Fire Safety Measures in Shopping Malls

Each country follows a legal procedure in constructing a building and has its own

law on building establishments. Like in Poland, they have the Building Law (Act) which

covers the scope of both the Building Regulations and the Building Control Regulations.

The act includes the fundamental requirements for building design such as structural

safety, and fire safety. The act also reflects the detailed technical requirements for

constructing a building. It also mandates that all stakeholders except investor must hold

a valid building license. Further, it enumerates the procedure for preparing and

executing construction works like securing legal documents and permits.

According to Piotr Smardz (2014) on his paper entitled “Fire Safety Regulation, a

comparative perspective, Ireland v Poland”, Poland has fire experts who are also

recognized as fire safety engineers whose main expertise is on fire safety regulations.

Their main task is to evaluate building designs organized by architects with respect to

fire safety requirements and regulations. Smardz (2014) reported that the process of

assessing the building designs is compulsory for most large / public use buildings to

ensure safety. Additionally, the fire safety engineers are doing technical reviews of

existing buildings which are to be renovated or altered especially if those buildings can

not comply with the current technical requirements for fire safety anymore. As presented

by Smardz, Poland also implements technical requirements which relate to fire safety

and it covers the fire resistance of elements of structure, fire compartmentation, means

of escape, internal linings and permanent fittings, fire safety of building installations,

separation between buildings, fire safety requirements for car parks, agricultural

buildings and temporary buildings.

 The comparative paper explains that part of Poland’s technical requirement in

terms of compartmentation is that for buildings for public use, the maximum allowed

floor area of a fire compartment depends on the nature of the building (persons with

limited mobility) as well as building height. On the other hand, for single storey industrial

and storage buildings there is no limitation on the compartment size if both smoke

removal and water-based fire suppression systems are provided. Further in terms of

means of escape, the paper explains that stairways in buildings exceeding 25 m in

height must be protected with a pressure differential system.

Smardz (2014) on the later part of his paper suggests that to ensure fire safety in

shopping malls, the requirements for ensuring safe evacuation conditions on escape

routes should be well-defined. Also, the requirements for provision of automatic fire

detection and alarm system, voice evacuation systems, sprinkler protection and fire

extinguishers should be provided.

I.R. Thomas (2006) on his paper entitled Design of Sprinklered Shopping

Building for Fire Safety, suggests that to avoid fire damage and promote safety among

malls, there should be wardens who will be responsible in making sure that evacuation

plans exist. According to Thomas (2006) there should be a chief warden whose main

duty is to ensure that evacuation plans are subsisting for all major stores, department

stores and cinema complex. Also, he has to understand the evacuation plans and he

will be the one to decide on what area of the mall should be evacuated. In order to do

this effectively, he has to coordinate with area wardens whose main function is to assist

in directing evacuees from mall and/or specialty shops to evacuation areas.

 Further Thomas (2006) suggests that during the occurrence of incident voice

instructions should be made available in order to direct the evacuees on what to do and

where to go. He emphasized that the content of the voice instruction should be specific

to the situation and as seen as essential. As much as possible, voice instructions should

e pre-planned and practiced. In terms of evacuation assistance, the persons who will

provide assistance and physical direction to people inside the mall especially to persons

with disabilities should be determined. Lastly, the paper emphasized that the evacuation

plan should be practiced for utmost effectiveness.

Piotr Smardz (2014). Fire Safety Regulation, a comparative perspective, Ireland v

Poland

Retrieved: May 22, 2019 from

https://www.engineersireland.ie/EngineersIreland/media/SiteMedia/cpd/training/S

eminars%20temp/New%20Developments%20and%20Challenges%20in%20Fire

%20Safety/Piotr-Smardz.pdf

I.R. Thomas (2006). Design of Sprinklered Shopping Building for Fire Safety

Retrieved: May 22, 2019 from

https://www.libertygfg.com/media/1920/fireguide_shopping0601.pdf