FT 18 FIRE PHASE

MEANS OF ESCAPE (Part II)

OBJECTIVE 1. To explain the techniques of escapes from a building and their characteristics for a building to have a means of escapes. REFERENCE 2. Manual of Firemanship Book 9.

CONTENTS 3. Factors Affecting Means of Escape. assessing any means of escape. There are: a. b. c. d. e. Time of evacuation. Occupancy. Exits. Construction. Travel distance. There are 5 factors to be considered when

4. Construction. The construction of a building will obviously dictate to some degree how it is likely to behave under fire conditions. When assessing this factor it is therefore necessary to consider the influence of primary construction and secondary construction. a. Primary Construction. Primary construction refers to the main fabric of the building i.e. walls, floors, roof and internal dividing walls. The following classifications are awarded according to this primary construction: (1) (2) Class A Class B Complete non-combustible construction. Traditional construction, i.e. non-combustible walls with combustible floors and/or roof. Combustibles construction.

(3)

Class C

b. Secondary Construction. Secondary constructions refer to internal partition, will and ceiling linings etc. The anticipated effect that the secondary construct on would upon a fire may well cause you to lower your original classification base on the primary construction. 5. Time of Evacuation. This the time it taken a person to go from any occupied part of the building to a place of safety, be ultimate or comparative safety. TL is obviously going to very quite considerably according to a persons speed of travel, e.g. old persons cannot move as quickly as younger persons. 6. The lime permitted for evacuation to a place of safety she be as short as possible and exits should be arranged to achieve lime of between two and three minutes. The principle is that evacuation should be as immediate as the occupancy permits and escape routes should retain their integrity for the evacuation time envisaged.

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7. thus:

Your initial assessment of the lime should be based upon construction classification a. b. c. Class A Class B Class C 3 minutes 2 minutes 2 minutes

8. If cannot be over stressed that these times are a guide on and may be varied according to their circumstances. In extreme cases, evacuations time may be limited to seconds if the occupancies hazard is great e.g. paint spray space. 9. Occupancy. This factor divides into (a) the people in the building (population) and (b) the use to which the building is pull. a. Population: (1) Number of Occupancies. Before you can begin i.e. asset the adequacy or other wise of any existing means of escape, or decide what additional means are requited, some reliable method must be devised to establish how many persons may need to use the means of escape, obvious thing to do would be to ask some person connected with the building, but if this done, be sure that only a person in a responsible position is asked TL is some limes possible to count numbers, but this should only be attempted in small premises. Finally may be necessary in unoccupied premises to calculate maximum numbers permissible (or desirable) in may give occupancy. To do this you will need to refer to the Density Factor. (2) Density Factor. This may be defined as the number of persons per unit of floor space, usually in square meters. Once the correct density factor has been selected, it is only necessary to divide this onto the floor area. The use of such factor is necessary in order that: (a) In proposed building (plans stage) the number width of exits will be sufficient, for the anticipated occupancy. (b) In existing buildings, in order that anticipated numbers may be reliably estimated and exits assessed accordingly. (3) The number of persons, including staff, likely to resent to premises as stated in the British Code of Practice should be assessed on the following allowances of floor area per person calculate over the gross floor area, commensurate with the category of use: (a) (b) (c) Shop and showroom Supermarkets and Departmental stores: i. ii. Main sales area Sparsely occupied area - 7 m (75 sq ft) - 2 m (20 sq ft) - 2 m (20 sq ft) - 7 m (75 sq ft)

e.g. furniture sales floor. (d) Restaurants, canteen and lounges 1m to 1.5 sq ft according to layout of seating (3 sq ft to 3 sq ft) etc, whether closely or widely spaced. (e) Officers 5 to 10m. (4) Distribution. There are obviously a difference between the means of escape required for 100 persons on the ground floor, and that required for 100 persons on upper floor. A dead end that condition is any place from which escape is possible in one direction only.

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(5) Physical Condition. It is important to ascertain the degree of agility that can be expected, therefore it, must be established whether or not any aged, inform worth remembering that an average person will probably not react mentally under fire conditions as he would in normal circumstances. (6) Reactions. What can you reasonably expect ordinary people to do when confronted with a fire emergency? Experience from some incidence indicates that pants is not condition i.e. be normally expected. Indeed the officers at that particular fire had great difficulty in persuading people to leave the buildings. On other hand, there are many cases on record of multiple deaths caused by panic when the danger from fire was negligible. This aspect is closely linked with the next consideration. (7) Discipline. The degree of discipline one can expect on any given occupancy will, to a large extent, be dependent upon the frequency and thoroughness of fire drills, the degree of familiarity with the premises and of course with the escape routes being kept, smoke free. (8) Asleep of Alert. This is of vital importance as any sleeping occupancy must have time to react to an alarm of fire and to then respond actively. TL should also be remembered that in most such occupancies, there will be a delay in discovering the fire. TL is interesting to note that test in an old persons home have shown that at night 15 minutes can be required for occupancies to travel to a place of comparative safety while 30 minutes would be necessary to ensure total evacuation. b. Use of Building. Nature of contents furnishings, goods sic red or used and processes carried on are some of things being used in buildings. It must be established what kind of fire is anticipated, what effect on the spread fire the contents may have and whether or not smoke in large volumes is expected. c. Processes of hazardous nature e.g. low flash points liquids, obviously require special consideration. The location of such processes adjacent to escape routes or the access there to will also have to be carefully considered. 10. Upon the consideration of the foregoing, it will be seen the occupancies fall generally into one of three grounds. Each ground has its own characteristics and common hazard as shown in the following table. GROUP Assembly Buildings EXAMPLES Places of public Entertainment Large canteens Public Halls Restaurants Dept. Stores Offices Shops Factories Warehouses Schools Hospitals Homes Hotels CHARACTERISTICS High Density Poor Discipline All age groups Strangers HAZARDS Panic

Trade Commercial Industrial Residential Institutional

Tower Density Discipline Constant Infirm or Handicapped Very young to Very old Supervised Sleeping

Rapid Spread Of fire and smoke

Delay in Discovering fire Delay in evacuation

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11. Entrances, exits and circulation areas in all buildings for normal everyday use and a means of escape should utilize, when possible, existing arrangements. The first approach this factor should therefore be a question of disposition, number and width of the existing exits. Only if they are insufficient in some respect should further stops be taken. 12. When the question of adequacy in number or width arises, a more detailed study of the movements of persons becomes necessary. This is usually so when dealing with places of public resort or those having a high density factor. In most other cases the width of exits is not a critical factor as the number provided for normal use is generally adequate to cope with the number of person involved. 13. In premises with high density factors formulae for determining the number and with of exits required essential, and these are based on two constant which have been decided by experience. The first is a unit of exit width. This is the width of opening required for persons to travel through in single file and is 525mm. After the first two files this space is reduced to 450mm due to overlapping. We have there before: UNITS a. b. c. d. Unit not less than 525mm Units not less than 525 + 525 Units not less than 525 + 525 + 450 Units not less than 525 + 525 + 450 + 450 WIDTH 525mm 1050mm 1500mm 1950mm

14. The second constant is the rate of flow. Many assessments of this figure have been made after experiment, but the generally accepted one is 40 persons per minute per unit available. 15. With these factors it is possible to calculate the number of units of exit width and subsequently the number and width of exits required, for a given number of persons. NUMBER OF UNITS OF EXIT WIDTH N = U (door) 40 + T Where N T O - Number of persons - Time factor in minutes - Number of units required Where a faction of 0.75 or Over results, the next whole Number is used. 16. Whilst the use of these formulas will give minimum requirements concerning the width and number of exits, it must note that the question of sitting cannot be decided by any formula. This is a matter for personal judgment taking into account travel distance and sitting of occupancy hazards. 17. Example combining use Density Factor: A single storey department store is to be erected and will measure 50m x 28.5m. Assume a Density Factor of 1.9 and evacuation time of 2.5 minutes. 50 x 28.5 No of person = = 1425 m 1425 = 124 750 persons NUMBER OF EXITS U+4=E Where E - Number of Exits or stairs required.

* Where a factor of 0.3 or over results, the Next whole number is used.

1.9 . . . 750 = 7.5 units of exit width 40 x 2.5 As fraction exceeds 0.3, 8 units are required. 8+1 4 = 3 exits

18. Therefore the minimum requirement, established by formula for 3 exits totaling 8 units of width, i.e. 2 x 3 units and units. 19. Two further points should now consider: a. If is normal on new buildings for standard components and assemblies to be supplied. 3 x 3 unit or 4 x 2 unit exits would give a more even distribution and assist in preventing the creation of dead ends. b. Most codes of practices in United Kingdom now require that be aggregate width of all exits less one shall be adequate for the total number o f persons. Your final solution should therefore be 4 x 3 unit or 5 x 2 unit exits. This would provide for one exits being unusable and the reminder still adequate. 20. Travel Distance. This has been defined as the distance of safety in this contact can be either ultimate of comparative if evacuation times are to the maintained, then some limit has to be placed on the distance acceptable. 21. If must be borne in mind that no code of practice can devise a travel distance which will be suitable for all of the various types of premises when carrying out this task. Most codes of practice contain a paragraph to be effect that the distances should be varied according to your assessment of the risk presented. This variation is generally to decrease distances because distance if there are compensating feature, e.g. very high ceilings, automatic fire detection. 22. If further point to hear in mind is that if that a corridor for instance is say 24m long, it is not possible to reduce travel distance by the addition of self closing fire check doors across the corridor. This action will of course reduce the area of smoke logging but the overall distance remains the same. 23. As a rule of thumb method of assessing acceptable travel distance it is pointed out that normally accumulate persons can be expected to travel at a rate of 12m per minute if in congested conditions (a fairly normal means of escape exercitation). Bearing in mind that you will have already determined the evolution time to be achieved, it is only necessary to multiply 12 by time in minutes to arrive at a reasonable travel distance for these particular circumstances. 24. Inclusion reference should always be made to relevant Code of practice. For the time being, we have to refer to the British Code of Practice as guidance since there is no Malaysian Code of Practice on this subject. The following table sets out a selection of travel distances not to be taken as a complete summary of the codes but rather as a representative selection of the main points. a. Shops and Department Stores: (1) In large stores - Deed and 12.2m ) Measured (40 ft) ) in straight ) lines - Other conditions ) 30.5m (100 ft). 125

(2)

In small shops

- From furthest point of highest floor to the final Exit at ground level 30.5m (100 ft)

* A shop with males floor area not exceeding 280m (33,000 sq ft) per floor on not more than three storey, one of which may be a basement. b. Offices, Shops and Railway Premises: (1) (2) (3) (4) c. Offices (1) (2) * (3) (4) d. Dead end above 1st floor
st

In shops In offices In both In rooms

Normal Normal Dead end

30m 45m 18m 12m 12.2m (40 ft)

Ground floor and 1 floor dead end 30.5m (100 ft) Provided suitable window exits are provided. Normal floor area Multi stairs building 46m (150 ft) 61m (200 ft) between stairs. 18m (60 ft) 80m (100 ft) 18m (60 ft) No limit 7.6m (25 ft)

Hotels and Boarding Houses, Principally Existing Occupancies. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Large rooms Large rooms with a final exit Corridor serving rooms with Alternative M.O.E. Corridor serving ground floor rooms with final exit Dead end corridor -

25. Most of these considerations represent the 5 main factors of a means of escape solution. Each one is related to the other and together they make a whole. To disregard or place undue emphasis an any one will lead to an unsatisfactory solution. Each one must be considers and given a degree of importance according to the circumstances. This is where individual judgment and experiences is required.

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