explosion hazards are unique to each industry and facility. Some industries have many people working in a single building; others have large facilities but relatively few people. A hazard in one industry could be life-threatening; in another, a fire or explosion hazard could have significant financial consequences in terms of property loss or continuity of operations.
Petroleum and Petrochemical
Petroleum production (e.g., activities including drilling, refinement, and storage) and transportation present unique and complex fire safety challenges, including the risk of explosion. Even facilities serving the same function can vary significantly: for instance, marine terminals and tank terminals have different characteristics that impact fire protection engineering.
Institutional
Institutional occupancies—including health care facilities and correctional institutions—are characterized by the reality that a portion of the building’s occupants may not be capable of taking emergency action for their own safety. Special fire safety considerations are needed to provide prompt fire detection that gives sufficient time to relocate people to safety, and to provide measures that allow occupants to remain where they are during an event.
Heritage Buildings
Heritage buildings are national treasures and they need to be preserved for the benefit of future generations. Because they were constructed in eras where building and fire codes either didn’t exist or weren’t as rigourous as today, many heritage buildings made extensive use of combustible materials. Similarly, the life safety systems protecting these buildings and their occupants were limited and unlikely to meet today’s standards.
Assembly
Assembly occupancies are generally defined as rooms, spaces or structures in which groups of people gather. Familiar examples include large meeting rooms, places of worship, passenger terminals, restaurants, auditoriums, sports facilities, nightclubs, halls, theatres, and cinemas. Every day, millions of people wake up, go to work or school, and spend a great deal of time in these environments.
Educational
Educational occupancies are defined as new or existing facilities in which six or more people gather for formal or structured instruction for more than 4 hours per day. Common examples of educational occupancies include Universities, Colleges, Public Schools, Private Schools, and Academies.
Commercial
Commercial occupancies take many forms, from small retail and office facilities to large shopping malls and high-rises. Each type poses different challenges for fire safety—buildings can vary tremendously in size, use, and geometry, as well as the population densities for each type of building.
Residential
Each year, residential fires account for the majority of fire-related deaths and injuries in Canada and North America, as well as a tremendous cost to individuals and society. Residential buildings come in many forms—single family dwellings, university dormitories, multi-floor apartment buildings, hotels and motels, and more—each of which presents fire safety challenges.
Projects We’re Proud Of
There’s nothing we love more than helping our clients achieve their fire and life safety objectives. Check out these projects we’re proud of or view our Project Gallery for more client stories.
Bruce Power
Fire Protection Audit
Toronto Transit Commission
Fire Protection Audits, Fire Protection Systems, Commissioning Services
New Brunswick Legislative
Sprinkler Systems Design