Analysis of Building Fires - Case Study Example

Analysis of Building Fires Name & ID Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name 30 November 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Airport Terminal Fire, Dusseldorf, Germany 3 Engineering issues 4 Lessons Learned 5 Recommendations 5 One Meridian Plaza Fire – United States 6 Engineering Issues 6 Lessons Learned 7 Recommendation 7 Carcas Tower Fire – Venezuela 7 Engineering Issues 8 Lessons Learned 9 Recommendations 9 The Windsor Tower Fire – Spain 9 Engineering Issues 10 Lessons Learned 11 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Number of fires in buildings has drastically increased. Such fires cause social, economic and environmental challenges; it results are loss of properties, deaths and pollution to the environment. Thus, the aim of this report is to analyse four different fire incidents that have occurred within the past 25 years. Moreover, the report brings into consideration shortcomings associated with structural design and construction, how the fire started and other crucial issues that revolves engineering weaknesses. Therefore, the analysis of fire incidents will bring into consideration One Meridian Plaza fire in Pennsylvania – United States, Airport Terminal Fire in Dusseldorf – Germany, Carcas Tower Fire – Venezuela, and The Windsor Tower Fire in Madrid – Spain. Airport Terminal Fire, Dusseldorf, Germany The fire that occurred on April 11, 1996 started in the passenger terminal building that resulted in the death of seventeen people while injuring sixty-two others (Craighead 2003). The structure of the building constituted five levels in which the ground level was the place that the passengers picked their luggage and it also housed to rental facilities. The ground level had an height of fifteen feet or 4.6m, and the roofing itself had polystyrene blocks that was three inches thick. The second level of then building housed ticket desks, restaurants and shops. This second floor had the same dimensions has the first floor because the dimensions were 1850 feet in length and 15 feet in height (Klaene 2000). The third level was also the mezzanine and it housed VIP lounges, conference rooms and restaurant. The fourth level housed a restaurant and an observation deck while the fifth floor had a restaurant. The fire started in the ground level where expansion plates were ignited by a welder, and these plates were covered with polystyrene insulation that was covering the voids below the second floor (between the ground level and the second level). Smoke and flames then spread upwards into the second level through the openings that were on the stairwells and unprotected escalator openings. The smoke damaged entirely the second and third levels while at the same time completely destroying the stairwells (McNulty 2002). Engineering issues Many conditions and provisions that are associated with fire safety were not considered. For example, there were no automatic sprinkler systems and smoke detectors; dry pipes were present but were not connected to the municipal water supply (Parkinson, Kodur & Sullivan 2008). Additionally, the welders had not consideration precaution measures during welding time. Unprotected openings resulted in flames and smoke spreading to other levels. The use of polystyrene as an insulator; polystyrene is combustible resulted in large amounts of smoke. Moreover, structural designs did not consider other openings or escape routes and thus people within the building were stranded. Communication process and alarm system was poor resulting in wrong messages been sent contributing to the death of many people (Smith 2003). An example of wrong messages is when people were told to use the elevators; however, the elevators caused death of many passengers. Fire alarm system/ timing resulted in firefighters coming after 27 minutes late. Moreover, the alarm system sends the message to the Airport Fire Brigade rather than including Dusseldorf Fire Brigade (Osborne 2004). Lessons Learned Fire resistant materials should have been used to ensure that the speed of the fire spread is reduced or controlled. Moreover, people should be educated on steps or actions that they can take if accidents or emergencies may occur. This is because, in the case of this accident, many people had to use the elevators and thus if posters and other directive measures could have been employed, the people would have been routed through into safety. The materials used for insulating such as polystyrene easily catches fire, this means that another type of insulators that are resist to fires could have been used. Recommendations Some recommendations may include installation of automatic fire sprinklers at every level of the building and smoke detectors should be included. Smoke detectors will reduce the speed in which the fire will spread and at the same time raise alarm. Polystyrene insulators should be replaced with fire resistant insulators at each building level; this will reduce the speed and extent in which the fire will spread. Smoke screen should be installed so that smoke and flames will not spread through elevators and other spaces. Moreover, using large spaces without strong fire resistant dividers (compartments) may make the fire spread into many rooms, thus fire resistant material should be used to limit the spread of the fire. One Meridian Plaza Fire – United States This is among the worst building incident that has occurred in the United States. This building was thirty-eight floors and the fired was reported to have been seen in the 22nd floor. The fire occurred on February 23, 1991 and it is believed that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion that was attributed to pile of linseed oil that was soaked in rags (Smith 2003). The fire that lasted for nineteen hours was extinguished when it reached the 30th floor, and the success of extinguishing it was because of automatic sprinklers in this floor. Twenty-four firefighters were injured while three of them died. Extinguishing the fire brought together 300 firefighters, 51 engine companies and 15 ladder companies (Howard 2007). Engineering Issues The building is usually covered by fire safety standards; however, the supportive staff and how the safety standards operate escalated the fire. On the 22nd floor, the first smoke detector sounded, and this was after the fire had spread for some time because of incomplete detector coverage. The employees within the building did not call the fire and rescue services immediately, but the waited until they had rescue one of them who had gone to investigate the incident (Howard 2007). Moreover, other private services that were within the building were not able to call the fire department immediately. The electricity connectivity was disrupted because the fire had burnt some conductors or earth wires. The emergency generator also failed to start up. The unprotected spaces in the fire resistance assemblies and the lack of fire-dampers in the other openings (ventilators) provided a means of which the flame and smoke spread vertically and horizontally (International Code Council 2003). This allowed fir and smoke to go through the staircases and also through the openings on the wall. In the case of firefighting, it was impaired because of pressure reducing valves and standpipes inconvenienced the flow of water. Most of the stairway doors were closed forcing the firefighters using force to access some parts of the building (International Code Council 2003). Lessons Learned It is important to understand and appreciate that effective communication is crucial during emergency and any planning. The service company and the building employees’ communication was poor and was not able to communicate with fire department at the right time. This means that effective communication could have reduced the impact of fire drastically. Moreover, the contractor ignored the influence of soaked rags and this means that all materials should be removed and stored safely at or after completion of tasks within a building. The inappropriate installation of fire and safety equipments would have assisted in addressing the emergency cases. Recommendation In this case, the most important thing was communication and could have been achieved through two ways. The first way is through ensuring that employees and service companies could have communicated with the fire department. The second approach could have been to ensure that all smoke detectors and firm alarms were efficiently working. Moreover, the fire department should partner with local authority to be able to access building and structural drawings of all buildings within their jurisdiction. Carcas Tower Fire – Venezuela The building was build in 1976 is located in the capital city of Venezuela and has fifty-six floors. Most of these building rooms accommodated both private homes and business premises. The fire that started in the 34th floor on October 18, 2004 lasted for seventeen hours and destroyed twenty-six floors of the East Tower. When the fire started, the building was empty but because of high temperatures and poisonous gases, forty firefighters were injured. The thirty forth floor was been repaired before the fire began, and the fire was ignited by complications that resulted from painting work. The high heat resulted in collapse of two floors, ceilings falling and some staircases (Pattetrson 1993). Engineering Issues Initially, when the fire broke out, the government believed that the fire would not spread. However, because of inappropriate ventilation the fire moved upwards until it reached the 44th floor. Moreover, poor management of water resulted in small amounts of water been supplied. Rather than using active sprinklers the building had passive sprinklers and thus at the time of fire, the sprinklers had been turned off (Sanders 2007). Nevertheless, some sprinklers in other rooms had been replaced with temperature sensitive sprinklers. Other engineering provisions include steel framing that contained Portland cement and mineral wool. The structural beams was fireproofed by one think insulator while a 1U2 inches insulator insulated the deck. Additionally, poor management of available resources was evident such that the water pipes, sprinklers and fire proofing material were not effectively maintained. This mismanagement may also be attributed by poor enforcing of laws and standards of building safety. The fire extinguishers that were in place were few and would not be able to extinguish effectively the fire. Lessons Learned The most important lesson that was learned was that of ignorance in that most employees and players were not able to maintain requirements of fire safety. For example, there was no enough water while the piping was not performing well. Ignorance was also evident in the way the painters left their materials that are believed to have caused the fire. The new policies that were introduced were not sound. For example, replacing sprinklers with temperature sensitive sprinklers was a poor idea and also using passive sprinklers rather than active sprinklers. Moreover, both the smoke detectors and fire alarms were inappropriately installed. Recommendations An important issue that should be addressed is the way that they formulate and implemented policies. The use of active sprinklers should be encouraged rather than the use of passive sprinklers, and thus policies should be formulated that fulfil the requirements of community and society. Thus, the policy that is formulated and implemented in such a manner that encourages health security and fire safety is not compromised should be championed. It is also important to encourage maintenance and frequent inspections should be encouraged to guarantee security. The Windsor Tower Fire – Spain The fire that occurred on February 12, 2005 started in a thirty-two storey building. The building was strong because of the materials that were used for construction; the floors were mostly concrete while the central core that supported the building was reinforced. At the time the building was designed, there was no need for security measures and the construction codes during construction time, the perimeter walls and internal steel beams were not supposed to be protected. The structural design of the building is heavily reinforced in the 2nd and 3rd floor and also in the 16th and 17th floors. The fire that lasted for nineteen hours started in the 21st floor and it is believed to have been started by a short circuit (Klaene 2000). When the fire began, new fire safety measures was been implemented; these new fire measures included a fire protection system and the internal steel beams was been protected by the help of sprayers. Some other fire protection system included aluminium cladding and a new sprinkler system. The renovations had reached 17th floor when the fire began while some parts of the 9th and 15th floor. The floors above the 17th all collapsed but the 17th floor prevented the building from completely degenerating because of the heavy reinforcement (Leslie & Alread 2007). Engineering Issues Even though the building was strong, some engineering issues were not fully factored. For example, the floor space of the building spanned an area of 1000 meters and the lack of appropriate fire protection system resulted in poor control of the fire. Additionally, the vertical components of the building could not withstand high temperatures and it resulted in the collapse of the building. The steelwork was strong but was not protected while the sprinklers were not in place (Osborne 2004). Moreover, the cladding and floor slabs had small spacing that was not fire proof while installation of fire protection system was not systematic since other floors were not complete such as the 9th and 15th floor. This means that if the instillation of fire system was systematic, the fire could not have been such much devastative (McNulty 2002). Lessons Learned Numerous inconsistencies played a major in the cause and aftermath of ignition. Incomplete work is like something has not been done and thus it is important that fire safety system should be installed systematically. Moreover, the large floor spaces provided a means of which the fire can spread easily while taking advantage of vertical and horizontal gaps. This means that the floor space should be small with each having appropriate fire safety measures. Recommendations Thus, the floor spaces should be reduced and its wall compartment should be fire resistant such as fitting aluminium claddings and most gaps that are in the building should be sealed. Moreover, there should be smoke detectors and fire alarms that are strategically located. Smoke and flame movement should be controlled preventing spreading of fires easily. Conclusion Dusseldorf fire that began on the first level because of maintenance resulted in the death of 17 while injuring sixty-one people. The fire safety system of the building was not appropriate thus resulting in the fire spreading into other levels. Some strategies to prevent such as reducing space size, employing the right alarm system and appropriate management. One Meridian plaza is a building that has 38 floors in which eight of the roofs were affected by the fire. Properties worth millions were destroyed while three firefighters died. Appropriate fire safety should measures should be placed into consideration to avert such risks in the future. Caracas Tower fire is a 56 stored building in which the fire spread across 15 rooms before they were extinguished. Ignorance and inappropriate maintenance are the major factors that contributed to the occurrence of the fires. Windsor Tower fire occurred in a building that is 32 stored. The building is structurally strong since it has a reinforced central core with reinforcement floor both in the 2nd and 17th floor. References Craighead, G. 2003. High-rise Security Fire Life Safety. London: Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers. Howard, K. 2007. Structural Design and Fire Safety Mechanisms. Jakarta: Prentice Hall of Jakarta. International Code Council. 2003. International Building Code 2003, 2nd ed. New York: International Code Council. Klaene, B. 2000. Structural Fire Fighting. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Leslie, T. & Alread, J. 2007. Design-tech: Building Science for Architects. New York: Architectural Press. McNulty, G. 2002. Quality, Reliability and Maintenance. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Osborne, M. 2004. Analysis of High-rise Fires. London: Macmillan Publishers. Pattetrson, J. 1993. Simplified Design for Building Fire Safety. New York: Wiley IEEE Parkinson, D., Kodur, V. & Sullivan, P. 2008. Performance Based Design of Structural Steel for Fire Conditions: A Calculation Methodology. New York: ASCE Publications. Sanders, E. 2007. Structural Firefighting: Strategies and Tactics. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Smith, L. 2003. Building Fires. London: Prentice Hall Publishers. Read More