Fires and Built Environments - Case Study Example

A REPORT ON FIRES AND BUILT ENVIRONEMENTS Submitted by (your name) To (tutor name) (date) (Institution) ABSTRACT This report mainly focuses on the lessons learned from the way in which various fires in buildings have been managed in different countries. The report begins with a general introduction into the fir e safety issues that surround fires in buildings. It then studies case studies of various fires in buildings that have happened over the last 25 years in the United Kingdom- England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Each case study is analyzed in relation to the fire safety engineering issues that marked these cases and the lessons learned. The report then gives recommendations gotten from the lessons learned in each case then finally ends with a conclusion. INTRODUCTION Fires are a common hazard that has affected all societies for a long time. Vehicle fires, oil and chemical explosions, wildfires and many other types of fires have all occurred at one point or another causing deaths, severe burns and material losses in terms of damage to property. Out of all types of fires, fires in built in environments such as in buildings are probably the most common and dangerous thus focus on such fires are very important for all fire safety engineers. For the most part, all the countries in the UK have proper and up to date fire safety and building regulations that help minimize deaths and property loss. However, as the following case studies will show, each case reveals that the UK still has a long way to go and it is thus necessary to study these cases to learn from the mistakes and even the successes of each case so as to further improve on fire safety for the greater god and security of society. ENGLAND CASE STUDY- THE ATHERSTONE ON STOUR FIRE 2007 Several fires have happened in England but one of the most notable recent fires has been the Atherstone on Stour fire tragedy that took place in 2007. Atherstone on Stour is a small- knit village in Warwickshire. The fire took place in a vegetable packing factory which is a warehouse type of building with an occupancy level of 300 people (Warwickshire City Council, 2007). According to BBC News (2007), the fire was suspected to have been as a result of arson. Four fire fighters who entered the building to rescue the labourers themselves became stuck in the building due to the fact that the building was very unstable structurally. The roof of the building collapsed and this caused accumulation of a lot of debris making rescue efforts very difficult. The fire fighters were only removed dead days after the fire first broke out making the fire that has the biggest number of fire fighter casualties in the UK since the death of seven fire fighters in the 1972 fire at a warehouse in Kilbimie Street, Glasgow. LESSONS LEARNED From this case, one aspect that stands out from a fire safety engineering perspective is the structural defects of the building. BBC News (2007) reported that specialist fire officers and structural engineers that were investigating the fire revealed that the building had been unsafe structurally to begin with hence when the fire broke out, the roof collapsed almost immediately under the pressure which should not have been the case. To correct this, architects in this area should have made use of structural fire engineering to increase structural fire protection as well as ensuring the designing of an efficient fire protection system. In addition, the use of fire and smoke alarm systems in this case would have helped alert the factory workers in good time. Instead, the fire spread without anyone finding out about it until it was too late. Also, proper exit doors and fire resistant doors would have been helpful in helping the workers and the fire men to escape from the fire easily instead of in the hard way in which they struggled to get themselves out of the warehouse. THE WALES CASE STUDY- THE SWANSEA HOUSE FIRE TRAGEDY In this sad case, a mother and her daughter were killed in their semi- detached house which had an occupancy rate of 6 in Townhill, Swansea (Sky News, 2009). The mother, a Mrs Michelle Thomas, had rescued her three sons and had re- entered the house to rescue the daughter but did not mange to escape. The fire engulfed the house in less than ten minutes and neighbours reported that Ms Thomas and her daughter died despite attempts by neighbours to get them out with ladders and by smashing windows because there were no escape routes in the house. Smoke spread in the house at a very fast rate and the two died more from smoke inhalation that actual burns (Sky News, 2009). The Thomas’ house that was involved in the fire. Photo courtesy of Sky News (2009) LESSONS LEARNED From photos of the Townhill house, the house was evidently old and had therefore not implemented new fire safety measures for the house. To make matters worse, the house was a semi- detached building. According to Häkkinen (2008, p. 4), detached and semi- detached buildings are the most dangerous types of buildings because they are the most susceptible to fire spread. According to the Stationery Office (.p. 32), the Building Regulations 2000 Approved Document B Section 5. 3 regulates that the walls that separate semi- detached houses must be built in the form of a compartment wall with the houses being considered as totally different buildings. This helps prevent the spread of fire from one compartment to the next. The lesson here is that the Townhill house should have had compartment walls that separated different sections of the house and this would have stopped the spread of smoke and fire. In addition, the house was not properly fitted with functioning alarm and fire–detection systems. Furthermore, there was no escape route. Neighbours tried to break the door down and were forced to search for a ladder forcing the mother and children to try to escape through the windows and doors (Turner, 2009). If there had been an escape route, their deaths would probably have been prevented. The house was like some sort of death trap since there was no adequate means of escape apart from the doors and windows which were quite unhelpful since access to them was blurred by the heavy smoke. Another lesson to be taken from this Swansea case study is that of the hazards of flame spread and smoke development. According to Sky News (2009), one of the neighbours reveals how shocked they were to see how fast the smoke and fire spread- in less than ten minutes and that entire building was clogged in smoke causing the children to suffer from severe cases of smoke inhalation. According to Crowley (2008), to put a stop to the development of smoke and the spread of smoke, a method known as ASTM E-84, UL 723, or NFPA 255 should be used in all buildings. Here, materials are put a long steel tunnel where a draft and flame are inserted so as to ignite the test sample. The spread of the smoke and the flame is registered at the tunnel’s end. If the flame spreads for a short distance and little smoke is produced the tested material gets a positive smoke and flame-spread rating. This method greatly helps prevent the spread of smoke and flame and if it had been used in the Townhill house, it might just have prevented the fast spread that was witnessed in that case. THE SCOTLAND CASE- THE EDINBURGH COWGATE FIRE, 2002 According to Absolute Astronomy (2009), The Edinburgh Cowgate fire was a fire that started at night above the La Belle Angele nightclub in Cowgate, Edinburgh. The fire spread very fast to the neighbouring buildings, eventually causing sever damage to ten buildings one of which was the University of Edinburgh. Lathan (2001) reveals that the fire is believed to have begun in a shaft that is located in between the La Belle Angèle and a bar next to it called the Living Room. According to Fallis (2002), the fire was so big that it took more than a day to completely stop making it the biggest fire in the history of Edinburgh. The nightclub was old and seven storied which made the fire spread even faster. The fire spread through the narrow street that separates the nightclub building from other buildings. This narrowness further encouraged the spread and created what the Assistant Divisional Fire Officer at the time to describe it as a type of rabbit warren network which further made it harder for the fire to be stopped. Though there was great destruction to property in the area, no deaths happened in the disaster. LESSONS LEARNED In this case, the street separating the various buildings in the area was and still is very narrow and this caused the threat of fire spread to increase greatly. According to Himoto (2007), fires that start in densely-built locations spread easily to neighboring buildings and this is exactly what happened in this case. Densely built environments are at a higher risk to all types of disasters due to the thin and coiled streets enabling fire to spread easily from one building to another. Therefore, a major lesson learned from this case is that city restructuring should be carried out in this Cowgate area to create greater space in between the buildings. In addition, since restructuring the entire are is not possible, wall-breaching utility holes should be set up in the area to prevent the spread of fire from one building to another among other measures. Furthermore, the spread of the fire could have been sped due to the use of indoor pyrotechnics and soundproofing foam that nightclubs like to use. In addition, the lack of adequate automatic sprinklers was a major handicap that would have helped slow the rate of spread. Lastly, the limited access to exits that is very common in nightclubs worsened the situation. Since most night clubs are usually packed with people exceeding the recommended occupancy rate, overcrowding becomes a major problem and when disasters such as fires break out, a stampede can easily happen with everyone scrambling to get out using the limited exits (Crowley, 2008). Nightclubs are evidently very sensitive buildings where fires can easily happen. In this case, the simple installation of proper fire alarms and detector systems would have helped alert the nightclub owners of the fire. The construction of extra exit doors would have also helped the situation since a means of escape would have been improved and even the accumulation of smoke would have been lessened. . The biggest problem in this case however is probably the overcrowding and changes are necessary. The nightclub should strictly enforce rules that prevent overcrowding. Fire safety regulations require insist on retroactive sprinkler requirements which require that nightclubs with an occupant load of more than 100 people should have automatic sprinklers all through the year and this was not so in this case. If there had been adequate automatic sprinklers, putting out the fire would have been easier and the fire probably would not have spread as fast as it did. NORTHERN IRELAND CASE STUDY- THE BRAY FIRE TRAGEDY In this tragic case, a fire broke out in an old, unoccupied and disused factory in the Bray area (RTE News, 2007). Two fire fighters, 25-year-old Mark O'Shaugnessy and 46-year-old Brian Murray entered the factory and died when the roof of the building collapsed on top of them. According to Phoblacht (2007), officials investigating the fire said that faulty roofing was responsible for the deaths caused by the Bray fire and was even termed by the fire safety audit carried out as being a death trap. Furthermore, the building was in very bad condition as it was a disused factory that was in a state of disrepair. Because of this, it was structurally weak causing the roof to cave in. In addition, Phoblacht (2007) reports that in its deliberation over the tragedy, Parliament revealed that the fire was worsened by the fact that there were unclean chimneys and the batteries for the smoke alarms were old therefore could not go off once the fire broke out. A section of the burning factory. Photo courtesy of RTE News (2007) In this sad case, matters were made even worse since the fire fighters who died in this fire were not even trained to use the fire fighting equipment they had carried to put out the fire (Fire Rescue, 2008). The fire type in this fire is known as a 'back draft'-type of inferno and the equipment they had (the foam system of equipment) was insufficient in putting out this type of inferno. The result is that the fire fighters were not well equipped to fight the very big fire and unfortunately got overwhelmed by it. LESSONS LEARNED What stands out in this case is the general state of the factory. Being old, unoccupied and disused, it was in a state of disrepair. This means that structurally, the factory was in bad shape. Therefore, the roof would also be weakly held up and like in this case, the roof collapsed under the pressure. In addition, since no repairs had been done in a long while, if there were any fire and smoke alarms and detectors in place, they would have been in poor shape too. Furthermore, there were several combustible materials in the factory yet it was not being supervised by anyone. This is clearly dangerous as any small thing could have sparked off the fire. All buildings with combustible materials such as these should always be supervised and measures should be put in place to store them safely to prevent them from catching fire. RECOMMENDATIONS In all the above cases, it is clear that if only proper fire safety engineering measures had been put in place, deaths would have been prevented and property would have been saved. According to Allam and Nadjai (2009), the following are some recommendations for cases such as these to ensure that the damage caused by fires in built- environments are lessened in the future: Structural Fire Engineering: This will ensure structural fire protection that will prevent cases such as the collapsing of roofs. Smoke Management: This is one of the most important and involves areas such as the suitable means of smoke escape, the usage of open atria and the use of large open spaces to ensure compartmentation with no barriers. Means of Escape & Evacuation Strategies: Ensure exit routes and fire exits are constructed and available to use in all buildings and also that shorter travel distances are made in addition to modern evacuation strategies suited to unique buildings. Fire Compartmentation Strategy: This aims to allow maximum flexibility on fire compartmentation to achieve large open-plan areas and achieve maximum cost-saving on construction costs without compromising the level of safety required. External Fire Spread: boundary distances should be minimized to allow for the most use of the site and to generally increase the protection. CONCLUSIONS Built environments are clearly very risky in relation to fire outbreaks and should thus be the focus of serious fire safety measures. The cases discussed above prove just how dangerous built environments are and thus all fire safety engineers should be well versed in the prevention of fires and buildings. In addition, the government should seriously implement the existing fire safety and building regulations to ensure that all buildings comply with the regulations. These are the only sure ways that people can be made safe from the hazard of fires in buildings to ensure the greater security of society as a whole. REFERENCES Absolute Astronomy. 2009. Cowgate. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Cowgate Allam, Ahmed and Nadjai, Ali. 2009. Fire Safety Engineering: Getting It Right. Fire Middle East Magazine. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://www.firemiddleeastmagazine.com/pages/issue_5_feature5.aspx BBC News. 2007. Search to Find Missing Crew. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/7077100.stm Crowley, Michael A. 2008. Impact of Fires on the Built Environment Over the Past 10 Years. Fire protecting Engineering. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.fpemag.com/archives/article.asp?issue_id=47&i=376 Fallis, Russell. 2002. The Independent. Fire ravages Edinburgh's historic Old Town. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fire-ravages-edinburghs-historic-old-town-746969.html Fire Rescue. 2008. Irish fire fighters killed in house fire 'lacked proper training.' Evening Herald. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.firerescue1.com/firefighter-safety/articles/437141-Irish-firefighters-killed-in-house-fire-lacked-proper-training/ Gelin, Larry. 1998. Fire in Buildings and the Specification of Wallcoverings- A Technical Report. Johns Manville. Retrieved 22nd November, 2009 from http://www.jm.com/engineered_products/wallcoverings/fire.pdf Häkkinen, Sami. 2008. Development Of Statistical Fire Safety Analysis. The Finnish Association of Fire Chiefs. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.f-e-u.org/fileadmin/meetings/109/NationalReports/An%20article%20about%20Development%20of%20Statistical%20Fire%20Safety%20Analysis.pdf. Himoto, Keisuke. 2007. Risk of Fire Spread in Densely Built Environments– A Review Emphasizing Cities in Japan. Kyoto University. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://www.fujipress.jp/finder/preview_download.php?pdf Lathan, Peter. 2001. Edinburgh Fire. The British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/edinburghfire.htm http://www.f-e-u.org/fileadmin/meetings/109/NationalReports/An%20article%20about%20Development%20of%20Statistical%20Fire%20Safety%20Analysis.pdf Phoblacht. 2007. Angry protests as Bray fire-fighters' families demand answers. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/22407 RTE News. 2007. Investigations launched into Bray fire. Retrieved 22nd November, 2009 from http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0926/bray.html Sky News. 2009. Mother And Daughter Die In House Fire. Retrieved 22nd November, 2009 from http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/House-Fire-In-Swansea-Kills-Two-and-Injures-Three-South-Wales-Police-And-Fire-Brigade-Investigate/Article/200909315383803?f=rss . Stationery Office. The Building Regulations 2000: approved document, B: Fire safety, Vol. 1- Dwelling houses. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=EOsXhADgWw0C&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=semi-+detached+buildings+are+dangerous+in+fires&source=bl&ots=rIfT06bnr3&sig=SHiiLZ8bO1vKv8Ai_fFTQHd-WZE&hl=en&ei=1XAKS5OdOIP-mQPE8_w-&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=semi-%20detached%20buildings%20are%20dangerous%20in%20fires&f=false Turner, Robin. 2009. Mum saves three boys from blaze but dies going back to save girl. The Western Mail. Retrieved 20th November, 2009 from http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social/families-children-family/12979665-1.html Warwickshire City Council. 2007. Fatal fire at Atherstone-on-Stour – update. Retrieved 21st November, 2009 from http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/corporate/newsstor.nsf/PublicByCategories/AA896B1C92CAC3AA80257388004E9BF4 Read More