Effectiveness of the Evacuation Procedures at the Twin Towers - Case Study Example

Running Head: EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EVACUATION PROCEDURES AT THE TWIN TOWERS. EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EVACUATION PROCEDURES AT THE TWIN TOWERS. Name Institution Date INTRODUCTION: The Twins Tower in Malaysia, also known as the PETRONAS Tower, is found in Kuala Lumpur. Up to date, they are the tallest Twins Tower in the whole world. Initially, between 1998 and 2004, they were the tallest towers until that position was taken by the tower known as Taipei 101 in 2004. The Twins Tower was completed in 1998 and was designed by architects from Argentina Djay Cerico nad Cesar Pelli. The construction of these towers took seven years and has 88 storeys and is 415.9 meters high. One of these two towers is occupied by Petronas Oil and serves as it headquarters, whereas the other tower has been leased out. The connection between the two towers is at the 41st and the 42nd floor and it is done by a sky bridge which is 58 meters long Journal 2010). EVACUATION PROCEDURE IN TWINS TOWER: The twins tower as mentioned earlier on have 88 storey’s. There is also the sky bridge on the 41st and 42nd floor. The initial evacuation plan had put this sky bridge between the two towers to serve not only as the bridge between the two towers but also as a point of exit incase of any emergencies within one of the two towers. The plan is to save the people inside the tower with the emergency by crossing them to the tower which is safe. The people affected tower within the part below this sky bridge were to use stairs and access the exit discharge level whereas people occupying the floors at the sky bridge and above were to use stairs to access the sky bridge and cross to the other tower (Skybridge, 2011). However, this measure can only be used when it is just one tower with an emergency. If an emergency occurs and affects the two towers, the use of the sky bridge as a way of evacuation would be limited thus not fully effective. The other evacuation procedure is assisted by limiting the number of people who get access into the building per day, though this happens indirectly. Normally, the Twins Tower remains open all days except Mondays and public holidays. In addition, every visitor needs a ticket in order to get access into the towers. Before October 2010, entrance was free but the number of people getting in was limited. This helped in ensuring that the number of visitors was manageable. However, after October 2010, a new ticketing system was introduced and each person getting into the towers was required to pay some fee for the ticket. To get to the 41st floor, one does not need to purchase a ticket in advance but for one to get to the higher floors, he or she needs to purchase the ticket 3 days in advance (Skybridge, 2011). This plan of people booking tickets makes and limiting the number of people accessing the towers limits the number of people getting in which eventually would make rescue of people easier in case of an evacuation. The towers are constructed in a very modern way with automated technologies and system. For instance, they have a very advanced for protection system which means that the people within have a speedy and very safe passage to and from the towers and also through them. This is made possible by various features which manage and coordinate telecommunication and climate and environment control (Petronas, 2005). Moreover, the towers have independent power supply which makes control of any emergency which involves fire be easy. In addition, due to the independent power supply (Petronas, 2005), the tower has control of its lighting system which makes it easy for them to take quick measures in case of an emergency thus strengthening any measures that are to be taken in an evacuation procedure. Additionally, the advanced telecommunication system within the towers makes it easy to evacuate the people. The evacuators from outside and those within are able to use these highly modernized communication means to communicate which facilitates coordination in the evacuation procedure and ensure all those involved are able to know what their fellow evacuators are doing and the next step to take in the evacuation process. Other present features are smoke and fire control and well laid out emergency and evacuation protocols. The fire control system within the tower is divided as per each floor which means that if fire breaks out, smoke is controlled by some intelligent pressure system (Petronas, 2005). This system isolates fire from the adjacent floors and this it does automatically. In doing so, smoke is prevented from passing through to other floors which make it easy to evacuate people to the other adjacent floors which are smoke free. Additionally, the fact that it is possible to control smoke movement makes the evacuation plan more effective since the people within will not be hindered by smoke, which adds to the challenge of evacuating, from escaping and running to safety either outside the towers or within the towers at the areas specifically designed for rescue. In the Twins Tower, there are also lifts located at the centre of each of the two towers. These lifts have been fitted with a various safety measures. Although the use of lifts as a means of evacuation in buildings with emergencies such as fire has not been popular due to various blemish experiences, the rise of skyscrapers which are increasingly becoming taller and taller and the fear of terrorist attacks, especially after the World Trade Centre experience has led to they, lifts, being considered as an alternative means of evacuation (Wong, 2009). This is especially so for people who may need extra assistance such as the disabled, children and the elderly since they may not be able to move quickly to escape from any emergencies (Wong, 2009). However, there are various challenges associated with use of lifts such as getting stuck in between floors. In the Twins Tower, this problem has been overcome by the possibility of manually driving an adjacent lift next to the stuck lift and opening some panel at the wall which makes it possible for the people within the lift that is stuck to walk safely between the lift cars thus proving very effective. This combined with the fact that the towers have independent power supply makes it easy for lifts to be controlled and used. In addition, the only lift allowed to be used during an emergency is a shuttle lift. The reason for this is due to the fact that there are doors only at levels G1 and 41/42 and incase of a fire at these towers’ lower half, this shaft which is enclosed would not be affected. Moreover, there are fire fighters lifts which are provided. These lifts have some measures which protect the occupants; fire fighters, from fire (Wong, 2009). The use of these lifts makes the evacuation process very effective. In addition, when these towers received bomb threat, shortly after attack on September 11 which forced an emergency evacuation to be done, a new plan of escape was designed after the evacuation took more time than the expected. This plan involved use of lifts and it halved evacuation time from 40 to 20 minutes (Wong, 2009). There are also stairs which are generally used as a means of evacuation in any emergency within buildings. It is recommended that any building have sufficient stairs depending on the height since stairs are also very useful in any evacuation procedure. It is through these stairs that the fire fighters pass their hose pipes to the affected floors and also, these same stairs are used by evacuators and building occupants who are able to run to safety (Wong, 2009). The Twins Tower are no exception. They have some stairs which are used as means of evacuation. Normally, the stairs are used as a means of escape and since the emergency measures of each floor are independent from those of the other floors as mentioned earlier about smoke control, thus giving the people on the affected floor a chance to run to the floor which is not affected. For those who may not be able to access the safer floor through the stairs, they can go to an area that is smoke-proof designed for waiting and wait to be rescued via service lifts (Wong, 2009). In the case of the Twins Tower, after the emergency evacuation that happened shortly after September 11th, and the chaos which occurred when the evacuators decided to evacuate both towers at the same time, there was need to enhance the evacuation plan in order to cater for emergencies which involved both towers. During that first evacuation which involved both towers, the occupants of the first tower tried to cross over to the second tower whereas those of the second tower tried to cross over to tower one (Bukowski, 2010). This proved very chaotic and highlighted a weakness in the existing evacuation plan. The plan was only effective if the evacuation involved one tower but not effective when the evacuation involved both towers being evacuated simultaneously. As a result of that highlighted weakness, the authorities within the towers considered evacuation using elevators. This new plan proved effective and as mentioned earlier on, and a test of trying to evacuate both towers at the same time took only 20 minutes; half of the time initially used (Bukowski, 2010). THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EVACUATION PROCUDURES IN TWIN TOWERS: The main aim of constructing the PEATRONAS Twin Tower was to create a state of the earth modern facility and enable the PETRONAS meet their objectives as the dominant producer of oil products in the Asian continent. To have a state of the earth facility, the facility had to be unique and have facilities that would meet the demands of the people who will access it on day to day basis. This includes offering precautions in case of an unprecedented eventuality. The facility handles over 10,000 persons in the five days and hours that it is in operation. Entry to the sky bridge which handles close to 1200 persons daily is free to foreign and national citizens on a daily basis. The fire system consists of an alarm, fire, heat, smoke, call points and a monitoring system for monitoring effectiveness for the sprinklers. The fire safety is controlled by a central command center that is run on a twenty four hour service. The facility has a computerized LAN system to detect smoke and heat. The heat detectors are essential in evacuating persons as this will reduce injuries to people caused by heat by condoning off areas with high it will be able to lead people to be evacuated through exit ways that are not smoky to avoid collision and other injuries caused by lack of clear vision. The LAN system is also useful as it is able to help the safety department to be able to identify areas that are not affected by the fire. This will help them direct people to safety through those areas. The facility is also equipped by a pressurized tower system evacuation technique thus being able to automatically detect and effectively cordon off affected areas thus avoid injury and entry of more people to affected areas. This is also an efficient safety evacuation procedure as it avoids the spread of fire and smoke thus decreasing the adverse effects that would have been caused by the spread of fire. The stair wells in the facility are fire proof and all the structural concrete is painted using fire proofing paint. In addition, the building is equipped by fire sensitive triggered sprinklers this enables the safety department to cordon off the fire exit ways and maintain a free flow of persons towards the fire elevator shuttles to enable fast and efficient exit of persons from the building. The LAN controlled air system is unique as it sacks out impure air and fills the facility with pure air. This precaution is adequately important as no persons will be able to suffer or be incapable to suffer from inhaling dangerous smoke for long as the system will be able to sustain free flow of pure air for over a considerable period of time. The gauge metal that insulate the air ducts are is built to ISO standards as it is incombustible thus being able to maintain the free flow of pure air during the evacuation period. (Abada, 2004) To conform to the international evacuation rules of high buildings, the design to have shuttle elevators were built to evacuate occupants that visit or are occupying the high rise rooms and are served by the elevator banks. This system is meant to evacuate more people at the same time as it evacuates the floor above the and the one below at a fast rate without using the electric lifts and elevators which might get people trapped and cause more harm. The rescue and evacuation team is to ensure that the evacuation shuttles are always functional to avoid cases where they might be out of service in cases of emergency. The shuttle elevators are unique in that they are not affected to malfunction due to smoke and water as it was in the previous technology lifts as they work in two phases. The phase two which uses fire fighter key is mainly useful for evacuating occupants with disabilities. These shuttle elevators are operated through special shafts and have opening at the top and lower side. Other evacuation is mainly through the stair case section which is normally in cases the evacuation shuttle flops or is over occupied and there are many people who need to be evacuated. The safety precaution employed in the building of the stair case is essential as it does not return air. (Abada, 2004) These fire fighters lifts are ISO certified and are an international prerequisite for all high-rise buildings that are above 30 meters. The uniqueness in this evacuation is that the elevator shuttles are connected to the stair case. More persons can wait in the stair lobby as they await evacuation. (Bukowski, 2003) The sky bridge is a safety system for evacuation as it acts as a bridge for persons to cross over to either tower that is not affected by the emergency. More people can access the emergency lifts and descend to lower ground floor as both the emergency systems will be in use. Lives can also be saved as people would have two options other than one to use in exiting the facility. Rescuers too will have a better chance to attend to an emergency as both the towers will be in use thus; more rescue personnel can access the towers at a faster rate. The tower is fitted with fiber optic direct telephone link to the Malaysian fire department that makes the emergency and fire assistance faster. (Abada, 2004) The facility has also designated an area outside for each of the towers where persons gather after an evacuation. The KLCC park adjacent to the towers is essential as it enables the management to have a head count to establish if all persons that had been occupying the facility. The assembly points are quite spacious and able to accommodate a number of persons as they await the verification process. These sites are situated at a reasonable distance away from the towers to avoid interferences and interruption as the rescue process is in progress. The accountability process is made easier as every person accessing the facility is issued with a pass tag that is computerized. The security personnel at the facility have the authority to cordon off the facility and limit access to it only by fire safety personnel as this will ensure no further persons are trapped or exposed to the emergency. The procedure is also useful as it limits interferences caused by confusion and a lot of traffic in the emergency exit areas. This is made possible as the security personnel of the building control the flow of persons at the exit point and are to make it clear at all times. They also run random checks to ensure that the emergency exit doors are always functional. In addition to the KLCC external refuge zone, the facility has designated safety regions on each floor. This is an essential evacuation precaution as it enables persons with difficulty in mobility to access help as he or she awaits evacuation to an outside environment. (The Petronas Towers)The designated areas are also a precaution in case of emergency when only a section or a floor on the twin tower is in an emergency situation that does not seem to threaten the occupants of the other floors. The occupants of the room can access the room as they await the safety personnel to contain the prevailing situation. The facility also has emergency chutes to enable evacuation in case the elevator shafts are overwhelmed. The chutes are only expected to serve the lower regions of the tower to the fourth floor. This is useful as the elevator shuttle will mainly be utilized to evacuate persons on higher floors thus decreasing the traffic and increasing the rescues efficiency. This will also increase the exit routes as the chutes can be staged at any point due to their flexibility. The facility also trains and equips the fire management team with air rescue knowledge. This evacuation procedure is quite effective as evacuees at high levels who are unable to make it to the rescue ways in time can be rescued through on top roof exits using the helicopters. As an evacuation precaution, the management conducts frequent drills with its safety department. This is essential as it ensures and guarantees the preparedness of every personnel under this department. The response of the fire department is also put to test as this is a requirement by the international life safety precautions. It is internationally a requirement that have occupancy of over 500 persons hold fire safety and emergency drills under and or above street levels frequently. The emergency response team that works 24 hours a day consists of stairway well supervisors, searchers, and ground wardens. This evacuation procedure that is headed by life protection supervisor ensures that all departments run smoothly and are ready in case of an emergency. The assignment of roles is essential as the department heads are trained and equipped in handling disaster situations of different kinds. The announcements through the public address system ensure that proper channels and directions are given to ensure the smooth running and efficiency of the evacuees by the rescue team. In addition, the facility is equipped with surveillance cameras on all floors and areas and this enables the safety team to effectively monitor the evacuation process at all stages. It also enable the team to guide the rescue team and evacuees to areas of minimal danger and offer possible solutions in case of a snug as they are able to view the situation from a different angle. (Menon, 2004) Lastly, the safety team has the mobility impaired people and expectant mothers at heart as the tem is responsible of ensuring that they are evacuated through the stair case or through the designated sub ways through the internationally recognized procedure of the buddy system. PETRONAS tower is ensured of continuous supply of water and electricity. This precaution is essential as it enables the facility to evacuate the occupants by use of the fire lifts and elevator shuttles without any interruptions. The full continuous supply of water ensures that the sprinklers are not functionless. The facility has erected signs to alert people during an emergency. The exit signs are in white signs inscribed in blue and green colors. The blue inscribed signals are mainly signs to direct the mobility impaired persons to their exits. This is essential as the rescuers can easily determine the best route to use to evacuate persons to a refuge point in cases of emergencies. Moreover, they have internal rechargeable cell backup as this ensures proper visibility and ensures that they keep being lit in case of a power failure. They are also positioned in places that make them easily visible and their inscriptions can be able to be seen from a reasonably long distance. Since the facility serves a large number of persons, the management has made it a deliberate attempt to reduce the number of persons accessing it. The access to the sky bridge which records a high number of visitors per year can accommodate more than 1000 persons at a given time. (The Petronas Towers) The bridge was built to enable people access all the towers with ease including it being a rescue point through which persons can be able to pass to either towers that are not affected by the emergency situation. Due to this reason, the management minimizes the number of persons visiting or accessing it as it reserves the rights to its admission to a total of 1700 persons a day. This is a perfect evacuation precaution as the strategy is meant to reduce the number of occupants per day thus, being able to have occupants that the safety management team can be able to adequately handle. The strategy also minimizes the risk of a terrorist attack as persons are thoroughly checked before being given access to the facility. CONCLUSION: It is clear that the evacuation measures put in place at the PETRONAS Towers or the Twins Tower is very effective. This is especially reinforced by the modernized communication systems and the designing of the towers in a way that controls smoke thus facilitating quick movement. Additionally, the modifications done to the evacuation plan after the emergency evacuation done shortly after the September 11 have had a great impact of reducing the total evacuation time of both towers to 20 minutes and highlighting on a weakness on the initial evacuation plan thus leading to modifications. These modifications have led to increase in effectiveness. Moreover, the emergency evacuation led to those in charge introducing the use of lifts in the evacuation process. Though the use of lifts has been discouraged in the past due to challenges such as people scrambling for the lifts and lifts failing to work due to interference with power, thus leading to more damage instead of helping, when used in a planned way, they have proved to be of great help. It is evident that the safety and healthy precautions applied by the PETRONAS tower management meet the international standards. However it is important to note that the risk of being overwhelmed in case all the towers are in disaster still remain a challenge. The idea of building the sky bridge to act as an evacuation tool was bright but the designer failed to consider the fact that the sky way could be in effective in case all the towers are affected as evident in the 12th September 2001 bomb scare which proved to render the bridge incapable of handling disasters of such a great magnitude. References Abada, G. (2004): On site Report; Petronas Office Towers Bukowski, R (2003): Protected Elevators for Egress and Access during Fires in Tall Buildings. Bukowski, W, 2010, International Application of Elevators for Fire Service Access and Occupant Egress in Fires, CTBUH Journal G.B.Menon, G & Vakil, J. (2004): Review of Fire Codes and Byelaws. Petronas, 2005, Intelligent Building, http://www.petronastwintowers.com.my/internet/pett/pettweb.nsf/Src/WebDoc*Intelligen t/?Open Skybridge, 2011, www.malaysian-explorer.com Wong, R, 2009, Using Lifts as an Alternative Means of Egress for Evacuation Read More