Means of Warning and Escape Routes - Term Paper Example

Running Header: Means of warning and Escape routes Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 2.1 Connectivity of the firearms and smoke detectors 4 2.2 Placement of the fire alarms 5 2.3 Power supplies 6 2.4 Installation of firearms and smoke detectors 7 3.0 Means of escape 7 3.1 Escape routes for the ground storey 8 4.0 Designing an horizontal escape 10 4.1 Structure of horizontal route 10 4.2 Room occupation and number of exit routes 11 4.3 Calculating the exit capacity 14 5.0 Construction of the vertical escapes-stairs 15 6.0 Conclusion and recommendations 16 References 17 1.0 Introduction The policy on building and construction as reviewed and provided in 2010 is intended to be used as a framework on how different structures and buildings should be planned and built in order to reduce the effects of fire incase it occurs both at residential and commercial buildings (The Building Regulations, 2000). This follows after the emergence of fire related incidents in many parts of the country leading to large losses of property and live. The policy is a clear guideline of what rules should be followed by the engineers and the city planners in order to make sure that fire accidents are no longer a threat to commercial and residential houses. The policy is actually handled and treated as the government law that is used to ensure compliance with the national policy framework on building and construction. The important point to note is that no single constructor throughout the country that is allowed to use any other model of buildings and structures except as provided for in the policy (Communities and Local Government, 2006). Any action that deviates from this policy regulation is treated as an offence and one can be charged in the court of law for putting the lives of people in danger. According to the 2010 document which has been amended, all buildings must adhere strictly to the law and that no building should be built without following and meeting all the requirements as provided for in the document. Ideally, the role of this law is to make sure that apart buildings are not risky to fire, they must also be built in such away that they do not pose health challenges to the occupants. As away of emphasizing responsibility by the building owners, the document has further to insist that proper and quality materials have to be used to construction. This is particularly aimed at building houses that at least fire for a while so as to allow evacuation to take place. Involvement of the qualified experts such as engineers and architectures is a requirement by the document. Regulation 7 of the policy clearly outlines what all buildings must observe like the CE which must concur with the Construction Product Directive (Communities and Local Government, 2006). As a guideline, this report has been authorized to take a critical of the policy and how it addresses issues that involve warning and escaping incase of fire. This report will more particularly play more emphasis on what the policy says on the installation of firearms, smoke detectors and the required building occupancy. The report will discuss how the horizontal and escape routes should be designed. 2.0 Fire alarms and systems The firearms and smoke detectors are the key requirements by the regulation. According to the regulation 2010, which was, revised and amended in 2010 demands that all buildings be installed with these facilities (Communities and Local Government, 2010). The agenda is to make sure that fire or even smoke are detected earlier enough in order for appropriate actions to be taken to counter the fire and at the same time protect and live from being consumed by fire. Smoke appearance is one sign that can be used that fire is somewhere. This why that the document stipulates that builder are not expected to equip their buildings with fire alarms but also smoke detectors (Communities and Local Government, 2010). The regulation has gone further to emphasize that places which are highly populated should be equipped with as many as firearms as possible. This is because of the high risk associated with such places. The BS 5839-6:2004 insists on the need for all houses to be well protected from fire by use of alarms. 2.1 Connectivity of the firearms and smoke detectors The policy recommends that for all firearms and smoke detectors to be effective and meaningful, they must be connected to a specific main unit where signals could be sent to and received from. The policy on conformity is provided for in the BS 5446-1:2000 and BS 544-2:2003. The regulation demands that all firearms should have a pack-up source of power which can be used to alternative energy incase in their shortage of electricity. The idea behind this regulation is to make sure that the alarms can remain functional even when power goes off. Under connectivity, the policy also advises on the need to carefully select the most reliable fire detectors. This is because different detectors respond differently to fire and smoke. While some can be very faster in detecting smoke others could take relatively longer period to do so. A good example is the ionizable smoke detectors and photo-electric smoke sensors. In this case, the photo-electric is perceived to be more reliable and faster as opposed to the ionizable smoke detectors. In some occasions, some firearms and detectors are found to be faulty (Communities and Local Government, 2010). This is because it has been established by the regulation that some detectors could raise false alarms even when there is no fire or any threat of fire and consequently causing lot of uneasiness and anxiety. The regulation therefore recommends on the importance of buying and installing quality firearms. A good example of quality firearm according to this document is the optical detectors. These detectors are less affected by small particles of smoke which for obvious reasons may be found in the house. These detectors are particularly recommended for use at kitchens where invisible smoke particles are very common. This is because they are unlikely to raise alarms because of the kitchen smoke (The Building Research Establishment, 2000). 2.2 Placement of the fire alarms BS 5839-6:2004 directs on fire detectors and alarms should be positioned in the house. However, there are several considerations that must be met when positioning them. First and foremost, the fire detectors and alarms should be placed in open spaces such as sleeping rooms and other places where fire is likely to start first like in the kitchens. It is recommended that in a story building, at least one firearm should be placed in each storey. In the building where the kitchens are not partitioned from the stairways and open spaces by the door, it is recommended that a connection be established to link the kitchen and other spaces. In a building where more than one alarms are installed they should be put in such away to behave as if they are one alarm. This means that if one alarm detects fire and raises an alarm the other should also follow suit. To be more specific, the regulation requires that the alarm should be placed at least 7.5 metres to the door going to the living room ((The Building Research Establishment, 2000)). This is to make sure that alarm can be heard by anybody who may be in the living room. In the houses where the ceilings are used, there should be a reasonable space between the walls and the fittings. The space recommended in between is 300mm. The purpose of doing this is to make sure that light can easily penetrate to and consequently making it easy for the alarm to detect fire. While the smoke sensor is supposed to be placed between 25mm and 600mm just below the ceiling, the heat detectors should be fixed between 25mm and 150mm. this policy applies to all horizontal ceilings (The Building Research Establishment, 2000). 2.3 Power supplies The power to run the alarms should be fetched from the dwelling houses. All smoke alarms should be connected to one single and independent circuit that comes direct from the main distribution board. This is to make sure that at no single time the power is interrupted which may affect the operation of the alarms (The Building Regulations, 2000). The prolonged periods of disconnection are very possible where there is no independent source of power for the alarms. This means that incase there is fire; the detectors will not be able to operate and raise the alarm because of lack of power. The Approved Document B on Electrical safety demands that a proper electrical installation be done during construction (Communities and Local Government, 2006). As outlined in the BS 5839-6:2004, proper domestic power connection should be followed in order to support the efficient functioning of the firearms and smoke detectors. Important point to note is that the smoke power alarms can be connected from the mains as long as they use the radio links which ensure that power can run for 72 hours without going off (Communities and Local Government, 2006). 2.4 Installation of firearms and smoke detectors The policy takes the installation process to be of major concern. During the installation of the firearms and smoke detectors, it is expected that all requirements be fulfilled and be certified through the issuance of approval certificate. The certificate is used as a legal document to show that installation of alarms has met all the requirements. Incase the alarms have to be maintained the BS 5839-1 and BS 5839-6 recommend that all the occupants of the building be notified of the operation (Communities and Local Government, 2006). 3.0 Means of escape This part of the policy provides the framework which has to be followed when building the escape routes. A number of provisions are provided under this section to make sure that means of escapes are well designed and built. The policy puts more emphasis on storey buildings which seem to pose a big challenge to the escapees given the height that may attempt to jump to run for their lives. The regulation demands that the internal stairway be protected and preserved for use incase there a risk of fire (Communities and Local Government, 2006). The policy is of the view that all floors that are placed at more than 7.5 metres above the ground are more risk and there is need to design and build the escape routes. In addition the escape routes should be constructed in such away that they do not interfere with the daily operations of the building. 3.1 Escape routes for the ground storey A part from the kitchen, all the living rooms found at the ground storey must open direct to the space leading to the escape routes and must also be proved with open windows and doors. In those floors that are placed 4.5m above the ground, all rooms except the kitchen must be provided with open windows and doors that lead to the escape routes and direct connection to the preserved stairways. Important point to note is that one window can be accepted for use by two rooms if each room has its own access to the stairs (London Fire Brigade, 2010). The connection door must also be provided for the two rooms in order to access the single window that is available. Incase there are several floors above 4.5m from the ground, more than one stairway need to be provided for in order to provide several alternatives for escaping (London Fire Brigade, 2010). However, the separation of the escape routes is a decision that can be made by the constructor and they can be separated by the use fire resistant walls or by other rooms. Dwelling houses with one floor but above 4.5m above the ground should have a stairway or an alternative escape like the case of the ground storey. The stairway must be protected and must lead direct to the final exit route. In addition, the floor must have access to the ground floor and each escape route must be protected either by the fire resistant wall or doors. The upper storey floor should also be separated from the ground or lower storey fire resistant wall and must also be provided with alternative escape route which must lead to the final escape exit. Incase of the living rooms above 4.5m from the ground, the stairway should be provided and alternative escape gate should also be available (London Fire Brigade, 2010). For a dwelling house where the floor is above 7.5m from the ground, the stairway is also needed and should be separated from the lower storey which is fire resistant as shown in the diagram 1 and 2 below. According to, BS 9251:2005, the dwelling houses must be provided with water sprinklers that can be used to deliver water incase there is fire in the storey (London Fire Brigade, 2010). Diagram 1: escape routes from dwelling houses Diagram 2: escape routes from dwelling houses The general provisions on escape routes However, the general provisions with regard to the escape demand that a window or a door that is used for escape purpose to comply with certain conditions. First, the window must be open and never obstructed from the open area and it should be at least 0.33 square metres with 450mm wide and 450mm high. It should be an angle and not a straight way. The open area of the window should not be more than 1100mm above the floor. This is to make sure it is easy for one to pass through without being injured ((London Fire Brigade, 2010)). On the other hand the window or door must be free to move through. The important point to note is that the window or the door must lead to open area. Windows and doors should be constructed in such away that they can remain in an open position without be held by the person escaping. 4.0 Designing an horizontal escape The primary agenda of designing and building the horizontal escape routes in the buildings is toe ensure high level of safety is maintained in residential places more especially with regard to fire accidents (London Fire Brigade, 2010). Proper design of the horizontal escape routes will ensure that people can freely escape with sustaining any injury. This section of the report outlines some of the important policies that have put in place to regulate the construction of the escape routes. 4.1 Structure of horizontal route Before deciding to build the build the horizontal escape, the most important factor according to the regulation that should be taken into consideration is the number of occupants in the building, the size of the building in terms of height and the distance that exists between the residential rooms and the escape routes (London Fire Brigade, 2010). However, very important to note is that the regulation demands that distance that exists between the rooms and open place for escape be reasonable enough in order to allow the escapees to move out of the building before the fire can confine them in the rooms. Use of preserved routes and stairways should always be used to offer alternatives to escapees incase fire is coming from a certain direction. According to the policy, premises that hoist various activities need to have separate means of escaping. The reason for having separate escape routes is to allow easy and convenient movement of persons without any collision (Purkiss, 2007). In addition this will allow the fire rescuers to evacuate the victims in a more controlled way. Several and separate escape routes are also used to allow faster escaping in order to avoid a scenario where people are likely to be trapped in their rooms. The regulation allows use of single escape routes only if the following condition is met: the escape stairway moves the same direction with the exit route. This scenario is only possible in areas like bars when the number of people is small and escape route and exit routes may be moving the same direction (Purkiss, 2007). In addition, this is only allowed if these places carry less than 30 persons at any given time. In the storey buildings, this exception can only apply the room carries less than 60 people at any given and where all routes move to the same direction. 4.2 Room occupation and number of exit routes The policy also regulates on the number of exists that each room should have. The number of people in a building is used to determine the number of horizontal exits which a building should have. Incase the number of the occupants is not clear, the document has developed a formula that should be used by the applicants to determine the number of exists a building should have (British Standard Institution, 2008). The formula takes into consideration the amount of the space each person is likely to occupy and then divided by the total amount of space that is available. Let consider the table 1 below which provides the amount of space persons are expected to occupy in different buildings. Accommodation type floor space in sq. metre Fans, bars, and soft drinking sites 0.3 Assembly halls, clubs, dancing halls, halls for pop concerts etc 0.5 Concourse and queuing areas as well as shopping malls 0.7 Committee room, common room, conferences rooms, dining places etc 1.0 Show sites, recording studios, television shows, and film centres etc 1.5 Skating rink 2.0 Retail shop areas 2.0 Office 6.0 Art galleries, dormitories, manufacturing areas and museums 5.0 Kitchens and libraries 7.0 Bed-sitter house or study area cum bedroom 8.0 Car park area 2 persons in every parking Storage or warehouse 3.0 Example A construction company based in Iowa was given a tender to construct a shopping mall the local government. However, it was not clear approximately the number or persons could be accommodated at any given time. However, the surface area for the available was approximated to be about 10,000 square metres (Purkiss, 2007). The obligation for the construction company was to determine the number of the appropriate number of horizontal escape routes that could be made available given that the mall was on a ground storey. According to the regulation: The expected number of persons=total space/the amount of space per person 10,000/5.0=2,000 occupants The table 2 below on the other hand shows the number of exit routes that could be constructed for any building as long as the number of occupants is known. The number of the exits is determined by the number of people who are to occupy a given room. Highest number of people Number of escape routes 60 1 600 2 More than 600 3 From the table above, it is now very easy to determine the number of escape gates that should be designed for each building once the number of occupants is known. From the example it is evident that the bigger the number of occupants the more of the number of exists that are required. 4.3 Calculating the exit capacity The exit capacity refers to the number of people that can pass through the escape route at any one given time. Even though the building can have more than one exit, it is possible that some may be blocked by fire thus risking the lives of people stuck inside. This is the reason as to according to the policy as provided in British Standard Institution (2008), the size of the escape route size should be done in accordance to the number who can pass there at any one given time. The policy has provided the following formula for calculating the width of the escape route: W= ((N/2.5) + (60S)/80 Whereby: W = the width of the escape route in metres N= Number of persons served by exit at the ground floor S =Width of the stairs in Metres Example The ground storey of a particular dancing hall in the city is expected to serve 200 persons at any one given time. The width of the final exit stair is known and is 2.0 m. required: width of the final exit. Final exit = ((200/2.5)+ (2.0 * 60))/80 Width = 2.5 metres 5.0 Construction of the vertical escapes-stairs In a storey building, the major consideration is the number of escape routes that have to be built and more especially the stairs. Like the case of the horizontal escape routes, the design and construction of the stairs is affected by a number of factors. As a matter of fact, the factors that affect the two escape routes namely the horizontal escape routes and stairs are the same. In this case, the width of the stair is of great importance as argued by (The Building Research Establishment, 2000). The document demands that all factors be adhered to when designing the escaping stairs and that no single building should be approved if does not comply with the law. According to the regulation, no single building will be expected to have a width of more than 1400mm if the vertical distance is more of the stair is more than 30 m. in addition, the width must remain the same along the stairs. This is to ensure uniformity and easy movement of persons. According to BS 5588-7:1997, demands that stairs be designed in such away to serve simultaneous evacuations (The Building Research Establishment, 2000). The simultaneous evacuations should be constructed to serve the residential buildings as well as the recreation centres and other assembly points. The stairs capacity is calculated using the following formula: P = 200 W + 50(W-0.3)(N-1), or W= P+15n-15/150+50n In this case: P =number of persons W= stair width N= number of storeys Example 1: A particular cafeteria is situated at more than 20 metres high. The number of persons who get served is 1000 The number of storeys is 12 Required: Width 1000 = 200W + 50 (W- 0.3) (12-1) 1000 = 200 W + (50W – 15) (11) 1000 = 200 W + 550 W – 165 1000 = 750 W W = 1333mm 6.0 Conclusion and recommendations Provided that the regualtion on buidling and construction is elaborate, its is evident that to say that document is playing a major role in ensuring the government policy on safety is residential houses is fully implemented. The policy subjects the various city planners and engineers into the sportlight on their willingness and commitement to enact the government plan. The document is particularly designed to ensure that precautionary measures are taken which can used to detect and curb fire related losses (The Building Research Establishment, 2000). However, as a requirement there is need to organize educational programmes that could be used to educate the public on the importance of this policy in protecting lives and properties. In addition, there is need to contionuos review the policy in order to make sure that new challenges are meant. Finally, to strictly follow the policy and incase one does not comply a stiff penalty be imposed to safegurd the policy. References British Standard Institution 2008, BS 9999, Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings, London, British Standard Institution. Communities and Local Government 2006, Building Regulations 2000; Fire safety, Approved Document B-Volume 1; Dwelling Houses, Viewed 6 Feb 2012, from http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADB1_2006.pdf Communities and Local Government 2010, Fire and emergencies: fire safety law and guidance documents for business. Retrieved on 29th February 2012 from: http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/ Department for Communities and Local Government, May 2008, Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008–11, London. London Fire Brigade 2010, London Safety Plan 2010/2013, London. Purkiss, J 2007, Fire Safety Engineering Design of Structures, Elsevier. Stollard, P and Abrahams, J 1995, Fire from First Principles, A design guide to building fire safety, 2nd edn, E & FN Spon. The Building Regulations 2000, Approved Document B – Fire Safety, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office. The Building Research Establishment 2000, BR187, External fire spread: building separation and boundary distances, The Building Research Establishment, Garston. Read More