Initiation and Spread of Fire - Term Paper Example

 Table of Contents Abstract 2 1.0. Introduction 3 3.1. Evacuation Issues 4 Bibliography 12 Abstract Fire outbreak is among the many incidences, which trigger panic among people. Fire outbreak can create a condition whereby victims of such accident are so confused that they can hardly help themselves out. A major problem with fire outbreak is the mode of occurance, which in many cases is usually unpredictable. The damage resulting from fire outbreak could be immense with the situation being worsened by possible causes of death (Hall, 1998). This paper brings out the idea behind fire safety design as well as the associated technologies within the modern world. The paper includes aspects of case laws with respect to the initiation and spread of fire. It goes on to point out some aspects related to emergency evacuation and strategies. All these aspects are collaborated with relevant legislations, fire preventive measures, the protective measures, as well as relevant fire fighting devices. The paper argues that resulting effects and the situations leading to fire outbreak call for the need to develop a good plan of action for handling cases of fire outbreaks. People could as well come up with elaborate plans that would prevent fire outbreaks within their environs. Organisations holding the responsibilities to contain fire outbreaks need to introduce fire fighting gadgets and chemicals that can fasten process of extinguishing fire. The fire fighting departments need to ensure that there are good indicators of places likely to be a threat to the people. Besides, these indicators should be in a way that can warn the people about the issues that they are likely to face as the paper depicts. 1.0. Introduction In most of the buildings, fire fighting strategies need to be established to ensure that the people residing or working in such buildings are in a position of containing situations that may face them as a result of fire outbreaks. This situation could be even more difficult to the people living in high rising buildings. In this case, the fire department needs to establish an elaborate design to ensure that cases of fire fighting are settled as much as possible. This means that fire-fighting departments need to develop and advocate for good fire fighting plans that ensure that people achieves their goals in solving fire accidents within a short period (Communities and Local Government 2007). On another hand, there is the need to establish some good plans of building in ways that enhance the safety of people, especially during a fire incident. Apparently, within the plans of designing these buildings, there need to be emergency escape routes for the people who occupy them in cases of fire incidents ( Manchester Evening News 2010). Again, all buildings could be designed in a way that they are highly ventilated to release any smoke, and to avoid chances of people being trapped inside during a fire incident. Ventilation, enhances the survival of most victims of a fire accidents even after staying for a long duration inside the building due to minimized suffocation ( Manchester Evening News 2010). Furthermore, fire fighters could ensure that they have installed necessary gadgets to enhance that all fire-fighting procedures are clear to every individual. In addition, fire-fighting procedures in high rising building need to be undertaken using highly efficient devices that can reduce duration, which the fire is likely to last (UK Parliament 2010). 2.0. Initiation and Spread of Fire Fire Fighting Department focuses on observing the spread of fire within buildings. In past incidents, fire-fighters discovered that most of the building had set strategies as per the Fire Regulatory Reform Act 2001. A practical case was that of a building constructed in such a way that all the conditions favoured the safety of all the occupants. The plan in such a case ensured that people can recognize places that are risky. The planning also provided an aspect of alternative routes through which victims could use to escape during any fire incidence. In the same building, the doors had parts made of glass that could help occupants to see the places intensified with fire and avoid such risky zones. A clear picture of a building could be enhance by creating large spaces and placing fire-fighting equipments and alarms in strategic places within a building. In this case, the building could have been well planned to eliminate things that could endanger or pose fire risks on people’s lives (UK Parliament 2010). This aspect could ensure that all occupants are safe whenever they are within the building. This assessment indicated that there are insignificant levels in the chances of arbitrary breakouts or the spread of fire in buildings, but possible cases of fire incidents could be easily controlled through good designs and strategies. 3.0. Emergency Evacuation Issues and Strategies The building was planned in such a way that several emergency exit doors existed. These exits had to be strategically positioned to ensure that victims of a fire incidents are able to identify them easily. The doors were positioned on the extreme sides of the commonly used doors so that people can be accessed pass through easily in the case of a fire emergency. 3.1. Evacuation Issues The building was found to have doors, which made of easily fragile glass. This could have been one of the strategies to make it easy to break in cases of a fire accident. The exit doors were connected to an exit route that is isolated from the building to enhance the evacuation process during in the case of a fire incident. The considerations for making a stair way outside the building could have been designed to observe the aspect of being far from the other building sections, which were commonly used. This strategy would ensure that people are less likely to experience fire accident effects (Beard 2005). There were clear signs for the directions to show the occupants the alternative routes through which they could exit the building in th case of an emergency. The doors led to other sections, through which people could evacuate using an outside lift down to the ground thereby ensuring that assistance could be available within and outside the building. 3.2. Strategies Most of the strategies are applied to ensure that occupants within buildings can easily identify emergency exits. A typical strategy in the discussed case is the use of signs, which indicate fire exits within building. Another strategy that the building had implemented was hoisting fire extinguishers on the building’s walls. This was done to a height that people could reach to use them in extinguishing fire during its initial stages. This was meant to ensure that all the people are in a position of cooperating to extinguish fire within less dangerous localitiesand to reduce the spread of the fire to other locations within and outside the building. The strategies could also eliminate the need for evacuating the building during a fire incident but still maximize on survival (UK Parliament 2010). To ensure that all occupants are safe to escape from the building in the case of a fire outbreak, the building is built in a way that various situations can be handled within the minimum time possible. The design of the evacuation strategy is found to be set in a way that the saving mechanisms can accommodate majority of the occupants whenever seeking to escape concurrently even in more difficult cases such as an explosion. In the building, various requirements for establishing safe locations for different scenarios seem to have been met. Again, the observations made on the building setting concluded the safety design was structured to meet all possible safety across its rooms (Department for Communities and Local Government 2007). The rooms are spacious to allow efficiency in movements and to minimize any form of obstructions. The exit routes of the building are found to be wide enough with a regular and average-step gap on the stairways. This is consistent from the top storeys to the ground floor. The essence for this is to increase movements. Evaluation of performance based on fire design indicated that the building had a problem regarding its structural arrangements, which should be perfect to reduce the risk of fire spreading. The design was also meant to protect the building. Safety and protection in this case is determined by the combination of the materials used for its construction. In fact, these materials can be selected keenly to slow down the spreading of fire from the point of its commencement. With this strategy, protecting the building from fast-spreading fires creates a high likelihood of containing any possible fire incident as compared to the condition that would arise if the design disregarded these precautionary measures. 4.0. Fire Safety Legislation An analysis of adherence to fire safety legislation showed that the building plan and activities had implemented substantial requirement of the law pertaining fire safety. This adherence was evident from cues that included aspects such as the building being fitted with various fire fighting equipments and signs indicating substances or areas that could be risky to general occupants. According to the observations, there were exit doors. This aspect was part of the legislation that ensures that occupants are able to find their way out whenever there is a fire accident (Great Britain, 2007). The building had several warning signs labelled on the highly flammable substances and on risky locations. This was meant for the occupants to avoid subjecting flames to these substances since it would lead to explosion as well as avoiding specific locations respectively. The warnings are found to be displayed in a way that the highly flammable substances and explosives are put in protected locations so that people can hardly be able to reach them intentionally or accidentally. Warning signs are also placed in these locations with strict instructions that people are prohibited from accessing the areas. The kind of warning signs in place depicts an indication that the building was designed with respect to fire safety and focused on things that could pose risks to the lives of occupants. These warning signs prevent people from making mistakes and are thus made visible through the use of bright or warning colours such as red (Great Britain, 2006). 5.0. Fire Preventive and Protective Measures and Devices In the process of making a design that perfects the processes of putting off fires, there are different things, which people could use to generate ways of preventing fire breakouts. In the analysis of the condition involving high rising building, several strategies are used to prevent and protect the occurrence of the fire outbreaks, and to ensure that they are able to contain any aspect of the fire incidence. This strategies include safety oriented designs, adequate spaces within building, warning signs on risky locations and substances, clear exits, and information provision on both the building pan and proper conduct during fire accidents (Hall 1998). 5.1. Protective Measures Used in the High Rising Building The way various rooms in these building are organized is in a way that people could safe themself from fire accidents and related incidents in an easy way. Again, products required or stored in the building are carefully selected so that occurrences of accidental fires are minimized. An instance could be an incident where different substances were placed in different locations, with the flammable substances being separated from possible sources of any form of ignitions. This separation is meant to reduced chances of igniting the flammable products, which would consequently result to fire breakout within the building. In the building, slightly flammable substances were used instead of using highly flammable ones so that the building would be protected from resulting fire breakouts. Another good protective strategy in the high rising building was the implementation of regulation prohibiting smoking while in the building to avoiding sparks that would ignite any flammable substances in the building ( Manchester Evening News 2010). 5.2. Preventive Measures and Devices The high rising building was fitted with gadgets to enhance the safety of the building. This building was fitted with gadgets that were well positioned and communicative to ease fire fighting in case of any related accidents. This could be done immediately after fire erupts so that those who occupy the building at the incidence of fire would be able to respond easily to the situation. Communication to occupants would be achieved through the use of an alarm systems, which produce alarming sounds. This alarm sounds need to be understood by all occupants, and it would sound after pressing a strategically placed button. The building is also found to be fitted with other kinds of electronic fire detectors and warning systems that automatically produce sound whenever fire breakouts are detected or discovered anywhere within the building. The system is structured such that the sound of the alarm would reach all the floors in the building for everyone in the building to respond to the fire outbreak in the most appropriate way. There were two forms of communication that could be utilized during a fire incidence in the building. One of them was that in cases of one of them failing, the other gadget would be functional (Department for Communities and Local Government 2007). Any gadget can breakdown and fail to function accordingly, but the availability of options enhances safety. The worst incidence can occur when both the automated and the other alarm systems fail. Due to this possibility, occupants are allowed to communicate to each other through shouting as an alert in case there is a fire breakout. They should however be calm and organized during a fire accident. 6.0 Fire in Modern High-rise and Open Plan Buildings In the planning and establishment of modern high-rise buildings, the measures set to deal with fire outbreaks focuses on factors that enhance the ease of detecting and fighting fire accident. This is meant for all the people to be safe when caught within these buildings. The designs of the buildings are in such a way that they could enhance safety to the occupants in cases of fire incidents (Scottish Executive in Justice 2007). These modern high-rise buildings are designed in such a way that they have emergency exit doors, which are strategically located within one or more sites of the buildings. The buildings match various requirements for safety according to the modern designing of the high rise buildings to enhance safety of occupant against fire accidents. 7.0. Flammable Atmospheres, Dust Explosions Dangerous Gases and Processes To protect the buildings from possible risks of fires, there is the need to consider issues relating to the fire accidents within affected buildings. These fire accidents may claim lives of many individuals whenever they happen. Through observation of different recommendation for planning modern designs for these buildings, the high-rise buildings have been safely designed to ensure that there is proper separation of flammable substances that could cause fire breakouts from other substances that are commonly and freely used. Some explosives and flammable substances include petroleum gases gasses, petroleum oil products, and flammable chemicals. Flammable atmospheres should also be avoided and should be set free of explosives and other flammable products like dust explosions and dangerous gases. Setting these products apart could enhance safety from fire occurrences (Scottish Executive 2013). They should as well be kept far from dangerous electrical appliances and equipments. Bibliography Beard, A., 2005, The handbook of tunnel fire safety, London, Telford Great Britain, 2006, Educational premises, Wetherby, Department for Communities and Local Government Publications Great Britain, 2007, Firecode - fire safety in the NHS: Operational provisions, London, Stationery Office Manchester Evening News. 2010, April 1 . Blast for 999 centre delays. Retrieved September 27, 2013, from http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1202481_blast_for_999_centre_delays Communities and Local Government. 2007. News Release 099, 24 May 2007, New Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Appointed. Department for Communities and Local Government. 2007. News Release 022, New Advisory Unit for Fire and Rescue Services to be Set Up. Hall, R. 1998. Essentials of Fire Fighting. Fourth Edition. . Stillwater, OK: Fire Protection Publications. UK Parliament. 2010, February 8. FiReControl - Communities and Local Government Committee Contents. Retrieved September 27, 2013, from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmcomloc/352/35215.htm Scottish Executive in Justice. 2007. Fire Safety. Retrieved September 27 2007, from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Fire/19077/FireAct Scottish Executive. 2013. The Scottish Fire Service of the Futur. Retrieved September 27 2007, from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/04/sfsf/3 Read More