Fire Strategy in Place - Essay Example

Introduction With a fire strategy in place for a building there is assurance that there is preparation for any fire incident and the associated consequences. A fire incident has many consequences that include threat of life loss, affecting the health and safety of those occupying the building and causing damage to the building with all the activities in the building being interrupted (Bullen, 1978). There are a number of measures that can be put in place under fire safety that includes prevention of any fire outbreak and mitigation of damages by ensuring that there is early fire detection mechanism in place, reducing the ability of fire to spread through structural containment, providing escape routes and putting in place the right emergency procedures and the building having the capacity to fight fire. The prevention and protection measures for any building usually will depend on the level of susceptibility of the building to fire hazards, the level of occupancy and they type of use; and the legal agreement that has been signed between the occupants and the employer (Kingspan,2009). A building may be considered as being part of the institution’s general safety and environmental policy. The main aim of coming up with a fire strategy is ensuring that there is provision and maintenance of safety in the building such that the safety and health of occupants will be safeguarded as well as the building and the businesses inside the building and those in the neighbourhood. Detection and warning system Incorporation of a fire detection system is very is a very important in this building. When installing a fire detection system attention should be put on BS 5859-1 which gives a guide to installation of installation of the system in a non residential, building. Areas where there could be low chances of presence of a person during the normal operation of the building need to be equipped with a fire detection sensor a god example being the store rooms (Communities and local Government, 2006). Fire detection need to be included in the boiler room in the plant floor since these areas may not be frequently be visited. The interview rooms that gives similar service to that of offices and the tea rooms require a fire detection system being installed this being in conformation to the recommendation given in The UK Renewable Energy Strategy (2009). A fire warning system that is to be installed in the building should be such that it can be heard in the entire building suppose a fire incident occurs. Lighting and exit signs Having adequate artificial lighting to the escape stairs is important and the lighting system in these areas need to have a circuit that is separated from that supplying other areas of the building (British Standard 5266: Part 1: 2005). In installing the lighting the guide given in BS 5266-1:2005 is to be adhered to. Emergency exit which are to be of the required size as provided in Health and Safety Regulation of 1996 should be installed on the escape routes in the proposed building. Provision of refuge area From the building plan it can be seen that there is inclusion of refugee areas in the protected stairways. This is important in ensuring the safety of disabled people who may be in the building at a time of fire incident as they can be able to temporarily wait in this areas for evacuation assistance (Kingspan, 2009). An area of 900mm by 1400mm that is able to accommodate a wheel chair is recommended for a refugee area. Having a sound evacuation plan is vital in ensuring that there will be only one person occupying the refugee area during a time of fire incident even when two disabled people maybe occupying an area that has only one refugee area provided. The refugee areas provided in this building are supposed to have safety signs which will include the words “Refugee-keep clear”. The refugee areas are also to have an emergency voice communication (EVC) that will ensure effectiveness in evacuation of the disabled from these areas. The installation of a EVC system should be in line with BS 5839-9:2003 that includes Type B outstation with communication link to the master station located at the fire alarm panel. Fire spread and lining materials Lining materials in any building play a significant role with regard to the rate at which fire is able to spread even with their ignition coming in at later stages of fire (British Standard 476: Part 7: 1997). High importance is to be placed on the lining materials to be used in the circulation areas owing to the fact that these materials are likely to be the only means that could enable fire to spread in these areas and where the spread is rapid this could be a great hindrance to the entire process of evacuation. The properties of lining material that are to be put into consideration is how readily they are able to ignite and the rate at which the material radiates heat energy when on fire. Materials that are to serve as lining in the upper floor surfaces and stairs may not be a priority bearing in mind that such areas have little involvement in fire until later stages of fire development. Thermoplastic lighting diffusers are not supposed to be used in both fire-resisting and fire protecting ceilings unless a satisfactory test has been undertaken thus qualifying the material to be included as part of the ceiling assembly that is to serve as fire protecting. As long as the conditions in Approved Document B have been well addressed then there is a possibility that the ceiling to circulation spaces and rooms will have thermoplastic lighting diffusers. Internal fire spread structure In this building just as it is a requirement of any building the stairs are to be areas that are capable of providing a level of protection that will make them areas of relative safety. The fire resistance expected of the stairs in this building is 30 minutes and for the structural frames, the columns, floors and load bearing walls a fire resistance level of 60 minutes is recommended. It is very necessary to provide a fire resisting structure so as to reduce the risk that the occupants are to be subjected to more so to those occupants who are disabled and may likely have to remain in the building for considerably a longer time as the evacuation process is being undertaken. Having the required level of fire resistance is also a step towards ensuring that fire does not spread to the buildings in the neighborhood in addition to ensuring that those involved in the exercise of firefighting will be subjected to lower danger of fire as they undertake rescue and search operation. Suppose an element of the structure is to give stability or support directly another element of structure, then the requirement is that the element that offers support is not to be inferior with regards to fire resistance in comparison to the element which is receiving the support (British Standard 476: Part 6: 1989). All the headroom found in the escape routes are to have a height of at least 2m or more with the exception for the door frames and in addition to this there are to be no projections below this height. When choice is being made for the flooring of the escape route there is need to take care in ensuring that there is low level of slipperiness even when the floor is subjected to wet conditions. The point of location of the final exit of the building and its dimensioning is to be such as to enable quick evacuation. Disabled Persons In the designs of the proposed building it is evident that there was full awareness of Disability Discrimination Act which emphasize that building designs are to ensure that utilization of the building is to be available for everybody including those having hearing and visual impairments as well as those with mobility impairments (Safer Scotland, 2009). The building fire safety assessment is required to put in place means of escape and warning means for the benefit of staff, students and visitors who may be having mobility impairment or sensory related impairments. Having such measures in place will ensure that the disabled persons will be able identify a fire alarm with ease, and will be in a position to vacate the room without any risk to themselves or to the other building occupants or will at least be able to access room that is fire protected or a refuge. The Fire Safety Officer will be expected to work together with Safety; Health & Environmental Advisers so as to see to it that there are personal evacuation plans for staff having disabilities. It will be necessary for evacuation chairs to be provided and these are to be placed in the escape routes and visual and other alternative devices for occupants with impairments will are also to be provided. Fire Safety Plans for the proposed building The expectation is that the Safety Health & Environmental department in the institution to which the proposed building belongs will be in control of coordinating the fire safety plant. The information that is to be found in the fire strategy plan will include fire risk result assessment will feature a highlight of the building process fire risk as well as the manner in which the building is to be put into use and the level of occupancy. It is important that the building drawings to be availed where the drawings will have an indication on the location of the alarm call points, the detection devices and fire doors location in addition to a clear illustration of the fire zones and their fire resistance levels. The building plans are to be accompanied by markings indicating areas that are hazardous and assembly points. They will also provide schedules for routine checks with inspection test being undertaken on all fire systems installations as well as the escape provisions in the proposed building. The inspection will also involve going through the yester years test results and looking at the actions that have been effected as corrective measures. As a step to ensure a solution to any defects, it will be necessary that action plans be recorded for the fire and safety audits. It will be a requirement that fire evacuation procedures are put in record with the names of people allocated fire safety responsibilities together with the expected solutions and the defects that will be identified during the evacuation drills. The Emergency Incident Manager in charge of the building will be responsible for implementing the fire safety plan. Conclusions It has been seen that there several important areas that will have to be looked as away of the desired level of fire safety in the proposed building. Having a fire detection system in place has been seen to be has been seen as an important aspect of ensuring fire safety. Details have also been on the requirements of the internal fire structure where emphasis has been placed on the necessary level of fire resistance in fire stairs and fire escape routes. In addition to the design aspects the importance of having a sound fire safety management has also been brought into focus. If all the details given in this report are followed then the proposed building will have a high level of fire safety. References British Standard 476: Part 6: 1989 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of test for fire propagation for products. British Standard 476: Part 7: 1997 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of test to determine the classification of the surface spread of flame of products. British Standard 5266: Part 1: 2005 Emergency lighting. Code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises. (Superseded CP 1007 1955 A Code of Practice for Maintained Lighting in Cinemas Bullen ML, Thomas PH (1978). Compartment fires with non-cellulosic fuels. Proc Combust Inst. Communities and local Government (2006).The Building Regulations 2000.Fire safety, Approved Document. Kingspan( 2009).The UK‟s approach to the thermal refurbishment of non-domestic buildings, Safer Scotland (2009). Practical Fire Safety Guidance For Places Of Entertainment And Assembly. Scottish Government. Read More