Fire Safety in Buildings Flashcards
Fire Statistics for Singapore: 2023
- Commercial premises: 239 fire incidents.
- Industrial premises: 106 cases.
Main causes of fires
electrical origin and unattended cooking in kitchens.
Electrical Malfunctions
- Electrical systems pose an ongoing fire risk.
- Overloading of electrical system leads to excessive current flow.
- This causes heat build-up and melt insulation causing a fire.
- Short circuit occurs when wire insulation is worn off.
- When two bare wires touch, the two wires will heat up and melt
insulation causing a fire.
Unattended Cooking Fires
- Commercial kitchens are installed with cooking equipment with hot surfaces and open flames.
- Unattended cooking refers to act of leaving cooking unsupervised whether briefly or for an extended period of time.
- Contents in cooking equipment gets overheated to auto-ignition temperature and a fire results.
Legal Framework for Fire Safety
- Legislative control on fire safety matters is covered by The Fire Safety Act, 1993.
- The Fire Safety Act provides for all matters regarding fire safety.
- It is a law and enforced by SCDF.
General Objectives of Fire Safety Design in Buildings
Buildings must be designed to offer acceptable level of fire safety and minimise risks from heat and smoke.
Primary Objectives of Fire Safety Design in Buildings
reduce to acceptable limits potential for death or injury to building occupants and SCDF personnel conducting firefighting and rescue service, mainly due to smoke inhalation.
what is a mass casualty incident
- where number of patients exceeds amount of healthcare resources available.
- This number is typically greater than 10 patients.
Secondary Objectives of Fire Safety Design in Buildings
- Protect building contents by reducing to acceptable limits of potential for damage to building contents due to effects of heat.
- Ensure building can continue to function after a fire and that it can be repaired.
- Need to reduce risk of fire spread to adjoining properties and possible environmental pollution.
Fire Code 2023
- Establishes minimum requirements for fire safety provisions, accounting for function, design, management, operation, & maintenance of buildings.
Types of fire code
- Prescriptive
- Performance-based
Which is the traditional approach?
Prescriptive Fire Safety Code
Prescriptive Fire Safety Code
- based on collective experience of past firefighting on what works & what does not, along with technological analysis & professional judgement.
- works well for conventional buildings
- detailed but offers rigid solutions.
- does not require conducting calculations, merely follow a table or set of rules.
Example of Prescriptive Fire Safety Code
when assigning travel distance for escape from a room, prescriptive tables mandate minimum travel distance.
Performance-based Fire Safety Code
- Requires ‘modeling’ fire safety system to predict fire safety outcomes against an acceptable objective.
- Modeling uses computer software or calculations based on engineering principles.
- Follows an objective: provide max. travel distance, such that safe conditions can be maintained for occupants throughout evacuation period.
- Provides higher flexibility resulting in cost-effective solutions; also accounts for identified hazards.
- Designers can select alternative safety methods as long as it can be shown that the performance objectives can be met.
- Can cater to innovative building design where solutions are custom-made to address the hazards.
