Fire Protection Strategies

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

The purpose of this dissertation is to seek out existing good practice in the selection process of fire protection strategies for buildings and to make suggestions that inform successful decision making on future projects. This will be achieved through the identification of the key considerations that influence design teams when selecting appropriate fire protection strategies. Further to this will be the identification of the design process and the clarification of their influence on the selection of the overall fire protection strategy.

Fire safety in buildings is not a new topic but seriously being developed by many researchers over a period of time, especially fire safety in workplace.

Fire can be suppressed by removing either heat, which commonly means using water spray to cool the heat, or by removing the fuel, which normally means limiting or turning off the flow of gas in a gas stove or by removing the oxygen by smothering the fire with a fire blanket for example. However, we should not forget about the fact that ‘Chemical Reactions’ are also needed to keep the fire spreading. This reaction is known as the ‘Chain Reaction ‘which are heated molecules freely and rapidly moving in all directions. These molecules are very active moving around and hitting the other molecules to set fire on other molecules. Fire will continue due to the chain reaction process in which the heated molecules will touch the others until the temperature reaches the state of auto combustion where hydrogen gas and oxygen gas from the air actively take part in the burning process.

2.7 Fire safety risk assessment in buildings

The purpose of risk assessment is to assist an employer and/or a ‘responsible person’ to identify the preventive and proactive measures required to comply with the law and in doing so, ensure, as far as reasonably practical, the safety of their workforce, premises and those around them who could be affected by their activities (Furness and Muckett,2007).

Risk management explained in NFPA 1500 consists

They can be used to collect either qualitative or quantitative data. Sekizawa et.al. (2001) used a questionnaire survey to study the behavior of people in selecting the type of escape route to evacuate from building fire. The outcome of his study was that 47% used elevators for their evacuation, while 42% used stairs and 7% used both elevator and stairs. Proulx (2001) used a questionnaire to study the occupant’s behavior during the Ambleside Fire in Ottawa on 31st January 1997. During the fire, although initially the majority of occupants decided to stay-in-place in accordance with the Fire Safety Plan for that building, many of them immediately complied with the evacuation order delivered through the voice communication system. Only 17% decided to stay in their apartments. The findings of the research using questionnaire methodology are normally demonstrated in percentage form. However sometimes it can be in qualitative form such as questioning individual responses.

One more method, but not a very common one is Heuristic Research. The root meaning of heuristic comes from the Greek word ‘hueriskein’, meaning to discover or to find. It refers to internal search through which one discovers the nature and meaning of experience and developed methods and procedures for future investigation and analysis (Moustakas,