Philosophy and technique of fire safety

Question 1

What is the basic aim of fire safety ?

Answer 1

The aim of fire safety, whether engineered or passive, must be to ensure
that people have sufficient time to escape, before the fire grows to life-threatening
proportions and before the stability of the building is put at risk. The time available
for escape must always be longer than the time required for escape

Question 2

Describe Passive fire safety

Answer 2

Passive fire safety describes the practice of installing in buildings, non-active
measures to increase the time available for escape and facilities to reduce the
time required for escape. These include measures to ensure the integrity of the
building structure whilst persons escape from fire

Question 3

Describe Active fire safety

Answer 3

The term fire safety engineering can be applied to any fire safety concept that
relies on active systems designed to meet calculated objectives. Those objectives
may be:
(i) Life safety and the protection of means of escape routes.
(ii) The protection of the building and its contents.
(iii) The control of a fire to reduce its effects on the structure.

Question 4

A sound fire safety engineering
solution would incorporate a number of the following components in its fire
safety strategy: Name 3 with examples

Answer 4

(i) Passive systems would include compartmentation;
(ii) Active systems, e.g. smoke control systems/suppression systems/automatic
fire detection and fire alarm systems management systems would include
risk analysis and maintenance.
(iii) Human behaviour criteria would include means of escape strategy, design
fire assumptions and its potential growth and spread rates