Yes. In Singapore, a cold room is treated as a fire-safety design question as well as a refrigeration one. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Fire Code 2023 sets limits on how large a cold room compartment can be, depending on whether its insulation panels are combustible and whether the building is sprinkler-protected. Choosing the wrong panel or layout can force a redesign late in the project, so settle it before you order panels.
Fire safety rarely appears in cold room quotations, yet it affects panel choice, room size, door specification and the sprinkler layout. This article explains the main points to raise with your contractor and your Qualified Person (QP) at the start.
Why cold rooms get special fire-code treatment
Most insulated cold room panels have a foam core (PU or PIR) between thin metal skins. The metal facing protects the core in normal use, but the foam is combustible. Once a fire is inside the panel, it is hard to reach and can spread behind the facing. That is why regulators treat large foam-insulated enclosures differently from ordinary storerooms.
Cold rooms also create practical difficulties. Sealed, insulated enclosures trap heat and smoke, and sprinkler pipes inside a freezer can ice up. The Fire Code therefore deals with cold rooms as a distinct category rather than as plain storage space. For how the foam types differ, see our guide to PU vs PIR insulation panels.
What the SCDF Fire Code 2023 means for compartment size
According to a Singapore cold storage design guide that summarises the Fire Code 2023, cold rooms built with combustible insulation panels must be separated from surrounding areas by a non-combustible outer layer with at least one hour of fire resistance. The same guide gives the maximum floor area for one cold room compartment as 100 m² in a building without sprinklers and 700 m² in a sprinkler-protected building.
The guide adds that if fire-rated panels are used instead, much larger compartments are allowed, up to 2,000 m² or 4,000 m² depending on sprinkler protection. These figures come from a secondary summary. Always confirm the current clause and any amendments with your QP or SCDF before finalising a design, since the Code is revised from time to time.
In practice, a small restaurant or retail walk-in sits well below these thresholds. The limits matter for distribution and food-processing facilities, where several chillers and freezers are often built side by side.
Design points to settle early
- Panel fire rating. Ask for the panel certification or test documents, not just the core material name. Fire-rated panels may cost more but can allow larger rooms or fewer sprinklers.
- Sprinkler type. Freezer rooms usually need a dry-pipe or pre-action system so the pipes do not freeze. The sprinkler designer and the refrigeration contractor must coordinate penetrations through the ceiling panels.
- Fire-rated doors. Where the compartment boundary requires it, the door and frame must carry the rating, and not every standard cold room door does.
- Penetrations and sealing. Pipework, cables and conduits passing through panels need proper sealing so the compartment boundary is not weakened.
- Evacuation. Interior safety release hardware and emergency lighting should be planned together with the fire layout, especially for freezer rooms where someone can be trapped.
Retrofits deserve extra care. Adding a second cold room next to an existing one, or enlarging a room, can push the compartment over a threshold that the original design met. The same applies when a unit is moved into a different building. Our article on decommissioning or relocating a cold room covers the refrigerant side of that process.
Who is responsible?
Fire-safety compliance is part of the building approval process, so it normally sits with the project’s QP and the building owner, with the cold room contractor supplying certified panels, doors and drawings. Hiring a BCA ME01-registered contractor does not by itself prove fire compliance, so ask directly for panel test certificates and for the contractor’s coordination with the sprinkler designer.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small walk-in cold room need sprinklers?
It depends on the building’s own fire-protection requirements and on the size and panel type of the room. A small room built with fire-rated panels within the compartment limits may face lighter requirements, but the QP must confirm this for your specific premises.
Are PIR panels automatically fire-safe?
No. PIR generally performs better than PU in fire tests, but it is still a foam core. What counts is the certified fire rating of the complete panel system, not the core name alone.
Why not use a normal wet sprinkler system inside a freezer?
Water in the pipes would freeze at sub-zero temperatures and could block or burst the pipework. Dry-pipe or pre-action systems keep the pipes empty until activation.
What is the biggest compartment I can build?
Per the Fire Code 2023 summary cited above, 100 m² without sprinklers and 700 m² with sprinklers for combustible-panel rooms, and larger when fire-rated panels are used. Confirm the exact limits with your QP before design.
When should fire safety be discussed in a cold room project?
At the design stage, before panels are ordered. Panel specification, door type and room layout all depend on the fire strategy, and changing them later is costly.
Planning a new cold room or expansion? Resource SY Engineering can help you specify panels and layouts that fit your building’s requirements. Call +65 6762 6651 or WhatsApp +65 8282 6894.