Plan for Fire Assessment in Different Buildings - Thesis Proposal Example

A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING IN DIFFERENT BUILDINGS Introduction The dissertation will attempt to study and evaluate the effectiveness of fire risk assessment plans of different buildings. 1.1 Importance of fire risk management Fire risk management is of the utmost importance in planning risk management. All buildings have circuiting and wiring done inside them, there is risk of fire due to electricity shot circuiting. There are several other factors that can cause fire at any time in any building. Fires in buildings can be very harmful. Fires can directly cause death due to burns or indirectly, due to suffocation. Other than taking human lives, fire can destroy and damage a lot of important data and documents stored in offices and buildings. 1.2 What is a fire risk assessment plan A fire risk assessment plan is an organized effort to determine the fire risks a building has and to take the precautions necessary in the light of possible risks. Fire risk assessment consists of many components. Planning is done step wise to determine the fire risks a building might be subjected to and to devise appropriate precautions accordingly. 1.3 Fire risk assessment in building A fire in many-storied buildings is usually hazardous. It poses threats like burning and death due to suffocation. Proper fire assessment is required in huge buildings to ensure safety against fire. Buildings especially work places usually have a risk management team for such assessment. 2. Rationale of the study Many deadly fire accidents have been reported in the past few years. Some of them were due to lack of proper risk management. There is scarcity of research showing what could have been done to avoid so many deaths. The reason why this area needs to be researched is to make an effort to avoid such incidents in future. 3. Aims and objectives of the study Following are the aims and objectives of the proposed dissertation: To pin point the short comings of different fire risk assessment plans To highlight the good qualities of different fire risk assessment plans To compare the fire risk assessment plans of different buildings To promote fire risk management and planning. 4. Problem Statement To carry out a detailed qualitative analysis of different fire risk assessment plans in buildings, compare these plans with other buildings, highlight the good points and point out the short comings. 5. Literature Review There is considerable amount of research related to current topic. A brief literature review is as follows: It will be useful to start with some material on the first step in fire risk assessment, i.e identifying the risk. Stowell, 2001 (as cited in Bill Myer’s study for Gwinnett country department of fire and emergency services) states: “The risk identification process can be accomplished by making a list of potential problems in each area of operation……sources of information can be local data, experts in the area of operation, and national statistics available from other departments, the National Fire academy and the national fire protection association” The sources of hazard need to be identified. This is very basic and foremost in planning a fire risk assessment for any building or area. Regarding the steps to be followed during a fire risk assessment, the experts at RGU state: “The following steps should be carried out when completing a fire risk assessment: Identify potential hazards in the workplace,  Decide who might be harmed in the event of a fire in the workplace or while trying to escape from it, Evaluate the risks arising from the hazards and decide whether existing control measures are adequate or whether more should be done,  Record the findings of the fire risk assessment, Develop an action plan for the implementation of further control measures and Review the fire risk assessment.” There is a lot of literature that specifies the risk assessment procedure, especially that of fire. There is no hard and fast outline to follow. Steps may differ from each other depending on the organization issuing them, but the main process and its aim remains the same in each outline. The FPA (fire protection Association of London) specifies the following five steps in fire risk assessment process: Look for Hazards Decide who might be harmed and how. Evaluate the risks and check if the precautions are enough or not. Record the findings Review the assessment. 5.1 Case Study I (New York) The risk solutions (international) have mentioned a case on their website. In New York city residential area there was a fire in a building in 2003. The fire left six people dead and eight badly injured. The investigations showed that the fire exits were mismanaged. The exits were open but they led only to the stairwells. The victims were able to go through the exits but since the doors to each floor were locked, they could not re enter. This case shows extreme mismanagement and lack of trained fire risk assessment and management. 5.2 Case Study II (India) Another case study related to a fire in India as cited in a GIS article by Mr. Jasdeep Singh is as follows. There was a deadly fire in Siddharta Hotel in 1986. It claimed the lives of 37 people. One death was due to burns and one due to fall. The rest of the 35 deaths were due to smoke. Investigations showed that the fire was caused by electric shot from a false ceiling. Smoke filled the area since there was no ventilation. There was no battery system for an emergency service neither was there a smoke extraction system. There was an extreme lack of risk management of any sort. 6. Methodology Since the proposed dissertation is qualitative in nature, the best means to achieve the goal is via semi structured interview. Such a technique will help in obtaining maximum data about the topic. In semi structured interview, the researcher has some freedom to change the order of the questions, add more questions or omit existing ones according to the course of conversation. 6.1 Proposed Procedure of the Dissertation: The proposed procedure for the current study is as follows: 1) A sample of 15 or 20 big and busy buildings will be drawn. 2) The risk managers of all the buildings will be interviewed. 3) All interviews will be based on a specially designed semi structured interview schedule a specimen of which can be viewed in the appendix. 4) A qualitative evaluation will be conducted by the researcher to highlight the positive points and the shortcomings of different fire risk assessment plans in the light of the information obtained in the interviews. 5) Conclusions will be drawn and discussed. 6) Suggestions for improvement of fire risk assessment will be made. 7. Significance of the study Fires are very common these days in busy buildings and pose a serious threat to the workers and inhabitants of such buildings. It is hoped that this dissertation will prove to be very helpful in future fire risk assessment. 8. Time Scale A rough estimation of time required along with breakdown is as follows: Initial stage: Finalizing the Problem Statement and literature review: Five days Second stage: Sampling the buildings and seeking permission to interview: Ten days Data collection: Interviewing the risk managers: Twenty Days Organizing and analyzing the data: sorting out good and bad points: Five days Summarizing the data and drawing the conclusions: Three days Final Stage: Report Writing: Seven days. Total estimated time required: one month and twenty days. (This is only a rough time line. The real time depends on many factors) References: Case Study, 2003. (Internet). Available at: http://www.rsi-llc.com/industries/realestate.html (Accessed: 24 May 2010) Fire Risk Assessment Procedure. (Internet). Available at: http://www4.rgu.ac.uk/hr/healthsafety/page.cfm?pge=1161 (Accessed 23 May 2010) Five Stepped Procedure of Risk Assessment. Fire Protection Association. (Internet). Available at: http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/dlge/fireriskassessmentnotes.pdf (Accessed 23 May 2010) Myers,B. Study for Gwinnett country department of fire and emergency services.(Internet). Available at: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo32273.pdf (Accessed: 23 May 2010) Singh.J. Promat Initiatives. GIS. (Internet). Available at: http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/natural_hazards/fire/nhf0006pf.htm (Accessed: 24 May 2010) Appendix: Suggested semi structured interview schedule: 1. Do you have a trained fire risk management department? 2. While assessing fir risk of this building, what questions did you keep in mind? 3. What information did you obtain during the assessment? 4. Do you have a list of all possible sources of ignition in the building? 5. How often do you have a fire drill in the building? 6. How often is fire extinguishing equipment tested? 7. Do you have a proper ventilation system against suffocation? 8. Are your employees safety trained? 9. Do you have a plan for means of emergency escape for each floor? 10. How often do you revise this risk plan? 11. Do you have a list of people at risk and a plan as to who they are to report to incase of a fire? 12. Is there enough fire extinguishing equipment in the premises? Read More