Analysis of Different Fire in Building - Term Paper Example

FIRES IN BUILDINGS Submitted to (INSTRUCTOR’S NAME) (INSTITUTION NAME) (ADDRESS) December 4th, 2008 by (STUDENT NAME) (INSTITUTION NAME) ABSTRACT This paper begins with a basic introduction which gives an insight into the background of major fires that have occurred in buildings in history. It then details the purpose of why this report is necessary and explains that the most important thing is to understand why so many fires have happened and how prevention of fires through fire safety engineering methods can take place. Hereafter, a scope is given. The scope of this report basically revolves around fires in the twentieth century and covers fires in the United Kingdom, the USA, Italy and India. The paper then gives an explanation of the methodology used. The methodology was through the use of secondary data collected from sources on the internet to find information that exists concerning fires in buildings and fire safety engineering as a whole. This provides a necessary theoretical basis into the topic. The report then looks into four main case studies of major fires in buildings that have occurred in the recent past. These include: the Bradford fire in the United Kingdom; the Montecito fire in California (the U. S); the fire disaster of the New Delhi Luxury Hotel in India; as well as the Turin Movie Theatre Disaster in Italy. A conclusion is then given as to the lessons that can be gotten from the case studies so as to help building constructors better prepare for fires in future. Linked to this conclusion are the recommendations on what the best fire safety engineering methods are. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Contents 3 Introduction: Background.................................................................... Purpose.......................................................................... Scope............................................................................. 4 4 4 4 Methods 5 Case Studies: The Bradford Fire Disaster of 1985 (The U K) The Montecito Fire Disaster in California in 2008 (The U S) The Grand Hotel Fire Disaster in New Delhi (India) The Turin Movie Theatre Fire Disaster of 1983 (Italy) 5 5, 6 6- 8 9, 10 10 Conclusions 10 Recommendations 11, 12 References 13 INTRODUCTION Background There have been very many major fire disasters in the world ever since time immemorial. Some examples of major fires in history include: the Great Fire of London in 1666; the Great Fire of Portland, Maine on July 4, 1866; and the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, to name but a few. Most of these fires start off as a small spark but end up causing untold damage in terms of loss of life and damage to buildings and property. Fires in buildings are especially commonplace even today and it seems that despite all this fire disasters, very little is being done to prevent these types of fires in future. Purpose There is thus a great challenge especially for building constructors and engineers when it comes to ensuring that the buildings that they construct are not easily susceptible to fires. The main aim of this report is to analyse four cases of fire disasters that have occurred and determining from these cases how these fires occurred and how they can be prevented in future through fire safety engineering practices. Scope This report deals with case studies from various corners of the world to give it a broad perspective. It thus analyses cases in the U K, the US, Italy and India. In terms of the time frame, the report focuses on cases in the recent past- in the twentieth and twenty first centuries- so as to provide an analysis that is relevant to fire safety engineering in the modern world. METHODS The data collection methods in this report were exclusively through secondary sources of data. These consisted mainly of online internet sources through various websites that will be indicated in the references list. CASE STUDIES OF FIRE DISASTERS IN THE UK, THE US, ITALY AND INDIA 1. THE BRADFORD FIRE DISASTER OF 1985 IN ENGLAND The Bradford fire disaster is one of the worst that have occurred in the UK and resulted in the loss of the lives of 56 lives. There was a football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City and 11, 076 fans had showed up for the game. The fire began at around 3. 40 pm and spread so quickly that it was difficult for people to escape in time leading to 56 deaths. The cause of the fire was either by the accidental throwing of a match or cigarette on a polystyrene cup. The old wooden stands were blamed for the fast spread of the fire and it was agreed that measures had to be put in place to replace them with stands of other materials e.g. metallic ones [4]. The Bradford Fire Disaster. Picture courtesy of BBC Sport Football (2005) From the view of a fire safety engineer, this stadium was not fire proof/ safe as it was built before methods in fire safety engineering had been developed and this case shows just how important the building materials used in construction are. Wood as a material for construction has now been shown to be a poor material especially in the case of a fire and stone and metal is much preferred. In addition, the fact that 11, 076 people had been packed into the stadium raises so many questions about matters of occupancy and capacity. To make such a stadium safe, expansion has to be done as well as the strict prevention of overcrowding in the stadium. This will help prevent such stadium fires now and in the future. 2. THE MONTECITO FIRE DISASTER OF NOVEMBER 14, 2008 IN SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA California is one state in the United States that has been really unfortunate and has had all sorts of disasters including fire disasters. Over the past couple of years, several fires have taken place leading to losses estimated to be into the millions of dollars. The Montecito fire disaster is very recent and happened this year in November. It was started when a group of college students started a bonfire which then caused the beginning of three very devastating wildfires that in total destroyed close to 1,000 homes and caused untold damage to an area of about 65 square miles [2]. These students had lit the bonfire on a Thursday and thought they had put it out. However, the small and seemingly harmless fire soon grew as the great Californian winds blew more and more, causing the fire to spread further. In total, the fire came to destroy 210 homes in Santa Barbara, some of which included multi- million dollar investment and properties [2] This fire burned continuously for the entire weekend and consumed approximately 1,900 acres of land and injured about 24. Of the injured included a Montecito couple who were left in serious conditions. The couple, Lance and Carla Hoffman was burned severely in the process of escaping the fire. There were, however, no fatal casualties as no one died in the blaze due to the early government warning and evacuation of the residents [2]. This was most likely because California has experienced so many disasters that the residents and authorities were well prepared. The Montecito blaze was not the only fire in that time in California and was only the first of three that would occur and cause the destruction of more than 1000 homes. The fire spread on to the Los Angeles County area causing an 11, 234- acre fire in San Fernando Valley. Further on in Orange County, a fire spread consisting of a 29,000-acre complex of fires but luckily it was contained in good time. The worst-hit area was by far Oakridge Mobile Home Park, Sylmar, in which about 484 homes were ruined in the blaze. Just like in the other fires, no one was killed but property of great value was lost in the process and may families were left devastated and shocked [2]. An example of an earlier California fire. Picture Courtesy of Pasadena Weekly (2007) One thing that stands out in this California fire disaster is that 1000 homes of varying types and sizes were destroyed by the blaze. It goes to show that fire safety engineering practices were not put in place by the constructors of these homes. This is why so many homes were completely razed to the ground. The problem with homes in California and the United States in general is that they are largely made of wood. Very little stone is used during the construction of American homes and this puts them at a great disadvantage in the case of a fire. The state should thus pass legislation forcing all home constructors to use stone as opposed to wood in making buildings to prevent the damage caused by fires. This will go a long way in ensuring the safety of citizens in the case of a fire. 3. THE GRAND HOTEL FIRE DISASTER OF 2008 IN NEW DELHI, INDIA. One of the worst fire disasters occurred in India earlier this year in India at the Five Star Grand Hotel in New Delhi. The big fire broke out in the kitchen on the ground floor at what is referred to as Vasant Kunj. It started at around 12. 50 pm and was only brought down in the evening and luckily there were no casualties or people being trapped in the building because the hotel authorities evacuated all the guests as soon as the fire broke out and relocated all the occupants into alternative residences. The fire was huge and was difficult to control because of the flammability of the materials in the kitchen as well as the building materials that were used to construct the hotel in the first place [6]. It is obvious from the above case that kitchens are the place in a building that are most susceptible to fires and thus great safety measures should be placed by all hotels and all other buildings that have hotels in them to ensure that any risk is reduced. Five fire tenders had been dispatched to put out the fire but the fire quickly got out of hand. This forced the fore fighters to send an additional 40 fire tenders extinguish the fire. Occupancy was not a factor in this fire since it is a luxury hotel where regard for space is a major concern to the management. Clearly, this case shows that the kitchen is the one part of a building that is most susceptible to a fire out of all the parts of a building. Therefore, it is important to ensure that fire safety engineering measures as pertains to the kitchen should be looked at by hotel constructors. This is done by ensuring that the flammability of the materials within the structure such as the finishes and the structure fabric are not flammable [3]. p. 48, 2007]. In addition, the linings of the structure should be fire- proof since most hotel fires only spread rapidly because of the unsuitable nature of the linings structure. This matter should be taken into account when ensuring the fire safety of hotel buildings. In addition, for extra safety, great provisions should be put in place for extra fire escape routes to enable people to escape I good time I case of a fire outbreak. 4. THE TURIN MOVIE THEATRE DISASTER OF 1983 IN ITALY This fire happened in a movie theatre in Italy and 74 people died in the blaze and many more were injured. It started on the ground floor where it set the seats ablaze. What made the situation even worse was the fact that the seats wee covered in plastic causing greater flammability and also meant that the fumes produced were highly toxic [5]. This case is an interesting one in terms of fire safety engineering because most of the people did not die from the fire but actually from a stampede when people were trying to escape the flames. The exits were few; narrow; and the rear emergency doors were locked [5]. The constructors’ mistake in making this building was not adequately planning for a fire. They should have ensured that there were enough escape routes and that these escape routes were broad and easy to pass through. CONCLUSIONS From the above cases, it is evident that a lot has to be done in preventing fires in buildings. This is where fire safety engineering comes in as an important guideline as to how and with what materials should be used during the construction of buildings. RECOMMENDATIONS To prevent these types of fires in future, proper fire safety engineering guidelines need to be met. According to Allam (2008), they include implementing the following: Construction of a Means of Escape and Evacuation Strategies: Here, acceptable travel distances must be determined; the number of staircases should be sufficient; and evacuation strategies should be designed to benefit the unique characteristic of specific buildings. Use of Structural Fire Engineering: Here, structural fire protection should be of utmost importance. Here, the architects/ constructors and the engineers should team up to create the best passive fire protection system. Implementation of the Fire Compartmentation Strategy: This allows optimum flexibility on fire compartmentation to create large open-plan areas. The Creation of External Fire Spread: The engineer should reduce the boundary distances. Smoke Management: This will allow the use of open atria, the construction of an appropriate escape passage as well as the creation of large open-plan areas. Fire Brigade Access: Engineers should increase the number of fire fighting cores to improve the accessibility of fire fighters in case of a fire. Here, engineers should the effective positioning of fire fighting facilities [1]. The above aspects should be used together so as to ensure the implementation of an effective fire safety engineering design. REFERENCES [1]. Allam, A. 2008. Fire Safety Engineering: Getting it Right. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from http://www.firemiddleeastmagazine.com/pages/issue_5_feature5.aspx [2]. IOL North America. November 19, 2008. Bonfire Blamed for Santa Barbara Fire. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=22&art_id=nw20081119101252494C282442 [3]. Purkiss, J. A. 2007. Fire Safety Engineering. Butterworth- Heinemann: Oxford. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from http://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&id=6Tx5XMG9MpcC&dq=fire+safety+engineering&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=7mqi4BWDje&sig=wRVxLpV14uWVU5vJECm7y3a4d7k&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR5,M1 [4]. Scrivener, P. 2005, May 11. Bradford Remembers Fire Disaster. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bradford_city/4506597.stm [5]. The People History. 2008. February 13 News and Events. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from www.thepeoplehistory.com/february13th.html [6]. Thaindian. 2008, January 26. Fire at Grand Hotel In New Delhi. Accessed on 2nd December, 2008 from http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/fire-at-grand-hotel-in-new-delhi_10014823.html Read More