Engineering Design Project - Essay Example

Introduction Fire can be seen as being a hazard in the building and in the whole institution. Fire when it strikes would results to a number of consequences that includes threatening of life or health and safety of occupants, would cause damage or result to total loss of property and normal business activities and opportunities being interrupted in the building (Bullen ,1978). Fire safety involves preventing the outbreaks of fire and mitigating against any direct and consequential damages by making sure there is detection of fire at in its early stages, reducing the chance of the fire spreading through structural containment, providing escape routes, putting in place emergency evacuation procedures and putting in place a well equipped fire fighting means (British Standard 476: Part 7, 1997). The preventive and protective measures that are put in place are supposed to be suitable for the building use, level of occupancy, the inherent fire risk for the building and the legal duty assigned to the institution as the occupant of the building (Kingspan, 2009). The building fire strategy may be seen as being an extension of the general health, safety and environmental policy in the institution. The major objective to be addressed by the fire strategy to be put in place is ensuring that safety is provided and maintained in the building which in turn will ensure human health and safety as well as ensuring that institutions assets and business opportunities in the building do not suffer. Detection and warning systems In a building of this size incorporation of a Fire detection system cannot be wished away. The fire detection system need to adhere to BS 5859-1 which addresses the need of having fire detection system in building that are non residential. The special points where fire detection is important in the building are the store rooms owing to the fact that such rooms are rarely visited (Communities and local Government, 2006). In the plant floor the boiler room is one of the areas that need to be fitted with the fire detection system as they may not be in regular use. The other room is the switch room and the water booster rooms found in the first floor. The other areas where fire detection system will necessary is the tea room on the first floor. The interview room serve as offices may be origin of fire and may not be occupied through out and therefore are required to have a fire detection system (The UK Renewable Energy Strategy, 2009). It is necessary to have a fire warning system which can heard in the entire building in case there is an incident of fire. Internal fire spread linings Choosing lining materials it is vital as it has a significant effect on the spread of fire and the rate at which the fire is able to grow even though the lining may not necessarily be the material that will be first ignited (British Standard 476: Part 7: 1997). Linings play a critical role especially in circulation areas where most likely they are to be the sole means that can be used by fire to spread and having fire spreading very fast in these areas will be a big hindrance to occupants trying to escape from the building. The properties of lining materials that influence the manner in which fire is able to spread include how readily the material can be ignited and the rate of heat release by the material when under fire. In the evaluation of the lining materials to be put into use stairs and upper surfaces of the floors need not to be given serious consideration due to the fact that their involvement in fire are likely to come when the fire reaches the well developed stage. It is important that surface linings as well as wall ceilings in the building be able to conform to the classes given in Approved Document B in Table 10. In this building thermoplastic lighting diffusers are not to be put into use in cases where we will have fire resisting or fire protecting ceilings and the only exception will be where satisfactory tests have been undertaken to satisfy that they can be part of the ceiling that will be able to the required fire protection. The ceiling to be used in circulation spaces may have thermoplastic lighting diffusers for cases where there is conformation with the conditions given in Approved Document B. Internal fire spread structure In Approved document B it required that escape stairs are to provide a certain standard of protection so as to ensure that the stairs fulfil the purpose of being areas where relative safety is assured. The stairs are to be constructed in away as to have 30 minutes fire resistance level and a fire resistance level of 60 minutes is required for structural frames, load bearing walls, floors and columns. Provision of a fire resisting structure is important as away of reduction of the risk the occupants are exposed to more so those who may be disabled and who may be forced to remain in the building for considerably a long time as the evaluation process progresses. This also serves as a precaution of reducing the dangers that the building may pause to people neighbouring the building and are likely to be injured by debris falling from the building or the entire building structure collapsing and falling on buildings in the neighbourhood. This is also important in addressing the safety of the fire fighters as they proceed with rescue and search operations. In the case where we have an element of structure giving support or stability to another element of the structure, it is important that the element that is offering support should be superior in fire resistance in comparison to the element being supported (British Standard 476: Part 6: 1989 ). It required that head rooms in escape routes to be at least 2m in height and there should be no projection that is below this height apart from the door frame. The materials used as floors on the escape routes are to be chosen to ensure slipperiness even in wet conditions is to be avoided. Approved document B specifies that with regards to dimensions and locations, the final exit is to be such that there can be quick evacuation of occupants from them building. This building location is such that there can be quick dispersal of people from the vicinity of the building thus removing them from the danger of exposure to fire and smoke. As part of the fire strategy requirements the route clear of the building is supposed to be well defined with the possibility of having a suitable guarding. The final exit is to be free of any think that maybe a hindrance to the movement of those on wheel chairs or any person that may be disabled in one way or the other. Regulatory Reform Order and Fire Safety Management In addition to having a building that is designed to expectation with regards to fire safety having proper management ensures that there is optimal utilization of the available facilities (Kim IK, &Ohtani H, 1993). Provision of fire safety training is one of the important aspects with regards to fire safety. All the staff members are required to be trained on prevention of fire and protection against fire when fire incidents happen. The staff members will be furnished with necessary information on the action to be undertaken if fire incident was to occur in the building. This is to include how fire alarm is to be raised, the location of manual call points in the building. The staff will be given information on safe use of portable and other equipment for fire fighting that will be available for fire fighting. Being shown the location of escape routes in the building including routes that during normal access are rarely in use , clear instruction on their role to direct visitors and students who they will be in charge of directing to the escape route ( disabled people are to be directed to the nearest escape route). Training is to put emphasis on the need of ensuring that fire doors are to be kept closed as a measure of limiting fire, heat and smoke spread. Other relevant training is how the process plant is to be shutdown and emphasis on keeping to the required level of house keeping as away of prevention of fire outbreak occurrence. The students using the building are supposed to receive some fire fighting instructions and other relevant information about the building and all their undertakings in the building that could result to risk creation. It will be expected that information on fire safety and instruction concerning the building will be displayed at fire call points near the entrance to the building and in both staff and students hand books. Visitors entering the proposed building are supposed to receive fire safety information and emergency information at a point of signing in. The Safety, Health & Environment Section in the institution will be expected to offer the required training and that the staff in charge of carrying out fire risk assessment will receive sufficient information and training to ensure high competence. Conclusions In this paper we have seen the relevant areas that are supposed to be addressed so as to ensure fire safety in the building. The importance of having a fire detection system and its location has clearly been given. The paper also has given details on the requirements of the internal fire structure with emphasis being placed on the required level of fire resistance in fire stairs and fire escape routes. Apart from the design aspects it has the importance of having a sound fire safety management has also been discussed in details. References British Standard 476: Part 6: 1989 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of test for fire propagation for products. British Standard 476: Part 7: 1997 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of test to determine the classification of the surface spread of flame of products. Bullen ML, Thomas PH (1978). Compartment fires with non-cellulosic fuels. Proc Combust Inst. Communities and local Government (2006).The Building Regulations 2000.Fire safety, Approved Document. Kingspan( 2009).The UK‟s approach to the thermal refurbishment of non-domestic buildings, Kim IK, &Ohtani H, 1993. Experimental study on oscillating behaviour in a small-scale compartment fire (short communication). Fire Saf J The UK Renewable Energy Strategy (2009) Department for Energy and Climate Control Read More