(01) Fire wall that separates a property into two Fire areas, (02) Fire-resistant wall designed to prevent the horizontal spread of Fire into adjacent areas and to maintain the integrity of a structure.
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A structure (wall) that is designed to prevent fires from spreading within a building. For example townhouses should have a firewall between each unit to prevent the entire row from burning. Regarding computer terminology, a fire wall is hardware or software designed to prevent unauthorized access to data from outside users.
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UK: Floor to roof wall of incombustible materials with no doors, windows or other spaces through which a fire could pass. It needs to be sufficiently fire resistant, i.e. four hours resistance, before an insurer ‘comparentises’ a property into separate risks. See also FIREWALL.