Methods For Preventing Fire Hazards And Ensuring Safety Equipment In Fire Compartments With Excessive Compartment Area

Discuss about the Methods for Hypoxic Air Fire Prevention Systems and Environmental.

This is a report written as a result of participating in the fire safety design project of a fire compartment with excessive compartment area. The aim of this report is to provide a list of the fire hazards and its safety equipments at the given three tenancies. Typically, a type A fire risk assessment is a basic risk assessment that is carried out on apartment blocks or commercial buildings in order to satisfy the Fire Safety regulatory reform order of 2005 (van Hees, Holmstedt, Bengtson, Hägglund, Dittmer, Blomqvist, Lönnermark, 2009). Maximum utilization of the natural resources could be used to get a sustainable building and also it should be constructed in such a way to avoid the fire. BCA rules should be followed in Australia for the construction of these building to avoid fire. It is necessary for the occupants to have a basic knowledge regarding certain precautions that could be taken when the fire occurs. The fire risk assessment involves the following factors (BSI 2011):

• Detect all the sources that could cause combustion and moreover try to avoid nitrogen from the reach of fire
• Make sure to consider the number of people involving in those surroundings
• Basic precaution is very necessary to avoid the spreading of fire
• Proper training should be carried out while working with the fire and should follow the plan that could be in the favor of everyone
• Maintain an update of everything around the surroundings.

The principles of sustainable green building should be taken into account, so that the building may abide by the appropriate Israeli and Australian standards (Nilsson, Frantzich & van Hees, 2013). These buildings should involve in the maximum utilization of natural resources that could be either from sunlight, rainwater etc. They also try to minimize the utilization of energy and power that could be used for ventilation, lightning, maintenance, etc. Certain green building principles should be taken into account that includes usage of renewable materials, traditional building corporate with the innovative technologies of sustainable building, consumption of recycled water, preventing the environmental safety factors and careful utilization of the land and prevention.

National Construction Code (NCC) was developed by the Australian Buildings Code Board (ABCB) where we have Building Code of Australia (BCA). According to theses predefined rules and regulations the buildings should be constructed in order to save the building from fire. The measures that have to be taken due to the fire are explained with the C1 objective. The objective of this clause is to prevent an individual during the fire situation, defend themselves during fire and measures taken to deal with fire. For the shopping mall the construction should involve the rules of BCA that has certain regulations. The necessity of the fire safety equipments with the sufficient smoke extraction system should be considered.

Building Code of Australia (BCA)

Certain rules are predefined according to the BCA requirements that are as follows: Buildings are of various types that could be defined as type A, B and C. Type A could include certain Group I buildings and any mid-rise office and Group R building. They include exterior and interior walls to be non-combustible, protected schools and protected buildings. They involve usage of mason and concrete for their construction. Type B buildings include certain buildings that involves apartments and certain commercial buildings (Chow, Zou, 2009). Both type A and B category involves the construction from the non-combustible materials that involves with the load bearing of concrete and masonry. Type C could be a typical building that does not involve in any fire protection cases. In this case timber could be used. Moreover the flooring plan of Type A should be non-combustible where in other two cases it is not necessary.

The plan includes Looksmart Alterations that involves experts in repairing, and remodeling all types of garments. For the garment sale shop it is really important to place fire safety equipment during the construction since garment shop, probably does not meet any electricity hazard but certainly it can have some fire due to any other accidental cases

For this situation fire sprinkler system with the alarm indication is the best system. But installing fire sprinkler system usually needs some equipment or devices to be installed before the plan is made.

One of the fire protection systems is the automatic fire sprinkler system, which is the integration of water tank with several pipes connected together (Nilsson, van Hees, Frantzich & Andersson, 2012). The system includes regular water supply. When the fire tries to contact the surface of the sprinkler system then it could be identified by the sensor resulting in the flow of water which is sprayed in the fire occupied area. The schematic diagram of the automatic fire sprinkler system is shown below

Figure 1: Automatic fire sprinkler system

As said previously a sprinkler system is composed of series of components that includes a stop valve, pressure switch, valve monitor, Alarm valve, fire sprinkler/head etc. Stop valve is painted in red colour with the large black handle to it. The stop valve isolates the water supplied to the fire sprinkler system. This is fitted with the valve monitor that monitors the operation of the stop valve (Herpen, 2013). The water flow control is done with the help of the alarm valve. This valve is normally in a closed position till the pressure of the valve of the sprinkler system exceeds the supplied water pressure (Mierlo, van and Tromp, 2013). Fire sprinkler/head could consist of the glass bulb or a fuse element. When the head of the sprinkler is exposed to a certain temperature then the sprinkler is set into operation which allows the flow of water from the affected area. There are several types of sprinkler system such as dry pipe, wet pipe, tail end and domestic sprinkler system (Brink & Van den, 2015). When the fire is in contact with the sprinkler/head and when it is exposed to certain temperature then the filament could break and generates the flow of water from the alarm valve which is initially in the open position. Water flows through the affected sprinkler. A typical fire sprinkler system is shown in figure 2.

Tenancy 1

 

Figure 2: Typical automatic fire sprinkler system

Here we have the ground floor that includes Diamond Nail a retailer for nail care, including manicures, pedicures and waxing. There is a main point to remember that while working with the pedicure, waxing or manicure everything has an involvement of heat. They use electricity for heating process and moreover these could cause fire which has to be considered and the basic fire extinguishers should be installed. It is necessary to maintain the record of the amount of staffs working in that environment and the activities performed by them should be monitored.

For this tenancy the fire detection and alarm circuit is the best plan. This should be incorporated with the CO₂ extinguishers to avoid spreading of fire.

It has been proved that huge loss could be avoided initially when we have a detection system to detect the fire at the early stage and give a warning sign. A fire detector and alarm system helps us with this indication (Proulx, 2008). The Maintenance is very essential and the fire suppression system (Rubin, Brewin, Greenberg, Hughes, Simpson & Wessely, 2007) along with the fire detection and alarm system plays a major role in the fire protection system.  This could make the survival of the living and also protect from heavy property damage. Fire could spread from the ground floor to the top floor in a multifunctional building. Hence precautions should be taken at the beginning. The people who are trained in these aspects should serve the maintenance purpose.

The contemporary detection system varies with the conventional one with the improvement in their advanced signaling equipment. The designed system should be approved before it is to be installed in the particular tenancies (Hu, 2017). Such approval is made by the qualified individuals at NFPA® 70, National Electrical Code®, and NFPA® 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code. Other standards could also serve this purpose.

The wiring part could consist of the electronically activated devices which are called as the fire alarm control unit or fire alarm control panel).  The panel is provided with the external power supply which could sense the input signal, process the signal and provide the output signal such as providing the alarm signal or some visual signal indicating the fire. The circuits are altogether bound into a single component. The fire alarm control unit could also convey the signal to an off-site monitoring station. The part of the fire alarm system could also include the remote auxiliary fire control units and notification appliance panels that are connected together (Richards, 2008).  The fire alarm control unit could also severe several purposes such as

• Promotes fire-fighter communication in two ways
• Promotes the annunciator assimilation
• Promotes control to several other protection features such as elevators, HVAC, dampers, doors and other necessary emphasis
• Also provided with the voice notification and messaging features to the public which is pre-recorded.

Equipment

The figure below shows the schematic diagram of the fire alarm control unit showing various component of the system.

 

Figure 3: The schematic diagram of the fire alarm control unit with various components and central hub of the alarm system.

The laundry present in the laundry area pose a risk since some of it may be made from natural fibres that is very combustible.  It is recommended that all the laundry cycles should be concluded with cooling cycles (Chiti, 2009). In addition, labels that indicate the safety measures should be placed in strategic points in the laundry room. With the integration of fire detection it is necessary to have CO₂ extinguisher at each cabinet. In our plan we have four cabinets set for manicure, pedicure, waxing and kitchen. These carbon dioxide extinguishers could be used effectively for the class B fires. This could include the fire that could arise sue to electricity and flammable liquids. In parlor there is a chance of having certain chemicals that could be flammable. The carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher is shown in the figure given below

Figure 4: Carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher

The third tenancy includes Espresso Pump that sells coffee, cakes, sandwiches and various delicious treats. The building consists of flooring with the vinyl floor tiles and there occurs stainless steel bench and tables. The fire situation to occur remains less due to these equipments but there will be coffee machines, oven to bake the cake that could have a possibility of overheating around the environment which could be noted.

For this purpose dampers could be a best solution.

Based on the compartments of the building the fire-rated system are classified as fire barriers, fire walls fire partitions, smoke barriers and smoke partitions (Utne, Hokstad  & Vatn, 2011). When the incursion happens through these walls then the fire could be avoided with the ventilation system (HVAC), which could work together with the help of the smoke dampers or fire dampers or with the combination of both. As a fire engineer, one should have a thorough knowledge regarding these dampers. The fire dampers are different from the smoke dampers that vary in their methodology, installation and their working. This variation could be used essentially in the life safety system (Zimmerman & Restrepo, 2009). When a duct temperature reaches an enough level to dissipate a fusible link then the fire dampers will be closed. When a smoke is detected then the smoke dampers will be closed. Many fire safety engineers had approved that the combination of fire and smoke dampers plays a necessary role in the safety system (Dobashi, 2017). According to the UL555S standard (Winter, Moore, Davis & Strauss, 2013), the smoke dampers and the combination of fire and smoke dampers are said to be the leakage rated devices which is described at the table given below

Automatic Sprinkler System

Table 1: UL555S classification under the leakage rated device

Leakage classification	Leakage, cfm/sq-ft at the standard air conditions
	4.5 in wg.                        8.5 in wg.                           12.5 in wg.
I	8 11  14
II	20                                       28 35
III	80                                       112 140

In this project it is necessary to have several subcontractors that take a part work from the contractors. It is required to have Mechanical sub contractors for the installation of pipes, sufficient air conditioner and he is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the system. Next plays an electrical subcontractor who is responsible for the specialized construction related works that involves the design, maintenance and installation of the electrical or electronic equipments.

• The usage of fire exit passages is highly recommended. This is a common entrance path that should be necessarily constructed in every mall according to the Australian standard. Shopping malls that are constructed with the BCA regulations should involve the necessary passage (Maluk, 2017). Else an alternative approach is to use the normal exit pathway constructed accordingly.
• Try to stay away from the fire possibly at a maximum extent. In case of Mall, try to come to an open area (Xin, & Khan, 2007). For instance, if fire occurs at the kitchen of the Coffee shop, then all the staffs are advised to move to the area away from fire that forms a safe place. The mall should have an “infinite tenability” in the case of C2 fire and in terms of C3 fires then the smoke control and exit path is highly recommended. Normal exit paths include open staircase and escalators within the mall to other levels and direct to the safe places to the outside of the building or to the adjacent car parking.
• In the case of smoke management it is recommended to follow the rules of BCA that should follow the norms with the exception that the entrance of the building should be left as an exit pathway. Many stores should recommend an evacuation in case of C2 or C3 fires.
• There is a rule that the maximum distance of the exit should be 20 meter and it should not exceed more than that distance (Suard, Hostikka, Baccou, 2013).
• The presence of Evacuation Management Plan is necessarily important. In this plan every staffs and the wardens should be trained in any scenario at the case of fire to save themselves and others that create a positive impact.
• The building should provide necessary sufficiency that it should not interfere with the people during the case of fire. The present supplies for shopping centre buildings having a climb in storey of 4 depends on those for high-rise constructions that are tall with reverence to their height, and which have very inadequate way for egress. They must satisfy the structural redundancy and our tenancies could satisfy in these terms. Our tenancies are constructed at the ground floor of the building. The building could be wider rather than higher since these building are not advised to be raised as the high construction.
• Sprinkled fire would have a negligible effect on the building construction. Hence building when subjected to fire, occupants could evacuate even if it is suspended to C3 fire.  During the case of C3 fire necessary fire resistance should be available. It could relate to the time it takes for the people to move to the safe place (Babrauskas, 2008). Any type of combustible materials should be avoided within the mall. The Materials used for the construction of the building should also involve the safety measure and that should minimize spreading of fire. To achieve this, it is recommended that ceilings in malls and walkways are group D materials (eg. masonry; gypsum plaster, paper faced and painted; some fire-retarded timbers and timber products)

Conclusion:

In this paper we have explained regarding certain fire safety equipments that could help out with the three tenancies. As a team members of the project service it is necessary to have these things in the mind while involving in service installation. Inspection carried out in fire signaling and alarm system is very necessary to monitor the system at the regular basis. From this study we had made a brief contribution regarding the handling methods and procedure during the fire and the engineer’s contribution towards the construction of the following plan. One should purely have these concepts in mind and try to handle those situations accordingly.

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