Risk Assessment-Computing and Technology Building - Term Paper Example

RISK ASSESSMENT COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY BUILDING West Campus, UClan Preston ABSTRACT This is a risk assessment of Computing and Technology Building in West Campus of UcLan Preston. Risk identification was conducted to determine the various hazards in the facility that may cause harm to people and damage to property. The evaluation of risk was based on some common requirements for a fire safe building. These include presence of smoke and heat detectors, sprinklers, escape routes with proper signage, fire intervention defences such as portable fire extinguishers, and the building’s overall fire safety design. After the hazard identification, hazards were ranked according to their likelihood of occurrence and impact. The work was then followed by a PHA to find associated underlying risk factors, risk levels, and remedial actions required. An event trees were used to analyse and verifies the sequences of events that may lead to success or failure. These include diagrams of fault and success trees showing possible events and routes to failure or success. In the later section, discussions of some relevant subject such as implementing cost/benefit analysis, contingency plans, reliability of systems, and insurance. 1. Introduction Risk assessment is generally used many to identify potential hazards and reduce its effects to people, property, environment, and economy. Most risk assessments are concerned with life safety and structured in a way that it includes identifying hazards in a particular facility, the people that may be affected by these hazards, the risk level and action that should be taken to reduce or completely eliminate the hazards. The following sections discuss the risk assessment conducted in the Computer and Technology Building at West Campus in UClan Preston. These include descriptions of hazards identified, the people that may be hurt or severely harmed, and the recommended safety measures. A Preliminary Hazard Analysis is also discussed along with Event Tree analysis of sequence of events that may lead to success or failure, Cost/Benefit Analysis, and Business Continuity Planning. 2. Building and Rooms Description The ground floor of the Computing and Technology Building at the West Campus of UClan Preston has its main entrance on the north side. It has more or less 37 rooms of various sizes and four stairways leading to the upper floors. The main entrance has two double swing doors, leading to the main reception area near the first stairway to the right. A lift is also available at the left side of the main entrance. At the end of the hallway is a double-swing door leading to the second stairway on the left. The ground floor has three exit doors- one on the side of the first stairway, one on left wing, and one located in the right wing just after the stairway to the south. The first floor of the building has a similar layout with the ground floor but it has more rooms due to several divisions made on larger rooms similar to the rooms below the ground floor. The second floor has less floor area compared to the ground and first floor considering the absence of large rooms such (CM 018 and CM 101) near the north entrance and large rooms at the end of each hallway in the south of the building. From the stairway coming from the north to the left is a hallway similar to the other floors. It has two comfort rooms fronting each other, with corresponding utility rooms. On the right of side of the hallway are four smaller rooms and an open space measuring about 8 to 10 square meters located just after the comfort room (CM 205). One of the door of room CM 235 leads to a utility room (CM 245) while the other two doors are leading to room CM 234. There is also, a two-leaf double swing door leading to the south stairway (CM 2CS2). Accessible only from the stairway near the main entrance, the roof can be access through a double-swing door from the stair. To the left side of a narrow hallway is one room measuring 73 square metres. From the stair to right are two small rooms measuring about 2 and half square metres followed by a larger room that is about 97 square metres in size. 3. Hazard Identified Risk is commonly defined as something that has the potential to hurt somebody, destroy or damage property and pollute the environment (Thomson 2001, p.26). Risk assessment always include tasks for identifying hazards since it is essential to find specific agents that can cause severe damage to property and human lives (Cox 2006, p.83). Hazard identification can be viewed as an organised process of recognising hazards that can significantly bring “undesirable losses” (Cote 2003, p.283) and a valuable tool in evaluating existing facilities like the Computing and Technology Building in West Campus of UCLan Preston. The hazards in this facility were identified using some criteria for properly evaluating the risk it poses to people. These are presence of means and ways to detect an outbreak of fire, provision that have been by management to warn everyone in the premises in case of fire, arrangement made to ensure adequacy of means of escape, provisions for fire fighting equipment, and other associated safety features (Thomson 2001, p.26). Hazards may be filtered by ranking as will be discussed in the next sections including Preliminary Hazard Analysis and Event Trees to determine those that require much attention or priority (Mannan & Lees 2005, p.29). After a thorough examination of the facility, the following hazards were identified and listed in the next section. The table contains a list of hazards and their corresponding details. For instance, the people who might be affected, the risk ranking or the level of prioritization for the particular hazard, control measures recommended, and further action that should be taken to ensure reduction or complete removal of the hazard. HAZARD LIST No. Hazard Who might be harmed and how Risk Ranking Control Measures Further Action 1 Fire Staff and Visitors who might be inside during the occurrence. In case of fire, staff and visitors inside the rooms may not be aware of a fire spreading and may be trap inside the room. HIGH Fire Sprinkler System Fire Alarm Installation of Smoke detectors in the hallways. 2 Ignition sources from electronic equipment People working on computer rooms and adjacent rooms. Overheating equipment can become an ignition source that could ignite combustible materials near the working area. HIGH Proper or suitable ventilation for computers and other peripherals. Installation of smoke detector 3 Sources of Fuel such as office paper, documents, and furniture Staff and Visitors As the source of ignition ignites fuel sources, fire may grow larger and spread quickly due to large sources of fuel. HIGH Place sources of fuel away from possible ignition sources such as computers and other electronic or electrical equipment Installation of smoke detector Provision for fire extinguishers for each room 4 A door opens towards the hallway at CM 005, CM 106, and CM 2009-12-08 During regular workings and particularly during an emergency, people walking along the hallway can be affected by this door. When the door opened by somebody, it accidentally hit people and may blocked half of the hallway during an emergency response Medium Re-orient door leaf toward the room Re-install door leaf 5 Door near stairway in the ground floor’s left wing leading directly to source of oxygen or natural flow of air. Occupants and Visitors during a fire. A fire may grow bigger due to oxygen coming from this door. HIGH Close the door since there is another door inside the stairway area. Close the door or put an automatic closing mechanism 6 Door of CM 133 and CM 135 could blocked access and exit from CM 134 and hallway respectively Occupants of room CM 134 may blocked by this door during an emergency. LOW Re-orient door Re-install door and orient it towards CM 133 and CM 135 7 Inner room CM 151 has no alternative escape route Occupants of this room may be trapped if a fire broke out in CM 150 since there is not alternative route MEDIUM Alternative route or separate two room by a hallway Install a door at CM 148 or construct a wall with a new door at CM 150 to completely separate the two rooms. 8 No alternative escape route for inner rooms CM 211 and 211A Occupant in these rooms may be trapped when a fire broke out in CM 210 MEDIUM Provide alternative route Construct a door for CM 211A towards the hallway and emergency door for CM 211 towards CM 211A or CM 215 9 Double-swing door on room CM 235 directly opens to the stairway. Occupants of room CM 235 may be at risk since the stairway can become a source of large amount of oxygen during a fire in the room. HIGH Additional door Construct additional door in either the stairway or inside CM 235 near CM 243 10 Stairway area open to hallway near CM 228 Occupants may be affected by rapid growth of fire as this stairway can be a source of oxygen. Additionally, during a fire, flames and smoke may reach this area an affect the escaping occupants and responders HIGH Additional protective door Install an additional protective door similar to CM 2CS1 4. Risk Ranking Risk assessment entails not only hazard identification but evaluation of its risk level to reduce residual risks to as low as reasonably practicable. In order to do this, there must some of form of risk ranking system that can identify risk that needs to be address sooner. In other words, the higher the risk ranking of a particular hazard, the higher its priority and therefore must be address immediately (Hughes & Ferrett 2009, p.88). Risk ranking is normally a product of considering types of harm and damage. For instance, it can be considerations on the severity of the effect, fatalities, and injuries to people or damage to property. Moreover, it can also consider the effect or damages that it might cause to its surrounding, public areas, environment, and economy. Risk ranking basically takes into account the harm and damage regardless if it’s short or long-term for as long as it poses danger (Wells 2004, p.216). The severity is however measured by the magnitude of the hazard such flammability, toxicity, and so on. The likelihood of occurrence is generally measured on how frequent or likely certain harm will occur. For instance, a hazard’s ranking is high when it’s certain or near certain to occur. Similarly, a hazards’ ranking is medium or low when it has a strong possibility to occur at a certain time or will seldom occur respectively (Hughes & Ferrett 2009, p.89). The following risk table shows a hazard had been rank according to their level of harm, impact to people, property, and economy. Hazard Likelihood Lx I Impact ((P+P+E)/3) Rank People Property Economy Fire 3 X 3 3 3 9 Overheating equipment 3 X 3 3 3 9 Sources of Fuel 3 X 3 3 3 9 Door Leaf Blocking the hallway 2 X 2 2 2 4 Door leading to large source of oxygen 3 X 3 3 3 9 Door leaf blocking access and exit from neighbouring rooms 1 X 1 1 1 3 No alternative escape routes on some inner rooms 2 X 3 2 2 6 Double-swing door directly opens to stairway 3 X 3 3 3 9 Stairway open directly to hallway 3 X 3 3 3 9 5. Preliminary Hazard Analysis The Preliminary Hazard Analysis or simply PHA is a safety analysis tool being used to identify hazards, the associated causal factors, impact, risk level, and mitigation required to ensure safety as much as possible (Ericson 2005, p.75). A PHA typically contains a hazard description or scenario, location and description of hazard being analysed, who are going to be exposed, occurrence probability, and remedial action required (Manuele 2003, p.264). In this PHA, the source and location of hazard were identified including items or events that can trigger them. It also includes the possible consequences of these hazard and the contingencies that must in placed to reduce their impact. PRELIMINARY HAZARD ANALYSIS Ref. # Source of Hazard Location of Hazard Trigger (s) Possible Accident Consequences Warning Devices Safeguards Contingencies Frequency Criticality Rank Comments 1 Fire In the building Electrical and Human caused Fire & Explosion Damage to property and death None None Smoke Detector/ Sprinkler/ Extinguishers High High Install safety devices 2 Overheating Equipment Computer rooms/ Offices Human / Electrical and electronic malfunction Fire & Explosion Damage to property / injury/death None None Smoke and Heat Detector/ Sprinkler/ Extinguishers High High Install safety devices 3 Sources of Fuel Offices / Utility Electrical/ Electronic/ Human Fire & Explosion Damage to property / injury/ death None None Smoke Detector/ Alarm/ Extinguishers High High Put away sources of fuel/ install safety devices 4 Blockage in the hallways In the hallway Human Delay and physical harm Injury None None Re-orientation of door leaf Medium Medium Repair and re-orient door 5 Door leading to large source of oxygen Ground floor left wing near stairway Human Rapid fire growth Damage to property/ injury/ death None None Additional door High High Close door or add secondary door 6 Door leaf blocking access or exit from other room First floor Human Delay in escape Injury None None Re-orient door Low Low Repair and re-orient door towards the room 7 No alternative escape route First floor Fire Entrapment Death None None Alternative escape route Medium Medium Construct emergency door 8 Inner rooms no alternative escape routes Second floor Fire Entrapment Death None None Alternative escape route Medium Medium Construct additional emergency door or separate rooms 9 Double-swing door in room directly open to stairway Second Floor Fire Rapid fire growth Damage to property/ injury/ death None None Add door High High Construct additional door to suppress air 10 Stairway open directly to hallway Second Floor Fire Rapid growth and spread of fire to stairway Damage to property/ injury/ death None None Add door High High Construct a new door in stairway 6. Event, Fault, and Success Trees An event tree is an analytical technique that begins with an initiating event where each system or function provides a branch that ends with success or failure. In other words, an event tree can be use to trace or identify sequences that lead to failure or success. Trees are useful in various kind of decision making since once the event tree is constructed, the probability of an accident sequence can be calculated and reduced if required. Similarly, the fault tree can be use for reliability analysis particularly in complex systems (Nero 1979, p.65). a. Event Tree This event tree is developed from left to right. The fully developed “fire” which is the resulting product of the system is generally influenced by the fuel source, oxygen source, and absence of fire safety devices. When a fire is “avoided/detected” because “fire safety device” is present or the “oxygen source is closed” and the fuel source removed, the event would succeed and the fire would not develop. However, when a small fire ‘ignites more fuel” and there is “no fire safety devices” around and the “oxygen source exist” in abundance along with other “fuel source”, the event leads to failure and the fire would developed and cause destruction. Similarly, if “fire growth is limited” and fire safety devices are present, limited or no oxygen or fuel source, the fire would not develop and safety is achieved. b. Fault Tree Unlike the event tree, the failure is developed from top to bottom. For instance, when an electrical or electronic fault occurs and there are fuel source around, the event could lead to fire. Similarly, in the same branch of the fault tree, if human error started a fire and there are enough fuel in the area this event could also lead to fire. In a different scenario on the right side of the fault tree, when a small fire started and the “door was left open” this will let oxygen through, rapid fire growth will occur. In the same way, when a building is designed with no fire defences such as compartmentation, oxygen will go through and the fire will grow. In the middle of the fault tree, the “no fire safety devices” installed indicate a general event that means if there is no fire safety devices installed, the likelihood of fire is high. c. Success Tree If a fault tree is created by deductive reasoning resulting to various combinations of events that leads to a top event failure, a success tree demonstrate the combinations of successful events leading to the success of the top event (Ayyub 2003, p.74). In other words, a success is the opposite of fault tree and in the success tree the effect of the lower events would lead to “fire safe” condition. For instance, whenever there are fire “safety devices’ and fuel “sources are removed or safely stocked”, the result would be a fire safe area. The same result would be achieved if “fire safety programmes/security” is in placed and people are fire safety conscious. On the right side of the success tree, the events specified are those that would happen when a fire already occurs. For instance, if automatic doors are installed or added to a building, there is no oxygen source that would enhance fire growth. Similarly, when a building’s layout was revised to accommodate fire safety features, fire would not grow and the building will be fire safe. 7. Reliability and Insurance There are a number of ways to test the reliability of a system, device, structure, and so on and the idea is to break it down into simpler part and view the system as the sum of it parts. For instance, let us consider the series and parallel systems. In this method, the reliability of a system as a whole is based on the calculated reliability of its components. For this reason, for a system with two components in a series network, both components must work or R1 and R2 = Rs where Rs is the complete system. However, for the parallel network, if both components failed then the whole system fails. This means when one of these components is still working the system will still work. For instance, when FS = F1x F2, both F1 and F2 should fail for the system to fail otherwise that system is still considered working. This type of reliability test is useful in determining the best possible arrangement of parts in electronic system particular in simple series and parallel networks. In “redundancy” reliability test, if one component fails, the system can still function. The parallel parts are viewed as redundant components and the parallel system is considered a redundancy system. However, the system reliability for series and parallel systems differs in the number of components involved thus a system with more components are more reliable. In contrast, the more components a system have in series systems, the less reliable because when one component fails, the whole system fails. In “majority voting systems” the best two of three components determine the reliability of the systems. In other words, the reliability of system is considered when the majority of components work. For instance, when RS = P (all three components works) + P (any two of these components work) would mean reliability. More so when the majority of components have identical reliability. This type of reliability test is useful in determining the average reliability of the system as basis for shutting down the system to avoid complete failure leading to accident. The “standby systems”, “bridge networks”, and other works in the same principle slightly different in application. In Markov chain, the state or reliability of a physical system is measured through variables such as P for pressure, T for temperature, and V for volume, and so on. In identifying hazard in a risk assessment, this can be viewed a state of change happening in a facility. The change in the number of people in a room on a certain period is a state. In a state diagram, the chain of events are either reliable or failed but since it is possible to return to earlier states, it contains loops so that it can return to its original states. In other words, when part of the system is not safe then it must return and change it to make it safe. Since there is no general definition for “insurance”, it common features are pooling of losses, fortuitous losses are paid, risk transfer, indemnification, and pure risk. In principle, insurance restores ones financial position in case losses due to accident or disaster. In facilities like the Computing and Technology Building, a fire insurance that includes lightning, weather, and vandalism can be useful. 8. Cost Benefit Analysis Cost benefit analysis can be viewed as the economics of fire protection because investment in fire safety devices will be incurred whether a fire occurs or not (Ramachandran 1998, p.9). Cost benefit analysis includes the cost of a protective device over its useful life compared to the benefits of the same item during the same period. The cost/benefit analysis involves determining the variations between fire prevention and protection cost and its benefits over a specific period (National Research 1997, Council p.29). In some situation, cost/benefit analysis is being use to determine the effectiveness of a program (US Fire Administration 1996, p. 10). For instance, to justify implementing a fire safety education programme, a fire department may need to quantify the cost and benefits of the programme and compare it with other alternative programmes or with the cost of having no programme at all. In other application, it can be use in risk reduction or control during a risk assessment (Barham 1996, p.492). For instance, it has been noted that cost-benefit analysis is not just about losing a property or spending for fire safety devices but to consider major cost that could be incurred when losing a fire crew during a respond. This means that the cost of implementing a particularly strategy during a response should be compared with ensuing benefits particularly when the strategy has multiple outcomes such as lives saves, injuries avoided, and structural damage averted (American Society for Testing and Materials 1982, p.62). 9. Business Continuity Plan Business Continuity Planning has many definitions depending on the author’s understanding on contingency planning. However, business continuity plans is generally a broad statement of consistent action to be taken “before, during, and after a disaster” (Fay p.70). In organisations, business continuity planning specifies the necessary action that should be taken step by step in order for them to recover from a certain disaster. The benefit of having this kind of planning and preparation is the reduced impact that may be induced by a disaster on the organisation’s day to day operation (Moeller 2005, p.439). In other words, application of business continuity planning is to ensure that organisations can still operate despite destruction of facilities or interruption of services. For instance, when a fire broke out in the Computer and Technology Building, the management would have to suspend the operation of building for month or more due to the damages caused on computers and other peripherals and the building itself. However, if the management have a business continuity plan in placed long before the fire, the operation of the Computer and Technology Building can continue in another building set aside for this purpose or back up data restored from backup disc or tapes. According to Janczewski & Colarik (2005, p.216), a BCP can include stand by staff or secondary facilities as mentioned earlier, and procedures that may be taken for this particular situation. Moreover, a good business plan should take into account the type of emergency procedures required which may include special coordination arrangements with the fire department, the police, and local authorities. It should include a backup location equip with all necessary amenities and equipments to launch an effective operation. 10. Summary/Conclusion Risks are everywhere and actions required to identify these risk must be taken. The hazard present in the Computing and Technology Building in West Campus of UClan Preston were identified using some criteria for evaluating risk in this type of facility. These include provisions for fire alarms, warning and signs, fire fighting equipment, and evacuation plans. These hazards are ranked by likelihood of occurrence and intensity of impact to the facility and people that may affected. A Preliminary Hazard Analysis was also conducted to identify associate causal factors, impact, risk level, mitigation required to reduce the hazard. Moreover, the hazards and mitigation events were analysed using an event, fault, and success trees. The sequence of events that could lead to failure or success was identified along with successful events that would lead to total safety. Benefits of conducting cost/benefit analysis before introducing or undertaking fire protection investment were discussed including the advantage of having a business continuity plan. 11. Reference List American Society for Testing and Materials, 1982, Fire Risk Assessment, ASTM International, US Ayyub B. 2003. Risk analysis in engineering and economics, CRC Press, US Barham R. 1996. 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