Fire safety models for high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia

This research investigated the effects of escape route design and specification, and time taken on evacuation process in high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia. The aim is to produce a fire safety model on how fire safety standards in high-rise residential buildings can be achieved by investigating the relationship between human behaviour and structural design, particularly escape route design and specification. In Malaysia, research on fire safety is very new, particularly research on provision of fire safety in high-rise residential buildings. The number of fire cases involved residential buildings is significantly high compared to other building types. Thus, escape routes in high-rise residential buildings should be designed and constructed to enable the occupants to evacuate the building as soon as fire has been detected. Mixed methodologies i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in this research. There are three research methods adopted i.e. observation, simulation and questionnaire. Observations were carried out to identify any problems encountered and to develop the study models for further analysis. Investigations of the effects of escape route design and specification on evacuation process were carried out using specialist software, i.e. Simulex, which simulates the evacuation of people from the building. The aim is to study escape route specifications i.e. staircase, fire door and corridor. Questionnaire surveys were than carried out to investigate the occupant’s characteristics, behaviours, perceptions and motivation factors to evacuate the building. From this research, fire safety models proposed for high-rise residential buildings as follows, (1) Fire safety model to achieve fire safety standard in high-rise residential buildings, (2) Escape route designs and specifications, and, (3) Human behaviour model. There are five fire safety components that need to be enhanced i.e. (1) Fire Safety Awareness, (2) Fire Safety Design, (3) Fire Safety Equipments and Evacuation Skill, (4) Fire Safety Audit, and (5) Fire Safety Enforcement. Besides, there are four factors which highly influence the evacuation process, fire and casualty risk i.e.: (1) People behaviour – knowledge and experience, (2) building element and escape routes design, (3) active fire protection system, and (4) legislation and enforcement

Adequate fire safety training for the occupants knowledge and awareness of fire safety

Achievement of fire safety objectives in buildings for the safety of lives, property conservation and business continuity is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholder, and its depends on the level of fire safety knowledge and awareness of the concern stakeholders. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the fire safety training needs of fire safety practitioners and building managers for adequate fire safety knowledge and awareness of the building occupants in Nigeria. The research adopted questionnaires survey research design. The research population for the study comprises of 349 building manager and fire safety practitioners from six (6) north-central states of Nigeria. A research questionnaires was design for the study, the questionnaires was distributed to collect the data from the participants and was validated by experience fire safety experts; the Cronbach alpha reliability approach was used to identified the internal consistency of the questionnaires items at 0.933. the collected data were analyzed through CFA using SPSS and AMOS software, after the analysis, the data from the participants were adjudge appropriate for inclusion into the confirmatory factor analysis. The CFA was carried out and finding from the analysis is in agreement with one-factor model of fire safety training program for the enhancement of the occupant’s fire safety knowledge and awareness. The research found that fire safety practitioners and building manager requires the components for effective fire safety training. Therefore, it was suggested that the stakeholders should prioritize adequate fire safety training of the occupants and public in the fire safety for boosting their knowledge and awareness of fire safety

Model of fire safety management for the assessment of an office building in FCT Abuja Nigeria

Fire safety management is essential in the aspects of achieving absolute fire safety standards in a building. Various Fire safety assessment methodologies and fire risk evaluation process has been developed over time, in spites of this, the fire risk keeps increasing, which implied that, there is a poor fire safety management. This study proposes a model of fire safety management for the fire risk assessment of an office building in Nigeria. The ten components of fire safety management were selected from the literature review, which was later structured to form criteria. The relative importance index was used to rank the level of compliance of fire safety management base on their influence. The questionnaires were the distribution to 30 fire safety practitioners and experts with substantial experience and knowledge in fire safety management. The data were analyzed using the relative importance index analytical approach. The evaluation model was suggested base on fire safety practitioners and experts’ perceptions. The inspection/observation of an office building was conducted in Nigeria in order to validate the model. The findings revealed that there is higher fire risk due to non- compliance with the standard fire safety management

Escape routes design specification analysis for optimum evacuation of 200 people in high-rise building

Current issues in evacuation from the high-rise buildings, i.e. to either evacuate using staircase or elevator, the condition of escape routes provided in high-rise residential buildings, and people’s attitude toward fire safety, are still being debated by many parties. Escape routes in high-rise residential buildings is an important element for emergency escape. In this paper analysis of the specification of staircase, fire door and corridor will be carried out by simulating a number of people evacuating buildings of different layouts identified in the observation study

Optimum escape routes designs and specification for high-rise buildings

In Malaysia, high-rise buildings built for residential purposes are a common phenomenon especiallyin urban areas. This is due to the high demand for residential flats in town areas, which has motivated private and the Semi-Government Companies to build more high-rise residential buildings. This trendwas driven due to the limited land availabilities and the high land value in town area. Due to thenumber of occupants in high-rise residential buildings, an optimum escape routes specification isessential to be analysed to ensure that every ones in the buildings can safely evacuate the buildingduring fire emergency. It is difficult to change human behaviour but the building specifications can bechanged more easily. In this regard, the building element best known as escape route, that is escapestairs, corridors and fire doors, should be designed and constructed to serve the occupants the bestthey can by not allowing any further delay in the evacuation process. The design and construction of escape routes needs to consider not only the evacuation time but also the construction time,economics, construction method and space utilization factor

An analysis of the effect of staircase intermediate landing floor on the evacuation time

Escape routes in high-rise residential buildings are an important element for emergency escape. Escape stairs are normally designed with intermediate landing floors to connect two staircases between the floor levels in high-rise buildings. This paper discusses an analysis of the effect of this intermediate landing floor on the total evacuation time during evacuation in emergency situation e.g. fire emergency Analysis was done by comparing two different staircases width i.e. 914mm designed with and without intermediate landing floors and 1524mm designed with and without intermediate landing floors as well. Evacuation simulation software i.e. SIMULEX was used to simulate a number of people evacuating the predesigned floor models with the different staircase specifications. Total evacuation time recorded from those simulation processes are then compared with the time different taken by the same number of people evacuating the models. It is found that there was an effect on the total evacuation time for the staircase designed with and without intermediate landing floors. The simulation suggested that people will take 15% to 24% longer to evacuate the building if staircase was designed with intermediate landing floors

Bahaya kebakaran dan tindakan pencegahan kebakaran pada bangunan tinggi

Pelbagai bangunan tinggi dibina terutama di bandaraya untuk pelbagai tujuan. lni menandakan kemajuan berlaku tetapi keselamatan bangunan tinggi dan bahaya kebakaran perlu dikaji dengan teliti memandangkan pelbagai bahan dan teknik pembinaan yang baru telah diperkenalkan dalam industri binaan sekarang sama ada untuk pembinaan atau perhiasan. Secara tidak langsung, ianya menyumbang kepada bahaya kebakaran pada bangunan tinggi. Pengunaan bahan binaan dan pembinaan yang berlandaskan "situasi menang-menang" akan dapat mengurangkan risiko kebakaran. Disamping itu peraturan yang komprehensif diperlukan untuk menguatkuasakan piawaian bangunan tinggi bagi menjamin keselamatan pengguna. Tumpuan perbincangan artikel ini adalah terhadap bahaya kebakaran dan tindakan pencegahan yang boleh diambil untuk mengurangkan risiko kebakara

Fire safety models for high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia

This research investigated the effects of escape route design and specification, and time taken on evacuation process in high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia. The aim is to produce a fire safety model on how fire safety standards in high-rise residential buildings can be achieved by investigating the relationship between human behaviour and structural design, particularly escape route design and specification. In Malaysia, research on fire safety is very new, particularly research on provision of fire safety in high-rise residential buildings. The number of fire cases involved residential buildings is significantly high compared to other building types. Thus, escape routes in high-rise residential buildings should be designed and constructed to enable the occupants to evacuate the building as soon as fire has been detected. Mixed methodologies i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in this research. There are three research methods adopted i.e. observation, simulation and questionnaire. Observations were carried out to identify any problems encountered and to develop the study models for further analysis. Investigations of the effects of escape route design and specification on evacuation process were carried out using specialist software, i.e. Simulex, which simulates the evacuation of people from the building. The aim is to study escape route specifications i.e. staircase, fire door and corridor. Questionnaire surveys were than carried out to investigate the occupant’s characteristics, behaviours, perceptions and motivation factors to evacuate the building. From this research, fire safety models proposed for high-rise residential buildings as follows, (1) Fire safety model to achieve fire safety standard in high-rise residential buildings, (2) Escape route designs and specifications, and, (3) Human behaviour model. There are five fire safety components that need to be enhanced i.e. (1) Fire Safety Awareness, (2) Fire Safety Design, (3) Fire Safety Equipments and Evacuation Skill, (4) Fire Safety Audit, and (5) Fire Safety Enforcement. Besides, there are four factors which highly influence the evacuation process, fire and casualty risk i.e.: (1) People behaviour – knowledge and experience, (2) building element and escape routes design, (3) active fire protection system, and (4) legislation and enforcement.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

An investigation of building occupants behaviour during fire alarm

The safety of building occupants during fire emergencies depends mainly on the occupant's behavior in the fire event. Therefore, this study investigates the behavior of high–rise building occupants in Nigeria when they hear the sound of fire alarm under fire drill. The study adopted a survey research design. The population for this study consists of 349 low and high-rise building occupants across six north-central state of Nigeria. A research question was used to direct the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents which was duly validated by an expert in the field of fire safety. Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items at 0.90. Data collected were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment of Statistics (Amos). After a preliminary analysis (descriptive), data from respondents were found suitable for presence in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), The CFA was performed, and results of the analysis support the one-factor model of occupants behavior in building when they hear the sound of the alarm during a building fire can enhance early evacuation and safety of lives and properties. The study found that occupants required nine actions to be taken when they hear the sound of fire alarm under investigation. However, the study recommended that fire training; total compliance with the relevant fire safety regulations, fire drill, fire communication, and effective fire safety management should be organized for the high or low-rise building occupants to enhance their knowledge of fire safety in a building

Fire safety management strategy in Nigeria public buildings

Ineffective fire safety management is one of the severe issues in public buildings, especially in Nigeria. There has been a significant increase in fire disaster cases in Nigeria in the last 25 years, the incidence of fire disasters becomes the most significant and ultimate threat to building occupants, building and its contents, as well as the economic growth of the nation. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of building occupants, building contents, the essential features depend on the fire safety protection system, which should be under the fire safety regulation requirements. Nonetheless, practical fire safety management could remedy the damages or rates of injury in fire events. This study presents the findings on the investigation of the effectiveness of fire safety management strategy in Nigeria public buildings. This study attempts to determine the factors affecting improper fire safety management and determine the level of effective implementation of fire safety management components. From the study, safety training and adequate fire safety compliance are the factors that affect improper fire safety management the most. The level of effective implementation of fire safety management strategy is low, which translated to inadequate fire safety management. The most effective approach identified to improve the fire safety management and achievement of fire safety objectives is through effective fire safety management strategy and improvement in fire safety training arrangement and absolute compliance with the fire safety regulations