Engr. Mahbubur Rahman :
The fire incidents are becoming more tragic and more frequent nowadays. We have to be determined to eliminate or, at least to bring them down within a minimum degree of tolerance in view of saving lives and properties. Not only in our country, had a lot of incidents happened in the world due to emotions, hazards and sometimes by natural disasters. A research found 90% of such incidents can be controlled and those can’t are the natural disasters like cyclone, hurricane, storm etc. but they also can be controlled by some other means to minimise damages.
This is to remember that in the first place it is individual’s responsibility to protect and prevent their own selves from any damages but the Govt. must work on the system to set up an effective fire safety infrastructure to enforce the relevant authority, professionals and organisations to build up a fire safe building and produce enough fire engineering talents with continuing research and analysis. Surprisingly true that in our country the fire engineering education has been neglected all the while and still now even after some major incidents no one in the country feels to produce fire engineering talents.
One of my views of this write-up to urge the Govt. to take necessary initiative to open ‘Fire Engineering Course’ in the universities (hiring teachers from overseas on contract basis for the time being) effective from coming session and in the mean time to make necessary arrangement to send some graduates and teachers oversea immediately for diploma, advanced diploma, further graduation and masters degree course in Fire Protection and Fire Safety Engineering in ahead of near future planning to produce fire engineering and fire safety talents in our own university.
This write-up is to address a conceptual approach to the control of fire hazards in the buildings that shown in the diagram below.
Legends: 1. Smoke detector/ Heat detector; 2. Alarm Bell; 3. Manual Call Points
I do believe that we understand what is fire hazard and what are the consequences but we, the people know little about fire protection system and the professionals (architects who are involved in building design), they do not deserve the right profession who can easily miss out or overlook to address the appropriate fire protective measures in their building design that might cause the death trap for the occupants. The fire protection is the study and practice of mitigation or prevention the unwanted effects of fire hazards in any building, premises or dwellings in view of to save lives and property damages.
No justification of such prevention partially but 100% should be our target to zero fire hazards. Practically zero fire hazards might not possible and it can be defined within a reasonable degree of tolerance as- if the damages to lives with minor injury per person and, property damage does not exceed Tk.10,000.00/person with a frequency of single incident/1,000,000 population per month (to be decided by the regulatory body) can be considered zero fire hazards. Based on this concept Govt. should fix the target to bring down the fire incidents gradually to zero by a reasonable time frame (to be decided by the regulatory body).
To build up a fire protective building with a minimum level of fire safety first and foremost the Govt. has to set up a strong fire safety infrastructure which should be ideally as stated sequentially below. An effective law to enforce the individual organisations that are involved in building design and construction to ensure the building to be constructed and is constructed with full compliance of FIRE SAFETY CODE. This is the first job that to be set up by the specialist and to be approved by the regulatory body otherwise any efforts whatever had been taken would not be able to drive to reach the goal.
1) Regulatory Authority
2) National Building Code
3) Jurisdiction Authority
4) Building Construction Authority
5) Civil Defense Authority
6) Fire Safety Authority
7) Environment Ministry
8) Utilities Board (Power & Gas)
9) Sewage & Water Board
10) Building Developer
11) Professional Fire Protection and Fire Safety Engineer
12) Building Designer (Architects) and Consultants (Engineers)
13) Main Contractor
14) M&E Professional Engineers
15) Sub-contractors
The total organisations are fully liable to build a safe and sound building in view of fire hazards. I will brief in short description how the individuals to be liable for a fire safety building construction.
Regulatory Authority: This is the first and foremost job that to be ordered by this authority to set up a National Building Code inclusive of all the fire protective measures (active and passive) based on the world’s best fire safety code like Australia, America, U.K and also the latest research papers applicable for our country.
Jurisdiction Authority: To enforce the law to end up of any of the organizations or professionals of continuing their job further imposing heavy monetary penalty with jail terms in case of any violation of building fire safety code during building construction.
Building Construction Authority: Any construction company to be registered by this authority and only the registered company are entitled to bid tender. Registration should be based on the contractor’s good track record, qualified, skilled and experienced manpower, construction equipment and investment capital. The contractor should be categorised based on their capital, manpower and past experience. Along with their registration application they are to undertake for the compliance of building code with a big amount of security money.
A successful contractor should get further a work permit from the construction authority to commence their work. This authority that will be in the top supervisory position to enforce the main contractor to comply with all the building codes as stipulated in the National Building Code. They should have the authority to stop the construction work at any time if they find or feel of any non-compliance in the whole process during construction with heavy monetary penalty and jail terms as well as cancellation of their registration case by case.
The architects and the structural consultants will have to get approval of their base drawings from Building Construction Authority prior to issue it to the Main Contractor for construction. The Environment Ministry also to enforce the same punishment for any violation of environment pollution code as well as for poor housekeeping that may cause fire hazards during construction.
Civil Defense Authority: This is only the authority to be designated for issuance of ‘Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP)’ after successfully completion of a building in view of fully safety compliance of human lives and properties. The permit to be temporary in view of to enforce evacuation order by the authority in case of any risk for life and property loses.
Fire Safety Authority: This authority is to ensure the compliance of fire safety code in the building design. The M&E (Mechanical & Electrical) Consultants to get their Fire Protection drawing approval from the authority prior to issue to the main contractor for construction. After successful completion of the building construction, the authority will verify the fire safety compliance upon receiving application from the M&E Consultants.
Utilities Board (Power & Gas): The M&E Consultants to get their drawings approval from Utilities Board with full compliance of power & gas system code prior to issue it to the main contractor for construction. The board is to ensure with their physical inspection to verify the compliance after completion of the building construction. Based on their physical inspection they will certify the As Built drawings for the M&E Consultants.
Sewage & Water Board: Similar procedure to maintain for sewage & water services.
Building Designer (Architects) and Consultants (Engineers): These are the key personnel to bring the building under fire control. They have to be fully responsible to design a building with fully fire protective. The architects should address three basic measures for controlling fire hazards in their building design; isolation, prohibition and protection.
Isolation- This is usually done by surrounding the fire hazard with fire rated compartmentalisation. Any openings through structure or brick wall normally allowed for M&E services to run should be fire protected with fire rated materials and devices. The second form of isolating a hazard involves spatial separation. This is often used to prevent fire spread from one building to another. Several approaches are now available to the designer to determine the distances necessary to isolate a building from the effects of thermal radiation due to fire in a neighbouring building.
Prohibition- Prohibition is the removal of hazardous materials from the building. Considering the economic impact of certain product this method are not commonly used in the modern building but in buildings containing large crowds (shopping centres), hospitals and hotels, the potentially large loss of life this method should be taken into consideration as a prevention of fire hazards.
Protection- This method is to control and in other words, a counteraction to fire hazards and thereby protect the buildings. This is best done by limiting fire growth, which in turn reduces the potential effects of fire hazards and prevent fire spread. This is usually called active and passive measures. The active measures (as shown in the diagram) involved to control of fire growth, fire spread, smoke spread, detection and communication process that informs the occurrence of a fire outbreak and triggers some sort of counteractions towards extinguishing the fire and, the passive measures are more concerned with building structures integrity, compartmentalisation and the integrity of the building envelope. Passive fire protection is an all encompassing fire safety concept which embraces the passive measures in fire containment design and in addition augment the active measures.
Fire can spread rapidly through a building, causing structural failure to roof and walls. Depending on a building’s design, fires can travel horizontally and vertically. Structural Consultants to take effective and appropriate measures in their structural design to prevent building structure failure due to rapid increase of temperature in the event of fire. M&E Consultants will have to ensure ‘no fire hazard to cause due to non-compliance of fire code in their design’.
Careful selection of fire protective measures are important to choose the right and most effective method for controlling fire hazards for particular type of buildings like residential buildings, commercial buildings, integrated commercial & residential buildings, hospitals, hotels, warehouse, generator rooms, high & low voltage switch room, transformer rooms, power plants, chemical plants, laboratory etc.
Building Developer: The Building Developer is to be registered by the Building Construction Authority. They are to undertake to the Building Construction Authority to ensure the building would be constructed as per National Building Code or else of any violation of any part of it the developer would be penalised with heavy monetary fine with jail terms as well as their registration cancellation case by case.
Main Contractor: Main Contractor is solely responsible to follow up of whole process on the above before commencement of their construction works.
Sub-contractors: After receiving the approved (by the respective consultants) construction drawings from the main contractor, subcontractor to develop their shop drawing and to get endorsed by the respective Professional Engineers for actual construction.
M&E Professional Engineers and Fire Protection & Fire Safety Engineers: These are the engineers who are to obtain certificate at any time after their graduation from their respective Institution of Engineers through some exams set up by the Institution. The exam should be basically based on the Risk Assessment- activities, hazards identification, risk evaluation, risk control, National Building Code, professional commitment to the Nation and their innovative talent in the individual field during and after construction of buildings. And, only then, they will be entitled to endorse their respective drawings. In any case if it is prove that any professional engineer endorse any drawing with overlooking or in negligence or otherwise intention he or they have to face the Jurisdiction Authority who will enforce the law for cancellation of their professional certificate with heavy monetary fine with jail terms.
The conceptual approach leading to zero fire hazards is a fire protection analysis which evaluates fire hazards and its potential impacts on a building, its occupants & properties and, selects the appropriate control measures. It is perhaps the best design approach the Fire Protection Engineers should involve in building design for the control of fire hazards in buildings.
Moreover awareness is the key for a fire safe tomorrow. Lack of awareness among architects, consultants and building owners adds heavily to the situation. Fire safety management should be made a compulsory syllabus in all the educational courses related to the construction industry e.g.: Architectural, Civil Engineering and Fire Engineering Courses.
Before ending up I would like to provide some safety tips for home users:
-To learn about all the different fire hazards that can be present in the homes.
-To get inspected regularly all type of electrical appliances and wiring by professionals.
-To store highly flammable and combustible materials far away from heating elements.
-To install smoke and heat detector in a location where they could easily detect.
-To keep at least one fire extinguisher in the kitchen and educate everyone in the house how to use it.
-To practice a good fire escape route plan for the family members.
-To practice fire drill at least once a month that can make familiar with the procedures and, will help be less panic in the event of a real fire.
-To stop, drop and roll in case of catch fire in the cloths or hair.
This is the end of my write-up with a great hope that the Govt. will take an immediate serious and effective initiative on fire protection systems and the relevant professionals, organisations as well as the people will take their individual responsibility to save the lives and properties towards Zero Fire Hazards. Then, and only then, we can reach our expected goal.
(Mahbubur Rahman, Mechanical Engineer, writes from Singapore)
