Fire safety of the buildings

In the aftermath of the fire in Maharashtra's Secretariat building Mantralaya last week, an article appeared in Times of India on 24.06.2012 stating the review of fire safety in all buildings and maintaining the minimum requirements (as per National Building Code) to fight fire. They are,

1. maintaining atleast 6 m radius around the buildings free space to enable fire tender movement (this is also to be maintained free from trees and vegetation so that any fire involving them will not lead to fire in the building)
2. have fire detection and alarm system
3. have fire hydrants, wet riser, hose reel and automatic sprinkler system
4. have atleast 75,000 liter underground water tank and atleast 10,000 liter terrace tank exclusively for fire fighting
5. maintain atleast minimum number of (portable) fire extinguishers
6. have emergency lighting in and around the building
7. have one single switch in every building (at an easily identifiable and accessible location) to cut off power supply in case of short circuits (obviously this should be located in the main corridor, preferably at the entrance of the building)
8. have radiant (self luminescent) emergency exit direction markings along the corridor to the nearest exits
9. not blocking / locking the emergency exits / stairs with unwanted materials
10. test electrical systems also regularly to avoid overload/short circuit (as for any fire, people immediately show short circuit as the reason)
11. have CCTV surveillance system
12. display cautionary boards like do not smoke
13. remove the waste/scrap every day
14. test the systems regularly to see and ensure functioning of all fire protection system
15. have nodal officer in every building responsible for fire safety
16. conduct drills to all occupants to prepare them in case of any fire mishap
17. etc

The above guidelines will help in protecting the persons and property from fire mishaps.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-24/hyderabad/32392807_1_wet-riser-fire-mishap-detection-and-alarm-system

Short circuits main cause of fire - is it so?

It is reported that 45% of the fire accidents in Hyderabad are due to short circuits and another 31% are due to lighted cigarette butts. As rightly pointed out by Addl Director of Disaster Response and Fire Services department, people tend to buy cheap quality electrical cables and equipment for buildings resulting in early damage leading to such fire incidents. It is common for investigators to conclude majority of fires to short circuit but the root cause lies in use of improper electrical wiring, switches, and other electrical fittings. Also, people fail to ensure checking the healthiness of cables and others in their building and one should remember that even the best will not come for life. It should be made mandatory to check the healthiness of electrical systems after first 15 years and thereafter once in every five years. It is better to change electrical fittings at regular periodicity, say once in 15 or 20 years. Insurance companies should not pay any compensation if the fire is due to short circuit and they should insist on certificate for healthiness of electrical systems before renewing the policies.


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-23/hyderabad/31386060_1_fire-accidents-fire-incidents-fire-safety

Emergency escape routes - not available during emergency

Recently, a fire incident was reported in the basement  of an office building in which three persons lost their lives. The reason for the death is not due to burns but because of asphyxiation. It is also reported that the fire fighters were unable to carryout rescue operations due to blocking of access and ventilation systems. About 10 years ago, a restaurant in Delhi airport also caught fire which started from the kitchen and people were unable to switchoff the exhaust (that spread the fire) as the switch was located at height and was not accessible.
Emergency accessories like manual call point, fire extinguishers, outward opening doors (emergency doors), stairs are those which we do not use day-to-day and it is seen in most of the establishments particularly in office buildings that these are blocked with junk items. The space under stairs is normally used as junkyard to keep mostly discarded chairs, tables, files, etc which are combustible. In basement areas, any fire involving these materials spreads fast due to natural draft and the same stairs which are required for fire fighting can't be used due to smoke coming up and due to poor visibility.
If fire fighters are equipped with fire resistant suits, self contained breathing apparatus and infra red cameras, only then they can approach the source to extinguish the fire. Else, they can become mute spectators. But, the building owners  and others find it easy to blame the fire fighters for not doing anything, though the reason is because of greediness and shortsightedness of the building owners to ensure free access, maintain the areas free from combustibles and keeping constant vigil in these areas.
Some establishments provide fire extinguishers only to satisfy municipal authorities but they can be found behind some tables, or they are used to hold personal belongings like shirts, bags, etc and make them invisible. Sand buckets are generally used by employees as spittoons. If any construction or minor civil works are to be done, then these sand buckets are used for taking water, concrete, etc. The valve of the fire hydrant in the building (if provided) will be normally blocked with chairs. Or, the hydrant may not be in charged condition. Or, there is no water in the sump meant for this fire hydrant system.
In some buildings, the doors to emergency stairs are locked and this defeats the basic purpose of providing alternate stairs for use during emergency.
Many times the reason for fire is attributed to short circuit. A factory inspector in Tamilnadu based on his personal experience said that actually this is not at all the reason and if people can't find the reason, then they say short circuit as the reason. If short circuit is the reason, then all electrical wiring should be checked every year for their healthiness as we check earth pit resistance and electrical continuity between the switch and the earth pit. It should be made mandatory and checking should be done by only by approved third parties. Insurance companies should insist on these checks before providing the insurance cover. All basement areas and important rooms should be provided with CCTV cameras for surveillance. All corridors should have fluorescent (radiant) markings in the direction of nearest exit so that even in case of power failure one can see the glowing signs and escape. Emergency lights should be provided in the corridors and along the escape routes to provide minimum illumination. These lights should be capable of functioning atleast 30 minutes so that rescue operations also can be conducted. For high rise buildings, these lights should function for more duration as assessed by the fire services or similar agency.

Some pictures are shown below where fire fighting accessories are blocked/misused.Such conditions can be avoided and fire safety awareness can be increased among all employees including those in administration and similar services to ensure availability and misuse. These photos were collected from various online safety resources and their effort to create safety awareness and ensure safe workplace is acknowledged.

Fire extinguishers as door stopper

FE in safe custody?

Unsafe storage of chemicals

Bocked emegency door

Emergency exit?

Most cited reason for fires - Short Circuit

Most of the times I read news papers on fire incidents, the reason told by the owner of the premises or security or fire service department or some one on the road is that it is SHORT CIRCUIT.
Every time I read such a statement and learned people say short circuit is the cause for fire and resultant loss of lives and property, following questions come to my mind.
1. Why not people have a look at electrical wiring / cabling in their building.
2. Why not authorities make it compulsory by way of legislations that electrical audits of buildings by authorized people shall be mandatory? After such audit, the certificate shall be filed along with property tax payment?
3. Such authorized persons must be held responsible once they certify that the building under audit, if declared safety from electrical short circuit hazard is safe, is subjected to fire by short circuit.
4. If the electrical cabling during audit is found to be not satisfactory, then, it should be repaired / replaced within specified period by the auditor (say one or two months). If not, then local town authorities should impose penalty and if not paid, then services like water, electricity, etc shall be disconnected.
5. The vendors of such poor quality cables, switches, etc should be punished by penalties and if repeated, then be imprisoned.
6. Similarly, those who do cabling works should be held responsible, if the fires are due to poor workmanship of such people.
7. Like in industries where it is mandatory to display line diagrams of cabling, same should be made mandatory even for all residential and commercial buildings.

What I feel sometimes is that the short circuit reason is only for showing some reason and claim insurance. Claims should not be settled until the cause is found after due investigation by certified agencies.

The fires caused not only damage the property under fire but also that of others nearby and these buidlings residents have to face hardship because of others, let it be intentional or unintentional.

Sometimes, when a fire incident is reported, it is also brought out that the same building was involved in fire a few years ago. This makes us to think that
i) either the person has learned from earlier incident or
ii) he is doing intentionally to coverup something.

It is therefore made it mandatory that all buildings shall be subjected to electrical and fire safety audits once in every 5 years or so and certificates shall be submitted to town authorities while paying property tax. Else, the property tax shall be increased to such an extent that people should go for audit rather than paying enormous amounts of property tax with penalties for not doing elctrical and fire safety audits.