Engineered Tents: Fire & Flame Registration

As we’ve learned over the course of our special Wind Loading Content Series on the Tent Renters Supply blog, tent manufacturers and event operators are working with several guidelines and principals involved in safely planning and executing events involving tents and temporary structures.

In this piece, we’ll be exploring Fire and Flame Registration – a necessary component of every reputable tent in the industry.

Check the label

“Every tent has one of these labels in here,” explains Matt Perra, owner and lead product engineer at Tent Renters Supply.

“Every side wall has one of these labels in here – and it does two things. One – it provides a warning if there’s a severe weather event that they need to take the tent down and evacuate. But it also provides the flame registration, which is the certification that the product has been treated with a flame-resistant chemical.”

A lesson burned in history

Unfortunately, tents were not always as flame resistant as they are now. At the tail end of WWII, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey attracted more than 8,000 visitors to their circus show in Hartford, Connecticut. Everyone went under the big top tent to escape the heat and enjoy the show – when the tent caught on fire. More than 160 people died, mainly women and children, as the tent collapsed, engulfed in flames. At the time, canvas tents were waterproofed using a combination of paraffin wax and gasoline – accelerating the heat and fire which incinerated the tent in 10 minutes.

The New Standards

In the tent industry, there is a stricter standard for treating vinyl’s than in other verticals such as billboards or other banner and printing industries.

At Tent Renters Supply, all of our materials are registered through the California State Fire Marshal, and the vinyl PVC itself is impregnated with NFPA 701-standard flame retardant so that it never washes off or diminishes with age.

“And you can look up our materials in a database and actually see that it’s been registered, which the registration means that they have independently tested that material to the NFPA 701 or whatever standard they may hold it to,” says Matt.

At Tent Renters Supply, we ensure that our products uphold to the best-in-class standards set by the industry. We have been producing custom tents for rental companies, event planners, and large hospitality entities across the entire country for more than 30 years. To learn more, or to place an order, contact Tent Renters Supply today.