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Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Background of the Study

Fire can be a useful tool, but it can also be a deadly nightmare. As the old

proverb states, it is a good servant but a bad master. Fire has always fascinated

and frightened us. Without fire, civilization would be radically different. In fact, it

might not even exist. However, the cost of fires which get out of control is high,

and an average of two to three people die in fires each day in the Philippines.

According to Aligula, a fire escape is loosely defined as any means of

egress from a building that is used in the event of a fire. The term refers to all

emergency exits, from ropes tied to window ledges to poles affixed to exterior

building walls. Why then does the term ―fire escape‖ conjure images of exterior

iron balconies connected by iron ladders or stairs? Arguably, no other form of

emergency egress has impacted the architectural, social, and political context of

metropolitan America more than the iron balcony fire escape. Rows of fire escapes

line building façades along urban streetscapes, and one has difficulty even today

strolling through historic city streets without spotting an entire neighborhood hidden

behind these iron contraptions (A Review of Fire Safety Measures in High-Rise

Building. University of Nairobi: Unpublished Project Report).

As a society, Cochrain said that we continually take fire escapes for granted.

In their presence, we fail to care for them; they deteriorate and become unsafe.

When they disappear, we hardly miss them. Too often, building owners,

developers, architects, and historic preservationists consider the fire escape a

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rusty iron eyesore obstructing a beautiful building façade. While the evolving field

of historic preservation now fosters a greater appreciation for vernacular, often

unaesthetic, building forms than in previous decades, too few preservation

professionals and enthusiasts embrace these white elephants of the urban

landscape (Sampling Techniques (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Cohen, J. (1988).

In conclusion, fire is a potentially life altering threat in any business

establishment and can create an even worse situation if there is no prior

preparation for such an event. By conforming to the codes and requirements from

the authorities, following sensible preventive actions and adequately training

building occupants, security personnel and facility staff in proper response to fire

emergencies, the overall threat of fire and fire related damages can be greatly

reduced.

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the level of implementation of fire exit

inspection and extent of compliance among business establishment.

Specifically, the researchers sought to find out the answer of the following

questions:

1. What is the level of implementation of fire exit inspection in every business

establishment?

2. What is the extent of compliance of business establishments in

implementation of fire exit?

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3. Is there significant relationship between the level of implementation of fire

exit inspection and compliance of business establishment?

Hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between the level of implementation and

the compliance of the business owners.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework of fire safety design is today restricted by a linear

design process where mainly quantitative data and methods matters. A

deterministic approach to safety ignores the decision-making context and

considers each objective in isolation. Alternative methods for the fire safety design

could view the design work as an iterative problem solving process between the

designers and the stakeholders. Then decision making theory can be applied to

solve the problem. In the iterative process key objectives are identified and the

problem and its solutions are being reframed, creative inherently safer (cannot fail)

and fail safe (forgiving to errors) alternatives are initially aimed at. Design should

further embrace a function-centred view of the human-technology-structure

system. A utilitarian evaluation that includes also qualitative factors can identify the

best trade-offs between conflicting objectives. With a diversity of perspectives on

fire safety design, the field of fire safety will be strengthened and be able to assist

a rapidly changing world.

Furthermore, according to the High Rise Fire Safety report in the city of

Phoenix, every year there are about 7000 fire outbreaks in high-rise office
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buildings. Some of the most notable fires recorded in history dated back to as early

as the year 1136. The towns of London, Bath and York suffered severe fire

damage. The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed four-fifths of the city before

finally being brought under control. In more recent times, the First Interstate Tower

fire on the 4th of May, 1988 in Los Angeles resulted in the death of a building

engineer and smoke inhalation by many of the 40 people inside the building at the

time of the fire. In addition to this, the fire outbreak in The One Meridian Plaza on

the 23rd of February, 1991 in Philadelphia resulted in the death of three fire fighters

due to smoke inhalation and destroyed eight floors of this 38-storey high-rise

building. Thus, it can be seen how important it is to have proper fire safety

management to prevent history from repeating itself. Human interest in fire safety

probably dated back from the discovery and employment of fire. Primitive man

used heat for cooking, warming and lighting his dwelling with the inherent risk that

misuse or accident in his control of fuel might precipitate disaster. The obvious

benefits of numerous friendly uses of heat energy are often overshadowed by the

enormous destructive power of fires. Today, as in primitive society, that risk has

not been eliminated despite the apparent sophistication of modern living. With the

development of habitations, attitudes towards fire safety have also developed.

There is continuous interest in understanding the causes of such perils and in

devising means of their elimination or reduction.

The threat of fire is always present in high-rise commercial office buildings

and can be particularly dangerous to building occupants. As stated by The Merritt

Company (1991), “The most critical exposures in business structures include fire,

explosion, and contamination of life-support systems such as the air and potable
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water supply. These threats can be actuated accidentally or intentionally and can

quickly develop into catastrophic proportions because of the rapid propagation of

fire, smoke and contaminants”.

Significance of the Study

This study is significant for the reason that the result would be of great

importance to the following persons:

Business Establishment. This study will be helpful to the business owners

as an undertaken after several rampant cases of fires had been reported in

different parts of the country hence raising fears on the issue of fire preparedness

and safety measures in place.

Government Authorities. The findings and recommendations of this study

can give policy makers on the government agencies, private sectors as well as

occupiers that the information will be useful in making and redefining fire safety in

their premises hence enhancing awareness.

Students. The student who wanted to conduct a study of this problem for

them to go into depth study and in giving same technique or ideas on how to

conduct the study. This study will probably help them in identifying problems and

also for them to discover a new problem that will lead them to their effective study.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study will look into the level of implementation on fire exit inspection

and extent of compliance among business establishment. It will be conducted at

General Santos City specifically the business establishments.

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This study was only limited to the ten (10) business establishments and one

(1) government agency who will be chosen through simple random sampling. The

responses of the respondents were treated with statistical analysis such as

frequency, percentage and correlative coefficient.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are used in this study and are operationally defined as

follows:

Mitigation - long-term, pre-disaster planning which involves repeated

expenditures on structural and non-structural issues in an attempt to reduce or

eliminate future risks.

Preparedness - a state of readiness to respond to a disaster, crisis, or other

fire emergency situation.

Fire Protection- study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of

potentially destructive fires.

Fire Safety - putting in place appropriate fire equipment, management of

exit routes and proper management of spaces.

Risk - it is effect of uncertainty on objectives or any undesirable event

associated with work that can jeopardize the realization of the objectives. Fire

prevention- programmes intended to reduce sources of ignition.

Fire - it is a natural phenomenon that occurs whenever a combustible fuel

comes into conduct with oxygen at an extremely high temperature.

Fire assembly point- an assembly ground where people gather in case of

fire to take roll call

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Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the various related literature and studies which have

the bearings to the present study.

Foreign Literature

According to Kirtley, on a study titled Mitigation of the Rural Fire Problem

Strategies based on original Research and adaptation of existing articles the

following are recommendations for further research and for implementation of

programs for USFA, NFA and other national and local

organizations interested in mitigating the rural fire problem

recommend the development and implementation of a model multi

hazard survey for homes that could be

incorporated as a voluntary outreach program and used to

identify homes that need changes in their equipment checked could include both

portable and stationary space heaters, electrical wiring and related parts of the

electrical distribution system, and smoke alarms. The survey

also could check related conditions, such as locked, blocked, or inoperable doors

and indoors that are part of primary or alternate escape routes.

For greatest effectiveness and least burden on the households, the

survey ould be conducted by trained professionals, though notnecessarily

certified fire inspectors or electricians, with the consent of the households. Despite

the term survey, this is not envisioned as a hand-off instrument for households to

use to review their own equipment. After the survey the residents of the household

would be given a list of prioritized safety hazards that should be corrected. In an

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ideal program there would be community block grants or other funding that would

help the property owner to follow through on some of the improvements suggested

by the survey. He recommend partnering with national and regional organizations

and he also recommend the development of a program for improvement of

rural electrical system safety that will

set priorities in terms of the range of hazards and

conditions that may be identified in a survey and will

identify affordable modifications suitable for use in existing homes.

He recommend the development of a national strategy to install working smoke

alarms in every rural home.

Contention over exit legislation embroiled city officials, lawmakers,

landlords and philanthropists for the duration of the fire escape‘s heyday. Yet, daily

life persisted in the overcrowded tenement districts, wrought with a restlessness

and poverty that bound the denizens to the narrow avenues of tall buildings. Fire

escapes accrued a value to the tenement dwellers that far exceeded safety

concerns. Iron balconies, stairs, and ladders also became a social construct,

shaping and being shaped by the urban existence. Recognizing the social impact

of fire escape requires an understanding of the conditions of the early tenement

house.

The lack of sufficient light and ventilation exacerbated the claustrophobic

conditions of the tenement interiors and nurtured an unsanitary environment.

―Take a look into this Roosevelt Street alley,‖ Riis continues, ―just about one

step wide, with a five-story house on one side that gets its light and air – God help

us for the pitiful mockery! – from this slit between brick walls. There are no windows
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in the wall on the side; it is perfectly blank. The fire-escapes of the long tenement

fairly touch it; but rays of the sun, rising, setting, or at high noon, never do.‖169

Yards between structures often amounted to nothing more than a barren plot of

land ten feet wide or a narrow alley barely passable.

The fire escape balcony supplanted the need for additional living and

working space for tenants, transforming into an extension of the small apartment.

The small iron floors allowed a minimal amount of space for storage, and the clutter

of fire escapes became woven into the fabric of the tenement neighborhoods. So

common was the practice that building inspectors continually urged tenants to free

the obstructions from their balconies. Tenants frequently ignored violations,

carrying on with their necessary daily routines. In 1936, the New York City

Tenement House Department, under Mayor LaGuardia, commissioned a Federal

Art Project urging tenants to keep clutter clear from their fire escapes.

No other image fully captures the essence of the tenement neighborhood

as the laundry strung between fire escape railings. It would have been nearly

impossible to find a tenement backyard free of clotheslines and the women leaning

over their balcony railings pinning up the day‘s wash. While the imagery affords a

view into the nineteenthcentury tenement lifestyle, it also creates a unique

cityscape, adding to the evolving vertical and horizontal infrastructure of urban

America. A 1912 painting by John Sloan, entitled A Woman’s Work, depicts a

woman stringing laundry over her balcony railing. The artist captures a snapshot

of the everyday experience for women in the tenement houses. A vista of the

common tenement landscape with dozens of crisscrossing pulley lines represents

the increasingly vertical nature of the city; multiple levels of clotheslines, from
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ground floor up, connect fire escape to fire escape across the small courtyard The

Hill Dryer Company, in the early twentieth century, developed a clothes dryer for

use in tenement and apartment houses. The galvanized iron rack affixed to the

side of the building and swung over the fire escape for easy access. The company

claimed its dryer would rid the yard of the unsightly clotheslines and increase the

value of the property for rentals.

The poor lived, leisured, and often worked within the confines of the tightly

packed tenement districts. Green space rarely survived the ongoing development

within the neighborhoods, and tenants lacked means for country vacations. ―They

don‘t go to the country for the same reason that they don‘t live in light, airy,

spacious homes: they don‘t afford to. Instead, they do the best they can, stepping

out-of-doors into the comparatively fresh air of the streets. Tenement dwellers

poured outdoors in the warmer months, escaping the steamy, unventilated interiors

of their rooms. Perched over the crowded streets, fire escapes provided an airier

respite than the building stoop or street curb. A short story entitled, ―The Great

Sympathetic Strike‖, from an 1894 issue of The Century, tells of a woman having

moved from Maine to New York City with her husband: ―She had always been

delicate, and the stifling air of the tenement had broken her down, and now she lay

all day in her bed, except for a few hours every fair day, when she was carried out

on the landing of the iron fire-escape. It was a poor substitute for the fresh air and

the green fields of her country home. The urban jungle, replete with concrete,

masonry, and iron, did not dissuade tenants from adorning their small, personal

outdoor plots with a little greenery. Paolo, a tenement dweller in ―Out of the Book

of Humanity‖, a short story published in an 1896 issue of The Atlantic Monthly,

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receives a plant and hopes to beautify his small apartment. ―The garden‘ was

contained within an old starch-box, which had its place on the window-sill, since

the policeman had ordered the fire escapes to be cleared. It was a kitchen garden

with vegetables, and was almost all the green there was in the landscape. From

one or two other windows in the yard there peeped tufts of green; but of trees there

were none in sight – nothing but the bare clothes-poles with their scores of pulley-

lines from every window. Plants and flowers dotted windowsills and fire escapes

and created, according to Jacob Riis, a more habitable environment. ―The

German,‖ says Riis, ―has an advantage over his Celtic neighbor in his strong love

for flowers, which not all the tenements on the East Side have power to smother.

His garden goes with him wherever he goes…. But wherever he puts it in a

tenement block it does the work of a dozen police clubs. In proportion as it spreads

the neighborhood takes on a more orderly character.

Local Literature

Background of the Study

Disaster as defined by IFRC(International Federation of Red Cross) is a

sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or

society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that

exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources.

Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins. A

disaster in their natural forms includes typhoons, earthquake, tsunami and volcanic

eruptions whereas there is one destructive man-made disaster which is war. Fire

is an example of a disaster that can be caused by both factors stated above. Fire
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are the most costly preventable emergency in the Philippines but are relatively

unstudied. Through the centuries there has been such an intimate connection of

fire with the cultural growth. Fire, provided a source of warmth, protection and a

method for cooking food. Creating fire allowed the expansion of human activity to

proceed into the dark and colder hours of the night.

While, fire has helped much in shaping and developing the country’s

industries, it has also caused destruction in decreasing the economy by levelling

business centers, establishments, residences and has claimed numerous lives

and properties.

Fire is combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically

with oxygen from the air and typically give bright light heat, and smoke

(OxfordDictionary). A fire disaster can be providential (natural) such as wildfires,

accidental (human error or negligence) or intentional such as the crime of

arson. An intentional cause of fire, legally termed as arson, is the wilful malicious

burning of property (as building) especially with criminal or fraudulent intent

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary) is a crime stated in criminal laws of most countries

one of which is the Philippines. However, fires, even in accidental causes,

displaces hundreds to thousands of families from their homes, costs hundreds of

thousands to millions worth of damage to property and may even be a cause of

several deaths. In connection to the disastrous effects of fire, the Bureau of Fire

Protection(BFP) under the DILG and by virtue of Republic Act 6975, otherwise

known as DILG Act of 1990, is primarily to perform and be responsible for the

prevention and suppression of destructive fires on buildings, houses or other

structures, forest lands, land transportation vehicles and equipment, ships and
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vessels docked at piers or wharves anchored in major seaports, petroleum industry

installations, plane crashes and other similar activities. The recent statistics

available at the National Statistical Coordination Board(NSCB) shows that there

are 12,301 total fire incidents occurred in the year 2013 nationwide which is

39.8%higher than 8,798 fire reported in 2012 and 39.4% higher than the fires

recorded in 2011and 14.2% higher than the 10,773 fires posted in 2010.

The BFP cited power overloading and electrical glitches as the main causes

of fire incidents in the country. The BFP is strengthening its anti-fire campaign and

is informing the public that they can provide free services of fire inspections to have

wiring and outlets checked in the households. The BFP also lacks 17,000 firemen

in the country due to budget constraints. According to BFP Chief, a fire truck should

have at least 7 firemen but only average about 4firemen per fire truck in the

Philippines. Problems can be categorized into three namely: Human/Personnel,

Material/Facilities and Economic/Financial. In the Personnel side, according to the

Philippine Figures of the National Statistics Office (NSO), the ratio of fireman to

population as of 2012 is 1:589 from the16,252 total firemen nationwide. In the

material side, the common problems encountered are lack of fire trucks, fire

hydrants available, and more will be included in this research as the study

progresses. Financial problems originate from the Department of Budget

Management appropriation towards the Bureau of Fire Protection. Lack of financial

support is a prime cause that allows the two other problems (Human and Material)

to manifest. Fire-fighters, before being inducted into the Bureau of Fire Protection,

undergo a series of training in which concerns of not only extinguishing fire, but
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also the prevention or suppression of the same. The number of the firemen as well

as their ratio to the population, as stated above, is not suffice to actually prevent

fire especially in the city of Pasig in which there are 12 fire stations and 11 of those

are considered to be sub-stations serving the whole City and the barangays within.
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Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research design, locale of the study,

respondents and sampling used and statistical treatment of data.

Research Design

This research had used the descriptive method of research which is a

definite procedure to characterize, describe, and classify data or materials needed

in relevance to the study. It also included proper scrutiny and interpretation of all

insights that will be collected.

Locale of the Study

The study was conducted in General Santos City, Philippines. The

researchers will gather data at Barangay South and Barangay West of this city.

Research Instrument

Validity is the extent to which the results of a study can be accurately

interpreted and generalized to other populations (Cohen, 1988). Content validity

was done using the result of the pilot study. The development of research

instruments was done by examining the research objectives and questions,

consulting research experts and lecturers, personal experience and related studies

for the purposes of framing items and critical examination of variables.

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In this study both content and construct validity were used for the purposes

of answering what the instrument really measure (Kathuri and Pals, 1993).

Reliability refers to being able to secure consistent results with the repeated

measures of the same person with the same instrument (Cooper and Schindler,

1998). Reliability can also be defined as a measure of degree to which a research

instrument yields consistent results or data after repeat trials (Mugenda and

Mugenda, 1999).

To ensure reliability, the research instruments were pre-tested on a few

respondents in the study area. This technique involved administering the same

question twice to the same group of subjects, but after an interval of two weeks.

The study ensured that there was no sensitization to the respondents which could

influence the responses given in the test. The results from both the first and the

second test were accurately recorded. The responses from each administration

were correlated to determine the extent of consistency.

Respondents and Sampling Used

The respondents will be chosen based on the gathered data from the owner

or in-charge of business establishments and Bureau Fire Protection. Ten business

owners were interviewed based on their experience and outlook with the

questions. While the other five respondents were from the government employees

or officer in charge at BFP to specify the extent compliance of business

establishments in meeting the terms on fire safety.

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The researchers have used a probability sampling procedure in choosing

the respondents. Particularly, the simple random sampling using the Slovin’s

formula.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researcher will observe the following procedure in data gathering:

Asking permission to conduct the study. The researchers write a letter

Bureau Fire Protection and owners of random business establishments in General

Santos City to gather specific data and assured the institutions that this data were

used purely in the study.

Analysis and interpretation of data. The researcher will gather and

analyzed the data gathered using the appropriate statistical tools.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The researcher will use the frequency distribution (percentage distribution)

and the computation of the weighted average mean (WM). These statistical tools

will be used to come up with the summary of the results of the survey. Thus, these

results will be tabulated and interpreted according to the problems of the study

being identified.
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References

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (Massachusetts: Charles Scribner‘s

Sons, 1890), 17-8

The Century, ―The Great Sympathetic Strike,‖ 47, no. 5 (1894): 652.

Making of America, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/

The Atlantic Monthly, ―Out of the Book of Humanity,‖ 78, no. 469 (1896):

704. Making of America, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/

Aligula, E. (1990). A Review of Fire Safety Measures in High-Rise Building.

University of Nairobi: Unpublished Project Report.

Arleck and Settle. (1995). The Survey Research Handbook. New York: Irwin

Press. City Council of Kisumu. (2012). Disaster Management. Retrieved March 4,

2013, from City Council of Kisumu: www.citycouncilofkisumu.or.ke

Cochrain, W. (1977). Sampling Techniques (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley

and Sons. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the behavioural

sciences (2nd Edition ed.).

Cooper,D.R. and Schindler, P.S. (1998). Business Research Methods (6th

Edition ed.). New York: Irwin Press. Cumming, S. (2012). Effective fire suppression

in boreal forests. Retrieved January 13th, 2013, from Wikipedia:

www.wikipedia.org

Derek, J. (1986). Fire Prevention Handbook. London: Butterworth and

company (publishers) Limited. Dilley, M and Heyman, B.N. (1995).

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New York Times, ―Display Ad 11 – No Title, August 4, 1906