Fire Safety Engineering and Sustainable Buildings in UK - Case Study Example

Fire Safety Engineering and Sustainable Buildings in UK (Name) (Course) (Lecturer) (Date) Part 1 Case study: Oil Storage Depot Explosion BG Group 2005, http://www.bg-group.com/stepforward/assetintegrity/Documents/english/BG-Q2- majorHazardsAwareness_CaseStudy_3.pdf On 25 December, an oil explosion occurred in oil storage in England. The fire that resulted engulfed over 25 fuel storage tanks. The system is built such that one tank receive fuel direct from a pipeline. On this day, after twelve hours, the tank overflow as there was no automatic shutdown after the fuel reached the ultimate high level. As a result fuel cascaded down from the side of a tank to a bund, a large enclosure that is designed to contain the oil or fuel. There were no systems to detect the flammable liquid escaping. A vapour cloud started to run off site and unknown ignition source caused several explosions that resulted to massive fires and trail of smoke that dispersed in most parts of southern England and afar. Major damages occurred to more than 85 premises and many as 350 residential premises that were in the vicinity. In addition, 50 people have been reported to have been injured due to the explosion and fire. No one was killed as the incident occurred on a morning weekend when most people are at home. The investigation undertaken concluded that the incident was caused by overfilling of the storage tank. The automatic shutting down of the tank did not take place leading to the formation of vapour cloud and eventually ignition. The main problem that resulted to the events includes; Tank Design The designer of the tanks did not have cost of overfilling in mind. The design of the tank facilitated the flow of liquid and flammable vapour from the highest level of the tank to the bund. Safety System Design There were inadequate safety system, that is, indication of level, detection and the alarms that work in sequence were also not parallel. The investigation that was carried out indicated that the alarm level was in good order. However, it was dependent on correct functioning of the switch level which was not working. Maintenance Inadequacies in inspection regimes and tank maintenance failed to expose the faulty level of the gauging system. The high level indicator placed on the tank failed to work and therefore, it did not initiate the alarm. Operation There were two tanks that were being filled simultaneously-a tank on the site and the one that overflowed. Failure to manage properly the process of overflow is seen to be as a result of poor communication. It was confirmed that the fill of the first tank had been shut off leading to more flow of fuel to the other tank. Control of ignition sources Potential sources of ignition were not well controlled or understood. The visible vapour cloud may have been ignited from emergency or fire pumps. The investigation team also identified vehicle engines as potential source of ignition. Fire protection basis It may be prohibitively costly and impractical to design fired protection system to control unforeseen fires. The main requirement of an excellent system is to avoid emergencies from developing into main threat not only to the oil installation but also the surrounding. All the facilities should be designed in such a way that there is no fire water supply near the installation. A single major risk should be considered for providing for providing fire protection system and facilities. Fire protection facilities that should be installed depending mainly on the nature of the risk include; fire water pumping system, spray system, fire network system, first aid equipment, foam system, alarm, fire detection and communication system and mobile firefighting equipment. The fire water pumping system should be located at a minimum distance of 3 m away from the storage of hydrocarbons or equipment. The equipment is exclusively used for firefighting only. The effectual capacity of the tank or reservoir above the level of suction end should be a minimum of 3 hour summative rated capacity of the pumps. In the storage tanks the clean agent system comprises of an in built fire detection, actuation and control mechanism that are used for RIM SEAL fires. In case of a fire incident in the RIM SEAL, the heat causes the spray nozzles to open and the clean agent (extinguishing agent) is applied on the surface of the fire and subsequently the alarm is sounded. Portable fire extinguishers should be located at suitable locations where they are readily accessible and visible at all times. The actual distance to locate fire extinguisher should not exceed 15 m while portable extinguishers should be located across the terminal. Tank loading gantry should accompany the mobile extinguishers. The gas and fire detection system offer reliable and early detection of gas or fire. They alert relevant personnel and therefore, initiate protective actions automatically or the actions may be manual on operator intervention. An electric fire siren should be installed and need to be audible to the farthest distance from the installation. Communication systems like public address and telephone need to be provided in nonhazardous places of installation. In the hazardous areas, intrinsically or flameproof safe paging system should be provided. Lesson to be learnt If the management would have understood and identified the significance of maintenance; they may have identified the high level indicator on the storage tank gauging system to be a safety critical element; and would have recognized, planned and taken out a regime for testing, inspection and maintenance in order to ensure that the safety critical element operated as designed when needed. Part 2 Summary BREEAM is one of the leading non-residential building rating systems for environmental performance. In the construction of the storey hotel, there is a need to follow the given criteria as per the BREEAM specifications. The materials to be used need to be assessed under BREEAM and guidance need to be given on how to go about in the construction. In addition, fire safety engineering is significant considering the environmental and the activities to be carried out in the hotel. Design of a 20 storey hotel in Cardiff Indeed, building construction involves utilization of various materials and methods. In building the storey hotel, the materials used will have low environment impact as recognized by BREEAM which recognizes and encourages such materials (Prior & Williams 2008). Materials According to the BREEAM ratings, there are various criteria that the construction will consider while selecting materials for the construction. These include; life cycle impacts, boundary protection, insulation, design for robustness, hard landscaping and a responsible source of materials. The building will be a steel framed structure with additions of concrete and slabs where necessary. It is important that the building comprise building materials and elements that are appropriate in order to achieve an excellent fire resistance characteristic. The structural elements of the building need to be constructed with non-combustible or non-flammable materials with the right rating in fire resistance. In designing fire safety in the building, it is important to note that the minimum period of fire resistance mainly depend on some factors that include usage, habitable height, and floor area and cubicle extent of the storey building. Therefore, the needed fire resistance does not depend on the type of the material used in building the storey building (BCA 2008). Compartments floors and walls It is obvious that one reason of dividing buildings into compartments is to stop spread of fire between some specified sections of the building. Indeed, this is the most primary passive protection device to prevent fire and smoke from spreading from one building to another. Thus, compartments floors and walls need to be in non-combustible or non-flammable materials in order to achieve the required fire resistance rating. The compartment floors and walls form part of elements of the building which include columns, beams, external and load bearing walls. The desired fire resistance of the separating structure is the least period of time during which the specific building element is expected to function satisfactorily. Each hotel bedroom should be surrounded with one hour fire resistance construction. This is significant in order to protect smoke and fire from spreading into the sleeping quarters. In addition, prevent the risk of fire beginning within the privacy of the rooms and spread to other sections of the building. The internal corridors are obligatory means of escape and therefore, they need to be compartmented from the hotel rooms with half hour fire doors and one hour fire rated compartments walls. Car parks can be constructed with some bare steel structures. The steel car parks should satisfy the conditions stipulated in the Fire Code (BCA 2008). Safety design for the floors Metal deck and concrete topping used in the construction of the floor will act as a complex slab member. The steel beams support the slab. As the metal deck is galvanized, there will be need to ensure that fire proofing material is compatible with the galvanizing. However, as the metal deckings used are listed as fire rated floor systems, there is no need of additional fire protection. The systems plus the concrete topping have the required fire resistance. Design safety for the walls The construction will apply the dry wall system as internal partitioning. They consist of non-combustible fibre cement boards that are attached to metal studs and rock wool which serve as a sound-insulator. The dry wall systems have met the fire resistance requirement. Unprotected openings in the external walls, that is, door and windows, should be limited to stop radiant heat from causing potential fire to begin in adjacent buildings or rooms. There is a need to apply this as the rooms are within proximity (BCA 2008). Protected shafts The protected shaft should be constructed using non-combustible materials. Sustainable material, for instance the drywalls may be used to construct the shaft, that is, if the meet the performance criteria as stipulated in the Fire Code. Ceilings Given that the building is steel framed, fire rated ceiling boards system may be installed in order to provide the needed fire resistance for the bare steel structures. It is important to note that services in ceilings are not allowed unless they are fire protected. Fire protection methods Fire protection for steel framed buildings entails series of measures that result to provision of compartments, escapes and suppression systems to mitigate or prevent fire outbreak. The fire protection system should be applied using profile, box and solid methods. The steel beams which are designed as complex section with slab need a three sided protection while the vertical members for instance the columns, need a four sided protection. Other fire protection systems include spray on materials, fire rated boards and intumescent paint improves fire resistance of the steel. Other strategies include; ensure electrical safety; in the laundry, ensure regular cleaning and maintenance in order to prevent overheats of lint; cleaning and maintenance of kitchen equipment and air conditioning systems. The building will also avail portable fir fighting equipment and to ensure enough maintenance. Recommendations and conclusion It is obvious that United Kingdom is undergoing pressure to provide a sustainable built environment. However, there are various barriers that are faced by the construction industry in meeting the needed requirement. This means that the country has to come up with various ways to overcome the barriers (Williams & Dair 2006). One way to overcome these barriers is by addressing the knowledge gap that exist, that is, lack of information, expertise and awareness in the sustainability issues. The government should offer professional development, information and training for sustainability issues. For instance, the government should support exchange programs that are tailored to exchange best practices of sustainable construction. In addition, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment should run some skills programmes that targets improvement of the general competence level of those who are in the industry. The government and the relevant authority need to enforce regulation and policies that are stringent enough in order to sustain the suitable options. The regulations and policies should keep pace with the excellent practices so as to allow regulatory power where needed. This will assist in meeting the sustainability objectives. There is a need to make sustainable material, technologies and product available. Indeed, their demands should be stimulated so as to increase supplies and maintain the technology streamlined. In addition, there is also a need to advocate for better comparative information on the prices of sustainable construction materials, techniques and so on. Lacks of this information, those involved in the development are not likely to take any risks in order to achieve better sustainable outcome as before (Duxbury 2003). Finally, there is a need for the end user of the building to perceive the obligation to have sustainable building in the country. It is obvious that this group represent demand. As such, they affect demand through choosing, buying or commissioning of a developed sustainable building in a sustainable location. A higher demand of sustainable developed building ill increases sustainability developing building in the country (Blair & Evans 2004). Essentially, there is a need to come with various strategies that meet individual issues in order to ensure that there is complete sustainability in building development, that is, buildings that are designed and constructed so as to meet the high environmental standards minimizing energy requirement, water consumption and utilize material that have less impact on the environment. References BCA 2008, Sustainable construction: a guide on fire protection and performance-based fire engineering, Singapore BG Group 2005, http://www.bg-group.com/stepforward/assetintegrity/Documents/english/BG-Q2- majorHazardsAwareness_CaseStudy_3.pdf Blair F, & Evans B 2004, Seeing the Bigger Picture: Delivering Local Sustainable Development. Rowntree Foundation: York. Duxbury G 2003, On the Home Front: Improving the Housing Environment and Delivering ‘Sustainable Communities’. Groundwork:Birmingham. Prior J, & Williams C 2008, Sustainability Through Planning: Local Authority Use of BREEAM, EcoHomes and the Code for Sustainable Homes, HIS BRE Press, Watford, UK. Williams K, & Dair C 2006, What Is Stopping Sustainable Building in England? Barriers Experienced by Stakeholders in Delivering Sustainable Developments. Oxford: John & Wiley Read More