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 one-half

three-fourth 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 fans-
stairways and lobby

Pressurization
fans
>>Hose reel and fire hose

>>CO2 fire extinguishing installations

inside outside

Motorized
damper
 equipments
Smoke detector
Sprinkler
FIRE ALARM
Alarm sounder
PANEL
Roller shutter
Pressurization fans

Hose reel & fire hose

Break glass MANUAL
CO2 fire extinguishing installations
 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
THANK YOU