Fire Safety Measures - Case Study Example

Introduction Fire outbreak in a building can be devastating thus there is need to protect occupants from the effects of fire. Fire can be caused by electric fault, gas leakage, gas explosion or arsonist behaviour. Therefore, there is need for buildings to have high levels of fire safety measures as imposed by approved document B, BS9999 and BS7974. This regulations helps people escape the fire as well as prevent the spread of the fire within the building and its environment. Fire outbreak can be diverting to both humans and the building. All the standards for fire safety require buildings to have the means of escape, to have easy access to the building, the fire safety manual, and evacuation strategy. This is not possible by ensuring during construction the regulations made down are followed. More so, before constructing a house, the risk profile of resident is taken into consideration, that is, the escape or evacuation of a week occupants is different from sleeping occupants. There should be fire detectors in the building. Fire in a building passes through stages growth stage, full develop stage and decay stage. Therefore, the design of a building should take into consideration all these stages to provide significant protection of human lives, assets and other variables within the building. The materials used for construction should be environmentally friendly emitting minimum carbon and dust into the air. Dust from construction sites and construction materials can be reduced by the use of spray water with a principle aim of reducing air and water pollution in the construction area. The walls should be painted with paints that reduce chances of catching fire. The ceiling should be suspended to reduce the chances of catching fire this can contribute to the overall fire resistance of a floor and ceiling assembly. On the floors there should be concealed spaces/ cavities to stop the spreading of fire. The building should have roof lights that are plastic in nature to avoid faster spreading of fire. Fire Safety Measures The required standards for fire escape safety measures is required that buildings should be designed in a manner that ensures smoke does not spread across the building. There are a number of fire safety measures which are undertaken to protect the building from destruction and human lives from loss. Fire production design include inclusion of fire exit, fire fighting equipments like extinguishers, horse pipe, smoke detectors, fire detectors, alarm systems, and loud speakers. It is required that a building should have a wide travel space which will enable both familiar and non-familiar occupants of a building to escape from fire. The doors should be wide. There should be ideal heating and ventilation in the building to enable proper circulation of air and temperature. The door ways of a building should be labelled with proper colours or signs that indicate the escape routes in case of fire. Fire detection equipments as well as warning systems should be installed in the building in strategic and accessible areas. They should be installed in the area where fire is likely to occur. During design engineers and architectures should take this into action to avoid destruction. Detection of fire signs is the proactive step for preventing the occurrence of fire explosions in building. The use of fire detector, pungent smelling fire in the building, and automated valves with sensors can detect the leakage of gas. The fire department and the gas company should be immediately informed about the leakage of gas so that corrective action can be taken by the expert team. If fire occurs due to gas leakage, then its supply, source of oxygen, heat, and chain reaction should be stopped for preventing the further spread of fire. By sharing responsibility, the stakeholders can effectively manage the gas fire explosions in buildings. The standards were established to further monitor and regulate various issues regarding fire safety including fire protection equipment and maintenance of buildings and other premises. Thus, it is established to enforce and administer big establishments regarding their fire safety requirements. Through these electrical and building codes, fire departments and building department could easily understand each other’s language. Furthermore, these codes were created to give emphasis on some areas of overlap including the construction of buildings or establishments. In the occurrence of major fire incidents, building and fire department rely on electrical and building codes especially in determining areas of improvement with regards to fire safety. This paper aims to explore on the significance of electrical and building codes. External fire spread Fire Response Planning anticipates the fact that fire is always is like surprise. It was just an ordinary day for student until the fire occurs abruptly. No one expects it to happen, but it can be such magnitude demanding that it should carefully be laid out. The fact is that such fires are rare in the college since it may take years to occur. Thus, in external fire spread planning we cannot underestimate the importance of proper responding to emergency situations during an fire; requiring pathways to clear and non flammable materials to be used in the outside of the building. There should be enough access space to the building to all sides to avoid loss of life. Take for instance, the role of the university emergency team, which exists under the administration. It ensures individual of the community aware of what fire can cause and its different forms; learn how to detect signs of fire in its most basic level; and be able to report such activities to the appropriate personnel. Internal fire spread structure Fireproof construction is one in which the structural elements are of incombustible materials with fire resistance ratings sufficient to withstand the fire severity resulting from the complete combustion of the contents and finish involved in the intended occupancy. Fire proof buildings have been got by the use of cast and wrought iron and reinforced concrete flooring. Steel beams are also used. The adoption of fireproof building has not been widely considered because of the high finances involved in its implementation. This also requires absolutely skilled labour to implement i.e. it is both capital and labour intensive. Non fire proof construction has dominated the construction industry over a long period of time because of the readily available relatively cheap inputs. The cement available in most markets can only resist heat/combustion up to a certain temperature levels and combustion periods. Make provisions for fire escape routes to the occupants of the buildings giving room for many clearly marked exit routes in the high rise buildings because they carry many occupants at any given time as compared to the single storey building. Rapid advances in technology have presented technological risks to designers and constructors. Designs and structures that have been used in the past are becoming obsolete in dealing with new ventures which present greater complexity and/or scale. Obsolesce is a risk especially in materials and design. Site subsurface conditions create a high level of uncertainty for facilities whose functions are not clearly marked. Sometimes the construction design is changed or modified after construction has begun where construction procedures were not anticipated. A good example of a facility that was faced with such uncertainty is the nuclear power plant. Enclosures like speakers could be either sealed or vented enclosures. In sealed enclosures, an airtight sealed box is used to enhance speaker performance. Cut individual sections then temporarily assemble the box to ensure that all pieces fit well. After the confirmation of the fit, seal the enclosure using a caulker with silicon sealant to ensure air tightness. Vented enclosures are more efficient in releasing low bass into the listening environment. Air leaks should be kept at minimum for good sound quality. Sprinkler systems- being a school a sprinkler system will be installed to help in averting extensive damage and loss of life. Fire extinguishers – they should be strategically placed in exit routs and well labelled. This will help escapees to put of fire when fire spreads to the escape routes. Fire fighting service: There should be horse pipes that are long enough and installed in strategic positions of the building so that they can reach various parts of the building. It is most unsurprising for accidents not to occur in such place being that the use of fire is unavoidable. As such, it is very vital for the concerned institutions to provide proper safety precautions for the sake of the employees. The final finish of a construction is a matter of individual taste and design. Finishing include the interior and exterior texture, colour and specific materials. The use of tiles on floors and walls increases the slipperiness of the floor a part from the beauty therefore users should be put on alert about the textures of the floor to avoid the risk of falls. Every section of the building should be clearly marked for example ablutions to be used by the physically challenged. Buildings whose major component finishing is glass faces the risks of breakage therefore the occupants must be trained on the maintenance of such surfaces, general cleaning guidelines if any and clear instructions on the misuse or mishandling of any of the appliances. Comparison of Approve Document B, BS9999 and BS: 7974 BS7974—this was enacted in the year 2001 for building owners to use while ensuring fire safety in designing their buildings instead of approved document B. The standards gives the owners of the buildings an opportunity to innovatively design their buildings in a manner that is cost effective but maintain the highest standards of fire safety. These standards allow the owners of the building to apply fire safety engineering principals in designing stage of a building. The architecture of the building is given a leeway to design the building in any way but consider possibility of fire occurring in the building. He should also consider a possibility of that fire spreading very first thus, innovatively design a building that will resist that fire, allow occupants to escape without being choked by smoke as well as avoid the fire spreading to the environment. This means the standard gives a designer and the owner wide variety preventive options to be employed. However, it does not give a blanket leeway but provides a methodology which will be used for life safety and protection of infrastructure in case of fire. It also considers the effects of smoke and toxic gases during fire. It recommends the use of various systems to detect fire and smoke. These include alarm systems to alert individuals, smoke detection system, fire suppression system and fire barriers. The standard has procedures which are followed in the design of safety measures of a building. The principals that are highlighted in the standards include installation of pressurised and smoke control systems, installation of sprinklers as fighting equipments, provision of emergency stairs, increase of travel space within the building, provision for large volumes of people, restriction of access to fire services, and elimination of barriers from buildings. Architectures and engineers have been given a free hand by this standard to design a building which in their opinion offers fire safety but there should be effectiveness in the safety systems design as well as reliable. That is the safety systems employed in a building should be able to protect life from smoke and fire as well as ensure pressure from smoke and fire does not lead to collapse of the building. BS9999: 2008—this code of fire safety aims at improving design, use and management of buildings i relation to fire safety. This code of practice uses fire safety principals and data in engineering to design escape routes and introduce new features to the building that were not there in approved document B. This code of practice introduces the use of tables as well as other factors in designing escape routes. It considers the population density and the type of occupants. The figure below shows how various buildings are designed to cater for occupants: Figure of Growth Rate Table of Risk Profile per Building Approved document B was designed to protect occupants of dwelling houses and non-dwelling houses from fire effects. The documents provide safety measures to be undertaken to protect people from fire. Approved document B enlisted the inclusion of windows which can assist somebody to escape from fire, the inclusion of sprinklers, smoke alarms, inclusion of escape prude for disabled people, use of maximum compartment size for escape. References Dowling, J. and Brian Kirby, B. (February 2009.) Fire protection- BS 9999: A new approach to design of fire precautions in buildings. Retrieved December 12, 2012, from FSH/24 (2001). Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Code of practice. London: BSI The Fire Strategy Company, (2008). A Guide to BS 9999:2008- Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings. Retrieved December 12, 2012, from Read More