Scribd Upload a Document Search Documents Explore Documents Books - Fiction Books - Non-fiction Health & Medicine Brochures/Catalogs

Government Docs How-To Guides/Manuals Magazines/Newspapers Recipes/Menus School Work + all categories Featured Recent People Authors Students Researchers Publishers Government & Nonprofits Businesses Musicians Artists & Designers Teachers + all categories Most Followed Popular Sign Up Log In / 8 Download this Document for Free Fire Safety Management: Evaluation of Means of Escape in Residential Building. Yahya Mohamad Yatim* D. J. Harris, Ph.D. ** *Faculty of the Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysi a. B-yahya@utm.my **School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University Riccarton, Edinburgh, U.K. (Paper presented at Asian PGS in Built Environment 2005, Faculty of The Built En vironment, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5th 7th December 2005, proceeding, pg 93 - 100) Abstract This paper discusses the problems encountered in the provision of escape routes in residential buildings and qualitative evaluation of escape route design in re sidential buildings. Uniform Building By-Laws will be used to consider the aspec ts of the requirements as they relate to escape route design and fire safety in buildings. The issues of fire safety in residential buildings have not been give

n appropriate attention even though the statistics show that the instances of fi re mainly occur in residential buildings. Among the issues explored is the trend in Malaysian buildings to install extra safety precautions in the form of an ir on grill, which besides providing security against intruders creates an addition al obstacle for occupants in the event of fire. Primary data for this research a re collected using the checklist form of assessment which has been developed by the researcher. Fire safety attributes are identified and components of risk in building will be discussed, particularly risk to life and chances of successfull y evacuating when fire breaks out in high-rise residential buildings. Keywords: Fire safety, Escape Route, Risk Assessment, Evacuation. Article Type: Case Study, Comparative/Evaluating. 1.0 Introduction The topic of Fire safety management has rapidly been developed by many researche rs, especially fire safety in high-rise buildings. Fire safety is a broad area. However, studies concerning fire safety in high-rise residential buildings have not yet reached any firm conclusions. At present there is no quantitative method of assessing the adequacy of any escape route provided in a building other than by empirical means. The current method of providing means of escape from buildi ngs is by specification and rules, i.e. rules that have evolved through time and are deemed to provide a satisfactory escape route (Shields & Silcock, 1989). In Malaysia Uniform Building By-Laws 1984 (LRB, 1993) is currently in use by the r elevant authority to provide a satisfactory specification and guideline to build ing designers for their duty of work. It is nearly two decades since UBBL84 was d eveloped and it is still in use, and now is an appropriate time to review certai n parts of it. Defining fire safety is difficult and often results in a listing of factors that together comprise the intent. These factors tend to be of different sorts. Fire safety may be defined as goals and aims such as fire prevention, fire control, occupant protection, and so forth which normally can be found in the introductor y section of building code and other fire safety legislation (Rasbash, et. al. 2 004). According to Howarth, (1999), quoted by Derek et. al (1999) fire safety ma nagement can be defined as the application by a manager of policy, standards, to ols, information and practices to the task of analyzing, evaluating and controll ing fire safety. Escape routes should be designed and constructed, and installed with adequate an d suitable fire doors, so they will not be a death trap to building occupants. T he main problem encountered in evacuation processes is when smoke enters into an escape route through a broken fire door and or through the gaps between the doo r and floor or the door and door frame. Another problem is traffic congestion du ring evacuation processes (Yatim, 1999). The 1 provision of fire safety aspects in residential buildings, such as an active fir e separation system, fire detection system, etc are at very minimum compared wit h other types of building, yet the fire risk to residential buildings is the hig hest among the other type of buildings. Statistics (1990 1999) show that 39.78% (9,512 cases) fire had occurred in residential buildings (Yatim, 2001). 2.0 Background of fire safety management. Fire safety in building is an important issue but has not always been addressed sufficiently. People tend to only talk about fire safety in buildings, particula rly in dwellings, when a fire tragic occurs and it has caused devastation. The N ational Building Code of Canada (NRC, 1995) defines fire safety as an objective t o reduce the probability that a person in or adjacent to a building will be expo sed to an unacceptable fire hazard as a result of the design and construction of

the building. Design and construction of the building particularly escape routes and safe assembly, needs to be reviewed. The current practice whereby many buil ding owners were inspired to harness security measures by putting an iron grill or an extra safety precaution such as double locked iron gates at the main entra nce and other exit routes of their property, has increased the risk of being tra pped if fire breaks out. According to Ramachandran (1999) Safety is the complement or antithesis of risk. Safety will be increased if the risk is reduced. There is no such thing as absol ute safety. Some level of risk is virtually unavoidable. A building may be consi dered to be very safe from fire if a sufficiently low fire risk is associated with i ts structure, contents and occupants. Occupants play a vital role in lowering the fire risk if their behaviour during evacuation exactly follows the theoretical frame work. But peoples behaviour is sometime unpredictable. According to Proulx (1995), elderly people and people with disabilities did not impede the evacuatio n since occupants who were mobility impaired waited in their unit to be rescued. The problem is if the building is not provided with a fire lift, firemen have t o use the routes used by evacuees to rescue the mobility impaired persons. This will delay the evacuation process and increase the evacuation time. If we observe Malaysias fire statistics, it is found that residential buildings a re at the highest risk. Ten years of fire statistics in Malaysia (1990 1999) sho w that the average number of fire cases annually was about 15,499 cases. Accordi ng to Datuk Dr. Ting Chew Peh (Statement in Berita Mingguan Oct. 26, 1996) fire claimed 840 victims annually with the average of 70 persons monthly. These are l arge numbers and worry many people. What went wrong has not yet been identified, because in many cases much evidence was burnt and the cause was impossible to t race. This is the risk that people have to face when they occupy high-rise build ings. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA, 2000) has developed a basic appr oach to minimise fire risk called Fire Safety Concepts Tree (FSCT). FSCT was der ived to achieve the fire safety objectives, first for life safety and second for structure protection. There are two fundamental principles of FSCT, Prevention of Fire Ignition, and Managing Fire Impact. Prevention of fire ignition can be d one in the early stages of the building design process by eliminating fire sourc es but to completely eliminate fire sources is impossible. No matter how much ef fort we put in to prevent ignition, fires continue to start. Once a fire has sta rted, we have to manage the fire to minimize the impact on the people and struct ures. FSCT emphasizes fire suppression, control of combustion and containment of fire by construction. To manage the impact, FSCT emphasizes safeguard exposure and limit amount exposed. Among measures that can be applied to achieve the fire objectives are prevention of fire ignition, providing the means of detection, e quipping with fire extinguishing equipment, controlling fire from spreading to t he other parts of building and allowing time for people to evacuate from the bui lding. Life safety is also influenced by the knowledge and experience that peopl e have about the fire and fire spreading in buildings. With understanding of the fire behaviour and fire characteristics casualties can probably be reduced if a ppropriate measures have been taken when evacuating from the building. Therefore , research concerning the science of fire and how fire spreads in building or en closed spaces is essential for high-rise residential buildings. 2 3.0 Research Methodology Observation case study. Research tool: Using checklist form Analysis method: Qualitative analysis technique.

 Benchmarks: Building Regulation: Approved document Part B Fire safety UK and UBB L 84. 4.0 Some important issues in evacuation processes The difficulty in escaping from building fire is largely due to several factors such as unnecessary fitted safety precautions which can create obstacles, the desi gn and construction of escape stairs which do not comply with the rules and regu lations, the numbers of people occupying the building at one particular time exc eeding the design factor, difficulty in finding the exact location of escape sta irs due to unclear or no exit signage, smoke entering the escape stair, poor ill umination system, etc. Other factors of equal importance are lack of facilities for disabled people to evacuate from the building, no alternative exit and no fi re- fighting lift being provided. Those factors have a potential to increase the risks that people will be injured or be killed in building fire. The cause of fire cannot be completely eliminated as stated by Mehaffey (1987) t hat, Despite efforts to restrict the use of combustible material in buildings and to prevent ignition, fires will continue to start. Whether the fire grows and h ow quickly, depends to a large extent on the basic flammability of building mate rials and contents, as well as on the building design. The more quickly a fire d evelops, the less time occupants of the building have to escape. Even though the potential for being killed or injured in a building fire cannot be completely el iminated, if the design of the building from the early stage was seriously consi dered, the consequences of fire threat would be minimised by optimising the reso urces available. How ever, fire safety in a building can be achieved through pro ven building design features intended to minimize the risk of harm to people fro m fire to the greatest extent possible (CWC, 2000). If sufficient data is availa ble and analysis has been made to identify the top most risks associated with pe ople in residential buildings during evacuation processes, probably the casualti es and death of people in building fire can be eliminated. So what we should str ess here is the ability of people to evacuate from the building in case of fire. Time is becoming the determining factor in life safety during building fires. T he faster occupants are evacuated from the building the greater chances of savin g their lives. Therefore, there are some points that need to be emphasized in order to enhance the safety of the residential buildings: Occupants need to be informed about the building fire as soon as fire started. Escape stairs should be located within the limits of travel distance. An alternative exit route should be provided even though the regulation may not say so in certain circumstances. Obstruction by any means along the path to safe assembly area should be cleared. Most of the residential buildings have not been provided with the facilities to facilitate the evacuation of disabled people. these facilities should be provided. People do not seem to react accordingly even if they have heard the sounder unti l they saw, smelt or feel existence of fire. Therefore education concerning fire safety is very important. 5.0

The problems encountered in high-rise residential buildings. No exit signage 3 In many high-rise residential building there is no exit signage to show the way out or to lead the occupants to the escape route. According to regulations a suf ficient exit signage should be installed at every floor of the residential build ing. This problem can pose a danger to the person who is not really familiar wit h the building environment. No smoke control system. Every escape route and escape stair should be installed with a smoke control sys tem to ensure the smoke is prevented from entering those places. Smoke control b y means of a mechanical control system such as a pressurization system is not al ways installed as requested by the regulation. However there are natural ventila tion systems provided at every floors but the opening was not according to the s pecification given in Building Regulation. Obstacles in escape route All escape routes should be cleared from any obstacles or any constructions whic h could delay the evacuation processes. In some buildings it was found that ther e are safety gates installed at the main entrance and at the alternative exit. T he gates are controlled by electrical keys that are only be able to be opened by pushing the button located inside the building or by combination number from th e outside of the building. At every floor there is another gate installed to sep arate the residential unit from the common area. The gate is locked from inside an only occupants of the units are able to open it. There are four units behind the gate and fitted with intercom facilities to each of residential units. Ventilation system insufficiently installed or not at all. Some of the buildings were designed with natural ventilation by means of Open Spa ce and some are using air brick ventilation on the escape stair wall. This will p ose a danger to occupants because smoke may enter the escape stair due to low pr essure created in the stair shaft cause by wind. In all observed residential bui ldings it was found that none of them are installed with a mechanical ventilatio n system even in enclosed escape routes. According to the regulations, they shou ld be provided with an automatic opening ventilator or ventilators operated by s moke control for enclosed escape stair where the aggregate opening area is at le ast 1.5 m2. Alternative stair and alternative escape window An alternative stair and alternative route should be provided in high-rise resid ential buildings. According to By-Laws, at least one escape route should be prov ided if there are an alternative for the escape windows provided. The size of es cape window situated in an external wall should be at least 0.33m2 and at least 450mm high and 450 mm wide. The bottom of the openable area should be not more t han 1100 mm above the floor. In the observed building, there is only one escape stair without providing any alternative escape windows. However it has an altern ative exit at the ground floor but both the main entrance and the alternative ex it are separated from the common area fitted iron gates. Automatic fire suppression system was not provided. The most active fire fighting separation system provided in high-rise residentia l building is the dry riser. Some of the buildings are provided with the wet ris er system and none were provided with an automatic fire suppression system even though the By-Laws has stated that it must be provided with an automatic life sa fety fire suppression system. For the system to be effective it is essential tha t an adequate water supply system should be provided too. The maintenance for fire suppression system was not regularly being done.

Regular maintenance is essential to all fire suppression systems. This is to ens ure that all systems are ready to use when needed. Fire suppression systems like dry riser, which is the most common system installed in many high-rise resident ial buildings, have a problem at a component called inlet breaching that the com ponent to connect the system to fire engine to 4 Fire Safety Management: Evaluation of Means of Escape in Residential Buildings Download this Document for FreePrintMobileCollectionsReport Document Info and Rating building evacuation fire safety escape route rise assessmenr fire safety attribute Follow yahyamy Share & Embed Related Documents PreviousNext p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. More from this user PreviousNext 13 p. 17 p. 19 p. 13 p. 8 p. 17 p. 17 p. Add a Comment Upload a Document Search Documents Follow Us!

scribd.com/scribd twitter.com/scribd facebook.com/scribd About Press Blog Partners Scribd 101 Web Stuff Support FAQ Developers / API Jobs Terms Copyright Privacy Copyright 2011 Scribd Inc. Language: English