Fire Safety Management Plan for Student Hub - Case Study Example

 FIRE SAFETY MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR STUDENT HUB 2 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Existing Fire Safety Arrangements 3.0 Planning 4.0 Organisation and Control 5.0 Monitoring 6.0 Review 7.0 Fire Emergency Plan 8.0 Suggestions for Improved Designs 9.0 Recommendations 10.0 References 3 1.0 Introduction The Student Hub is a sensitive part of our institution due to the number of students that visit the area in a day. Hence, many activities like eating and drinking, studying, relaxation and meeting take place there; therefore, it is important that a definite fire safety management plan be drawn up to provide appropriate safety strategies for students in case of unexpected fire outbreak. Fire hazard and disaster can happen at any place without prior notice. And when such a dangerous thing occurred, it could claim some lives and destroy a lot of property including buildings, furniture and other materials (Thomson, 2001; Davletshina & Cheremisinoff, 1998). Therefore, the purpose of setting up fire safety management plan is to devise some workable measures to address the issues of protecting human lives and property; and doing everything to prevent such a fire outbreak from occurring in the first instance. Student Hub is a busy centre for numerous activities in our institution, and practical safety procedures are required to protect the lives of students (Alcraft & Spilsbury, 1999). This fire safety management plan is produced to comply with the UK standards of Building Regulations: both BS 9999 and Approved Document B (Daied, 2004). 4 2.0 Existing Fire Safety Systems/Arrangements The Student Hub has some safety measures that were previously put in place, and these include safety procedures for escape through exit fire doors; the use of a controlled-descent shutter in the kitchen to shut out the flame; the use of automatic exit doors; applying the fire-resistant property of the building by using the fire fighting shafts; designing of cavity barriers in a place like library to reduce the spread of fire; space separation of the designed buildings is another safety measure to limit external fire spread, also construction of external walls help to fight fire in this regards; and the installation of fire alarms help to give warnings to all students in the Hub buildings. So, this fire safety management plan will harness all the above-mentioned fire safety strategies so as to map out a functional fire safety management plan for the Student Hub in case of any emergency. In light of this, this plan would help to: Develop a framework for planning, organising, controlling, monitoring and reviewing of the systems of protection and prevention Describe fire safety risk assessment and understanding Highlight fire safety procedures and maintenance Present the safety measures in accordance with UK Building Regulations, Approved Document B and BS 9999. 5 Provide helpful recommendations that students would apply in case there is a sudden fire outbreak. Student Hub is divided into different rooms; and the entire building has stairs, concealed areas and other designs. This Fire Safety Management Plan would provide comprehensive fire safety measures for all the students using the Student Hub so as to understand the ways of escape when there is a sudden fire in the building. 3.0 Planning Planning is the very first step required while drawing up a Fire Safety Management Plan. Some of the important issues addressed in the planning stage include but not restricted to the following: (i) Fire Risk Assessment and Evaluation: At this stage, all the risks facing the Student Hub are assessed and evaluated. This step strictly complies with Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (OPSI, 2009). Hence, the areas of the Hub buildings are divided into three levels of risks: High risk areas: these include kitchen and boiler room (according to Approved Document B definition). Low risk areas: study room, library, plant room, food-and-drink service room, refuge, and meeting rooms. 6 It is helpful to assess and evaluate the efficiency of the safety systems already in place at the Student Hub. These kinds of questions may be asked: are the automatic doors working perfectly? Have the emergency routes and exits been properly designed? Are the fire safety signs and notices clear enough for students to see? Are the fire-fighting devices in good shape? Have the fire wardens/workers been properly trained to handle a fire outbreak? Etc (ii) Documentation: This is another very important step while planning for a fire safety management plan: there must be a fire log book in which data about fire incidents, safety procedures and fire workers’ activities are entered for easy cross-checking in the near future (Tyska & Fennelly, 1997; Britt, 2004). 4.0 Organisation and Control Organisation and control aspect of fire safety management plan entail that there must be trained personnel or workers who will handle the whole fire prevention activities. For instance, the position of a Fire Warden/Fire Safety Manager should be created for only the Student Hub, if there hasn’t been any before. The major functions of the appointed fire warden would include but not restricted to the following: Design Requirements: That the designs of Hub building are conformed to the UK Building Regulations, Approved Document B and BS999 (Communities and Local Governments, 2006: Billington et al., 2002). For example; food-and-drinking service 7 room, the boiler room, stairs and fire fighting shafts, the National Class of lining, cavity barriers, space separation between buildings and external structures, are all designed in accordance with the Approved Document B. So also some designs follow BS 9999 characteristics. Safety Procedures: Ensure that the fire safety policies/procedures are strictly followed. The fire alarms should be working well; the automatic doors must not be faulty; some hazardous objects in the house like oxygen cylinders, fuel tanks etc must be properly protected from the fire source. Routine work: Carry out periodic assessment and evaluation of risk in all areas of the Student Hub building. This will help to issue an alarm to the students whenever there is a fire outbreak. Inspection: Undertake fire inspection for all the areas, and ensuring that fire safety processes in each area are working perfectly. Prior Preparation: Prepare and review emergency plan before there is any fire incident. 5.0 Monitoring One of the ways to assure that the Fire Safety Management Plan for the Student Hub is constantly implemented is for the Fire warden/worker to carry out perpetual monitoring of all the fire safety systems put in place (Furness & Muckett, 2007; Petrocelly & Thumann, 2000). The fire warden may need to apply key performance 8 indicators to measure the level of success of the fire safety procedures. These key performance indicators may include: (i) Estimate the number of fire incidents at the Student Hub in a year/number of casualties—if less students are affected by the fire incidents, it shows that the fire safety procedures are working. (ii) Ascertain the functionalities of all devices and equipment of fire safety—if they had never failed once, it means they are properly maintained and useful. (iii) Measure the rate of fire occurrence—do more fire outbreaks occur at a particular academic session than the others? (iv) Ensure conformity with Building Regulations and other laws/statutes. 6.0 Review There should be constant reviews of all the procedures outlined above: that is, the fire warden and other officials linked to fire safety for the Student Hub should spend time together to reflect upon the impacts of the above-mentioned processes on stopping fire breaking out at the Student Hub (Kenlon, 2008). 7.0 Fire Emergency Plan Fire emergency Plan is very essential in the sense that it will help both the fire workers and students to understand everything about the Student Hub’s fire safety policies and practices. This plan will contain vital instructions about exit doors, refuges, cavity 9 barriers, fire extinguishers and so on. It would contain information about evacuation and pieces of advice about self-protection (Lewis & Payant, 2003; Snow, 2003). It will be helpful if all students are aware of this emergency plan so that they would be ready to run to safety in case an unexpected fire break out in the Hub’s building. 8.0 Suggestions for Improved Designs The following improved designs are necessary for the Student Hub to become fire-resistant to some extent (Wang, 2002; Wible, 2006): BS 9999:2008 guidance about using the ground and first floor to control the Atrium fire load must be adopted: this will hinder the fire from spreading floor to floor. The guidance from Approved Document B, BS 7346-4: 2003 and BR 368 must be adopted in order to execute the design for smoke control. Extensive Room Cavity is allowed by Approved Document B. 9.0 Recommendations It will be helpful if all the contents of this Fire Safety Management Plan are made available to all workers at the Student Hub and students for them to have in-depth knowledge of how this fire safety systems work. The fire warden/ worker should be 10 encouraged to go to trainings, workshops and seminars where he/she can learn about the new methods of controlling and preventing fire outbreak in habitable buildings. Technically, all designs and processes should conform to the Approved document B and BS 9999 standards. These include BS: 5839-1:2002 for the construction of fire alarm and detection systems; BS 5588-7: 1997 for the construction of smoke-control designs; As highlighted above, the main steps in this Fire Safety Management Plan are planning, organising and controlling, monitoring and reviewing of all fire safety strategies for the purpose of preventing and protecting all the students that visit the Student Hub daily. This information could also be made part of the students’ handbook so that all students would have access to right information about how to deal with any outbreak of fire while at the Student Hub. It is also important to use signs and notices that are big enough for everyone to see. In this way, people can understand where the exit or emergency doors are and what to do while running away from a scene of fire at the Student Hub. Using both the Approved Document B and BS 9999 regulations, it is possible to re-design some areas of the Student Hub with the purpose of making the place safe for the large of number of students that visit there often. Without all these strategies outlined above, it may be difficult to maintain security at the Student Hub and prevent fire from destroying both human lives and property. 10.0 References Alcraft, R., & Spilsbury, L., 1999. Fire disasters. London: Heinemann Library. Billington, M., Ferguson, A., & Copping, A., 2002. Means of escape from fire. London: Wiley-Blackwell. Britt, J., 2004. The complete guide to high-fire glazes: glazing & firing at cone 10. Asheville (NC): Lark Books. Communities and Local Governments, UK (2006). Approved document B, Volume 2. Accessed at Daeid Nic, N., 1999. Fire investigation. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press. Davletshina, T., & Cheremisinoff, Nicholas, P., 1998. Fire and explosion hazards handbook of industrial chemicals. New York: William Andrew. Furness, A., & Muckett, M., 2007. Introduction to fire safety management. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Kenlon, John B., 2008. Fire and Fire-fighters: a history of modern fire fighting with a review of its development from earliest time. New York: READ BOOKS. Lewis, Bernard T., & Payant, Richard P.,2003. The facility manager’s emergency preparedness handbook. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Office of Public Sector Information (2009). “The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Accessed at < http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20051541.htm> Petrocelly, Kenneth, L., & Thumann, A., 2000. Facilities evaluation handbook: safety, fire protection, and environmental compliance. Lilburn (GA): The Fairmont Press, Inc. Snow, Dennis A., 2003. Plant Engineer’s Reference Book. New York: Elsevier. Thomson, N., 2001. Fire hazards in industry. New York: Elsevier. Tyska, Louis, A., & Fennelly, Lawrence, J., 1997. One hundred and fifty things you should know about security. London: Heinemann-Butterworth. Wang, Yong C., 2002. Steel and composite structures: behaviour and designs for fire safety.London: Taylor & Francis. Wible, Robert C., 2006. Architectural security codes and guidelines: best practices for today’s construction challenges. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Read More