FIRE REQUIREMENTS

FIRE REQUIREMENTS for high rise especially SoHo

abdul hadi abd hamid azeme azman

DEFINITION

Fire protection in buildings

The UBBL 1984 requires all buildings to have minimum structural integrity based on its usage. Elements of construction can only be effective as fire breaks if they have the necessary degree of fire resistance

The three criteria of fire resistance:

INSULATION

INTEGRITY

STABILITY

Guide to fire protection in Malaysia – 3.4

Good building design with fire safety measures • • • • • • •

Provide adequate fire appliances, fire hydrants & other facilities to assist fire & rescue personnel Provide adequate fixed installation, where appropriate, for quick & effective detection & extinguishment of fires Designing & installing building services so that they do no assist the spread of fire, smoke or toxic fumes Designing & providing adequate and safe escape routes for the occupants of the building Selecting materials for the construction which will not promote the rapid spread of fire or generate dangerous smoke Subdividing buildings into compartments of reasonable sizes by means of fire resisting walls & floors, providing fire stops to protect openings between floors & compartments Designing & constructing the exterior of a building so that fire is unlikely to spread to it from another burning building

PASSIVE FIRE PROTECTION

PURPOSE GROUPS

By LAW - 134

residential

+

office

+

shops

MIXED USE BUILDINGS

Where a building contains usage falling under different purpose groups and each is contained within compartment, by-law 215 of the UBBL allows the height of each part of the building housing a different purpose group, if they are vertically separated, to be considered separately for compliance with Schedule 6, 7, 9 in the UBBL

FIRE APPLIANCES ACCESS

DESIGN NOTES •

•

•

Vehicular access to the exterior of a building is needed to enable high reach appliances to be used & to enable pumping appliances to supply water & equipment for fire fighting & rescue activities Access requirement increase with building size & height

The table in By- law 140 (above) shows the proportion of the building perimeter that must be accessible to fire fighting appliances

one-sixth

three-fourth

one-half

island site

•

• • • •

Away from obstructions such as street furniture, phone booths, etc Not less than 2m from adjacent buildings & overhangs Between 0.61m to 2.4m from Fire Appliance Access Away from risks vehicular Not more than 90m apart from each other (in new buildings adjacent to existing developments, a new hydrant or hydrants will have to be provided if there is no hydrant within 45m radius of the new building)

EXISTING FIRE HYDRANT (hotel Malaya site)

MEANS OF ESCAPE

By-law 229 – Means of access & fire fighting in buildings over 18.3 meters high •

•

• •

•

•

Must provide gaining access and fighting fire from within the building consisting of fire fighting access lobbies, fire fighting staircases, fire lifts and dry or wet rising systems Fire fighting access lobbies shall be provided at every floor & the level distance from the furthermost point of the floor does not exceed 45.75 meters Fire fighting access lobbies may be omitted if the fire fighting staircase is pressurised to meet the requirements of by-law 200 A fire fighting staircase shall be provided to give direct access to each fire fighting access lobby & shall be directly accessible from outside the building at fire appliance access level A fire lift shall be provided to give access to each fire fighting access lobby or in the absence of a lobby to the fire fighting staircase at each floor level The fire lift shall discharge directly into the fighting access lobby fire fighting staircase or shall be connected to it by a protected corridor

MEANS OF ESCAPE is to direct a shortest route to a place of safety, such as outside the building, or if still within a building, a protected or isolated passageway, stairs or refuge areas which lead to the outside building

STOREY EXIT is a fire rated door to a protected staircase or a corridor protected with a fire resisting structure in accordance with the 9th schedule to these By-laws & in the case of ground floor accommodation storey exit means a door leading direct to a place safety outside the building

Arrangement of storey exits The principle of this clause is that once the escape route is inside a protected zone, then the route shall remain protected all the way to the final exit.

FIRE LIFTS means lifts capable of being commandered for exclusive use of firemen in emergency

Design requirement • • • • • •

Location of fire lifts Number of fire lifts Numbers of floor to be served Lift well/shaft Landing doors Other requirement for fire lifts

ACTIVE FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM

sprinkler system To detect, control and extinguish a fire

To warn the occupants of the occurrence of fire

sprinkler system

hose reel system “ intended for the occupant to use during the early stages of fire ”

design requirements • Hose reel: • 30m coverage of each hose reel • One hose reel for every 800sq.m of usable floor space • Located along escape routes or besides exit doors or staircase

hose reel system

CASE STUDY City Bank Tower

MENARA CITIBANK >> The fire fighting system of Menara Citibank is divided into 3 zones >> One person is in charge in the Fire Control Room (FCR) HIGH ZONE

Level 36-48

MID ZONE

Level 20-35

LOW ZONE

Level 9-19

fire safety

equipments >>Emergency intercom system provide automatic zoned announcement in the event of fire >>Smoke detector - corridors Alarm sounder

>>Sprinkler - all offices and rooms

>>Alarm sounder- all the offices >>Break glass - all the offices fire alarm panel Sprinkler

equipments >>Roller shutter basement and lobby

Roller shutter

>>Pressurization fansstairways and lobby

Pressurization fans

>>Hose reel and fire hose >>CO2 fire extinguishing installations

outside

inside

Motorized damper

equipments Smoke detector Sprinkler Alarm sounder Roller shutter Pressurization fans

FIRE ALARM PANEL

Hose reel & fire hose Break glass CO2 fire extinguishing installations

MANUAL

procedures when fire happen >> The building management office will be in control-including answering all the coming in calls >>All lifts will go down automatically >>The roller shutter activated - at basement & lobby >>The pressurization fans on: - to control the fire from spreading to other area - help to reduce smoke - especially at the main fire escape route >>The air conditioning system turn off

procedures when fire happen >>When fire occurs at certain level, the evacuation will be starting from the 2 floor below the level and then 2 floor above. This method repeated until every level is covered. This is important to avoid from congestion in the fire escape route. >>Every floor will be controlled by a warden. Priority will be given to the pregnant women and disable occupants.

Secondly evacuated FIRE Firstly evacuated

REFERENCES • Uniform building By-Laws 1984 (G.N. 5178/85) • Guide to Fire Protection in Malaysia - Dato’ Hamzah Bin Abu Bakar • High Rise Manual, Johann Eisele, Ellen Kloft

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