Evacuation Processes and Strategies of a Complex Building - Research Paper Example

Evacuation processes/strategies of a complex building Name Subject Instructor Institution Date Abstract Complex buildings are major concern to the safety of those who occupy them due to complex architecture, extended travel distance and the elevated height for egress and means of access. The existing evacuation strategies for complex building such as phased evacuation, total evacuation and stay in place approach have been covered in this paper. To address the feasibility of increasing total building evacuation efficiency in complex building, lift evacuation strategy will be discussed. The study aimed at finding way of reducing total building evacuation time. Lift evacuation strategy are enhancement to various evacuation of complex building in the event of extreme emergency with no significant change in the traditional evacuation strategy and the additional safety provision investment. As an example, evacuation for complex buildings with lift will be analyzed in this paper. In addition, the paper elucidates on the evacuation strategy that may be conducted in a complex building, in case of an emergency such as fire occurrence. This is elaborated in the methodological processes and would be achieved by ensuring there is a clear way on the exits and room to allow emergency response of the required personnel. Keywords: Evacuation, Tall/complex buildings, fire. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Significance of the study 8 1.2 Scope 9 1.3 Background 9 2 Literature Review 10 2.1 Current Complex Building Evacuation Strategy 10 2.1.1 Total Building Evacuation 11 2.1.2 Phased Evacuation 11 2.1.3 Stay-in-place Approach 12 2.2 Complex Building Evacuation Strategy 12 2.2.1 Emergency Lift Evacuation 12 2.2.2 Proposed Lift Evacuation Strategy 13 3 Methodology 14 3.1 Research Design 14 3.2 Building Details 14 3.3 Evacuation Simulation Model 15 3.4 Sampling Design 15 3.5 Number of Buildings to be investigated 16 4 Collection of data 16 4.1 Sample Size 16 4.2Face-to-Face Interview Survey 17 4.3 Video-taped Observations 17 4.4 Measurement 17 4.4.1Measurement scale for risky behavior 18 4.4.2 Assessment of validity and reliability 18 5 Mitigation strategies 18 5.1 Fire alarm 18 5.2Roles of the managers 20 5.3An incident of fire occurrence 20 6 Conclusions 21 1 Introduction Firstly, complex buildings accounts for large number of people involved and, the property exposed are mostly for large number of complex buildings currently being constructed in many parts of the world. The definition of complex buildings changes as the human perception and construction technology advances. Chartered Institution of Building (2010) defined complex buildings as, a structure which is made up of interconnected structures with height of more than twenty three meters. This is taken as the maximum elevation resulting from less favorable firefighting and rescue operations using extendable ladders. Due to the fact that complex buildings are unique in regards from the elevated heights and complex architecture from conventional buildings, different consideration design including extended features are required to enhance safety (Avillo, 2002). Different prescriptive codes in a number of nations have distinct section catering for complex buildings for fire safety design. Therefore, additional enhancements in these prescriptive codes comprise suppression system, alarm and detection but are without the egress component as noted by Ko and Spearpoint (2007). Essentially, current complex building evacuation strategies include phased evacuation, total building evacuation and stay in place approach as indicated in NFPA 101A (2009, pp.143-152). These strategies are sufficient in handling traditional fire scenarios in complex buildings. Following the terrorist attack on 11th September 2001 on World Trade Centre, there have been many questions on the resilience of complex buildings to be able to withstand extreme events. There is a possibility of investigating the actual performance of complex buildings and to try in determining the enhancement that can be considered when buildings are subjected to extreme events, and mostly for prestigious new complex buildings. Evacuation component such as, the way of simultaneously evacuating building occupants efficiently is worth concern. Without violation of the existing traditional evacuation strategy and improved investment on evacuation safety provision, total building evacuation provision using lift being a supplement of escape has been proposed in this particular study. Procedures in evacuation have proved to be a significant challenge, which has led to different strategies being suggested to be applied in case of an emergency. In past research it has been pointed that, techniques such as `everybody out and protect in place’ as suggested by Brichson, (2002) are the common most used procedures in evacuation process. The `everybody out’ procedure is evacuation method where the building is evacuated in a sequential manner. These techniques ensure that occupants are shifted from floors where they are exposed to danger to safe floors depending on the nature of risk. Remote floor occupants do not require any evacuation (Tsai, 2007). On the other hand ‘in place technique’ requires the occupants to move horizontally to a given point of refuge in the events of fire. The decision selected in the evacuation depends on the type of the building, the complexity of the building and the fire safety procedure is required. Areas such as smoke control system, refbage, sprinklers and signage should be designed to cater for emergencies (Chitty and Jeremy, 2003). Building proprietor has a very vital role in the occupant evacuation process in the event of an emergence event. Various structures in complex building pose a common challenge in the evacuation process. Different legal standard must be followed while such actions are being performed. This code requires buildings holding premises like healthcare, learning institution, and different task forces to lay out a plan when carrying out evacuation plan. As noted by Findlay (2001), premises owners must ensure that, ramification expected to rise during the evacuation process are carefully and appropriately dealt with. There are different stages in fighting fire which include; fire detection, fire awareness, the building pre-evacuation, and movement (Purkiss, 2007). The first stage extends from the time of fire ignition to fire detection time for example through fire alarm. The second stage in fire awareness must extend from the moment the fire is detected to the time that the premises occupant discover that something is wrong. The third stage extends from the time the premises occupant are aware that there is danger to the time the occupant start to evacuate the premises. The final stage, involves evacuation process until all the premises occupants are safe. The project analyzed will involve relationship between time spent in the third stage and the factors that influence it. In case, of fire, it must be ensured that, the occupant time spent in each stage is minimized as much as possible. However, this is not always the case in stage three, which involves pre- evacuation from the premises. This is the most important and complex stage in the evacuation process due to the tendency of it to depend on different characteristics of the situation at hand and the occupant involved (Sabaei, 2006). Some case studies have covered fires or evacuation drills from complex buildings showing the characteristics of the occupant, the building and the occupants (Proulx, 2001), which have an impact of time spent on pre-evacuation process. Example of these characteristics includes warning system installed, building layout, and visual access, training level familiarity with the building, frequency of false alarms, social affiliation, responsibility, alertness, and dedication to activities, limitation, environmental cause and presence of the building staffs. Studies on fire on complex building have shown that these characteristics produce variability during pre-evacuation time, but neglect to identify variables, which are systematically associated to pre-evacuation time for complex buildings. 1.1 Significance of the study The study on specific evacuation strategies is a very significant project in studying different human behavior in the event of fire. This project will be significant in improving current understanding on fire procedures during evacuation from a complex building. Currently, complex buildings are using variety of techniques to reduce evacuation time, such as evacuation drills and involvement of fire department. With systematic study where variables are related to evacuation time, something can be worked out to improve the evacuation procedures used today. Moreover, this study elucidates the evacuation strategy that may be conducted in a complex building, in case of an emergency such as fire occurrence. This may be achieved by ensuring there is a clear way on the exits and room to allow emergency response of the required personnel. These guidelines have specifically been developed to help the complex building designer and the complex building mangers in formulating suitable evacuation strategies on the fire related incidents that may occur. The guidelines will identify a number of building evacuation protocols, facilities protection and fire protection system to minimize the likelihood of injury to complex building occupant in case of an outbreak of a fire. 1.2 Scope Application of these guidelines are associated to fire related incidences occurring within complex buildings, however, this strategies may be applied in different emergency situations. Similarly, the aspects of different strategies and guidelines maybe applied in the evacuation process on non-complex buildings. 1.3 Background According to Galea (2009), the British fire safety standards asserts that, there is a need to ensure there is no harm on occupants of a given building due to different situations. This code requires an evacuation drill to be held at least once per year to ascertain the viability of the evacuation procedures as asserted by Stockley (2000). Evacuation procedure should be conducted for all building occupants without exception. Complexity in these buildings should be dealt with within appropriate time. The evacuation procedure should ensure that the needs of all occupants are dealt with including the disabled who may be assisted by using evacuation lifts to a safe refuge area. The fire system may be tested in a given period to ensure certain standards are met. The fire safety devices such as the fire alarms, the sprinklers and the smoke detectors have to be in place and function effectively. In the evacuation process, there should be personnel who should be in charge of supervising the evacuation process (Tsai, 2007). This would entail the chief warden and at times an assistant warden, who would give directions during the evacuation process in manner which is safe and controlled. 2 Literature Review Fire safety in complex building has raised the attention of general public and the authorities. Britain fire department issued a special report pertaining operation consideration for complex buildings Galea (2009). Special fire safety related to complex buildings is summarized into six key areas: fire department accessibility, natural forces, egress and people movement, fire load, increase in occupant and the combination of arrangement of the building internal utility services and occupancies (Findlay, 2001). Among the above issues, half of them are related directly or indirectly to building occupant evacuation. Due to complexity of the building in this analysis, it is expected that, their occupant would take significant time in the evacuation process. In addition, the occupants are required to pass through staircase lobby and to travel through an extended vertical distance (Downey, 2011). Sometimes occupants have to walk down thousands of steps or hundreds of flights in the staircases. Not mentioning the tiredness, slow time discharge may result to extensive queuing on staircases entrance. Some buildings may provide additional refuge floors to improve the egress condition. Increase in occupant load in complex buildings worsens the egress situation (Billington, Anthony, and Copping, 2002). Comparing this with the density of those who occupy each building, complex building is at a greater height than other buildings. 2.1 Current Complex Building Evacuation Strategy Though there are some prescriptive passive and active protection measures that have been imposed in complex buildings, preparation of the building occupant is essential (Barney, 2003). As noted by Chitty and Jeremy (2003), the current complex building evacuation strategies can be classified into partial building evacuation, full building evacuation or no evacuation at all. 2.1.1 Total Building Evacuation Traditional way of evacuation design in the case of an emergency is usually based on singled staged total evacuation principle. Evacuation provision in the building includes escape staircase, which is designed to give room for floors to be evacuated at the same time (Cai and Weiding, 2010). In Hong Kong, the discharge value tables used in staircases prescribe minimum stair requirement for new building design (Xiang, 2007). By using total building evacuation principle, a provision is provided for all occupants to enter simultaneously in the staircases and in leaving the building. Total building evacuation is a simple strategy to implement. In the instance when a signal is sounded, building occupants should evacuate the staircases that lead to ground floor. 2.1.2 Phased Evacuation In complex buildings with many occupants, it was found that singled staged evacuation may be impractical. Therefore, many complex building in the world used phased evacuation in the event of fire (Tsai, 2007). In this method, the occupants on very critical floor are prioritized to be evacuated first, which reduces queuing on staircases. The rest of the occupants in the building are evacuated afterward as may seem necessary. 2.1.3 Stay-in-place Approach In case all floors are closed, it is suggested that occupant must go back to their compartments, close the door, seal the cracks in the building, wave something for help on the window and can call for help. As noted by Tubbs and Brian (2007), for those occupants who are disabled, stay in place approach should be used because the disabled cannot descend the staircases by themselves. Non-evacuation approach ensure that the room occupied by the occupant is used as fire or smoke barrier and a temporally refuge place for the occupants. 2.2 Complex Building Evacuation Strategy Though, the phased evacuation are considered as effective in catering for different building scenarios, people have become concerned on possibility of evacuation in case of an attack by terrorist. World Trade Centre attack demonstrated the egress design with building evacuation capacity is a necessity and a total building evacuation method is crucial in ensuring the safety of the occupants (Billington et al., 2002). In extreme situations, there should be total evacuation instead of individual floor to ensure safety of the occupant. 2.2.1 Emergency Lift Evacuation It is recommended that, the complex buildings should accommodate a timely evacuation of the building occupants. Population, building size, function, the iconic status and the counter flow because of the emergency personnel taking consideration in designing the egress provision (Stockley, 2000). Lift evacuation has been put on the agenda as a way of facilitating complex building evacuation. Hardened Lift evacuation has been recommended as the next generation in the evacuation that will be used in the future. Lifts has been applied as a means of escape for mobility impaired or disable occupants who cannot go down the stairs by themselves. Moreover, lift evacuation was proposed and endorsed for complex buildings like airport control tower and the British Telecom Tower. As noted by Chitty and Jeremy (2003), a lift is an efficient method in the in the evacuation in times of emergencies together with the stairs occupants in complex buildings. Increased efficiency of lift evacuation in conjunction with stairs has been shown in different studies. Nevertheless, there exists no regulatory approval or official industry method in designing such emergency evacuation system. 2.2.2 Proposed Lift Evacuation Strategy A well refined evacuation strategy consisting of combined stair evacuation to a refuge floor, which will be followed by lift evacuation to street level, is proposed in this study based on existing evacuation strategies using lift. The lift evacuation proposed can prevent major problems existing in the traditional lift evacuation design. Occupants in every floor will be evacuated using stairs to a refuge floor first. Here, the occupant can decide on whether to travel down to street using stairs or shuttle lifts. Both the stairs and lifts will be allowed to evacuate the building occupants from refuge floor (Stockley, 2000). Lifts would be primary means in the evacuation process. Refuge floor in this strategy is to provide a temporally safety place as their wait for the evacuation lift. Requirement of this floor is to be well ventilated, have adequate space, lighting, signage complete fire rated construction and free from obstruction. This strategy eliminates risk of smoke and fire affecting the building occupants as they wait in the normal lift lobbies (Ko, and Spearpoint, 2007). Use of shuttle lift eliminates complicated management and control of picking occupants at different levels of the building (Thonas, 1985). Shuttle lifts travels between the building refuge floors and street level. To provide standard in the design of the evacuation lift, the shuttle lifts should be created in accordance with fireman’s lift standard in respect to the standard and regulations of that particular country. 3 Methodology 3.1 Research Design This will include description of planned methodology. This method will allow the researcher to use different methods to strengthen the whole argument. To identify the characteristics of the occupant affecting pre-evacuation times from complex buildings, this research will use a cross-sectional survey design. It will consist two kinds of interview that will conducted face to face with the participants in the fire drill two weeks apart and a videotaped observation of the behavior of the occupants in the event of fire drill. 3.2 Building Details The building to be simulated will have 100 storeys and a height of 500m. The total numbers of occupant are approximated to be about 21,000. This is predicted in accordance with prescriptive code occupant load density. The stairs will be about 1200mm in width. The building will have approximately four refuge hall and 14 shuttle lifts will be located within the building. 3.3 Evacuation Simulation Model The evacuation simulation will be used to characterize the efficiency of the lift evacuation method. This study would implement the staircase model and the elevator models. A realistic and comprehensive method would be produced by taking consideration of occupants walking speed, familiarity of the exit, escape route finding decision making in making choice of the exist and queuing behavior (Gwynne and Galea, 2001). The technique in place would require a place to be located where the occupants would be kept and, to safely wait till the situation is controlled. There might be presence of the stair case which may act as the refbage.  The area should be designed to be accessible to the stairway so that the occupants may easily access the refbage (Zhu and Raymond, 2011). The chief warden performs the role of developing the plan which would be followed during an evacuation and, ensures it is appropriately maintained. There should be diagrams that indicate the evacuation paths which are supposed to be followed as noted by Favro (1997). In addition, these paths are supposed to be inspected regularly to ensure they are perfect.  The repairs should be made on the paths which pose to be unworthy 3.4 Sampling Design In this study, purposive sample of the complex building from various U.K cities would be selected. The reason for using purposive design is twofold: requirement of hypothesis to select certain residential building and the feasibility, which is accessibility to limited number of buildings. Theoretical population is made up of occupants who live in complex residential building. Sampling adjustment is made to give chance of testing hypotheses variability. The sample population lives in complex buildings with current fire alarm and infrequent false fire alarms. With different variability in mind, multiple complex building will be chosen instead of a single building. The reason to why multiple buildings are chosen is to give variability in static motivational variable on different buildings. Moreover, it is difficult to get relationship between different variables if only a single building is analyzed. Another reason why multiple buildings are used in the study is to make sure that specific building effect does not go unnoticed. 3.5 Number of Buildings to be investigated A total of twenty complex building will be selected. They would be selected from various cities so as to sure that variability would be captured. Twenty buildings would meet both the feasibility and variability requirement. Specifications: All buildings will be equipped with code compliant system of fire alarm. All the buildings have experienced less than 3 false alarms in a year. None of the buildings analyzed will be related with the same complex 4 Collection of data 4.1 Sample Size Twenty complex buildings will be chosen. Average number of apartment is about 120. In every building, a random sample would amount to 50%. Averages of 2 adults are available in each compartment. Adults are defined as those who are more than 18 years of age. A total of 1200 building occupants will be chosen to participate in a pre and post drill design survey. . 4.2Face-to-Face Interview Survey These will be conducted 2 to 3 weeks apart. The aim of these interviews is for data collection from the sampled population on situational and static occupant hypothesized so that they can affect the pre-evacuation times. 4.3 Video-taped Observations The purpose of observing people from video cameras strategically placed in the hallways of the building being studied is to record the actual amount of time that the occupant take to leave their apartments. Any behavior occurring in the hallway is also recorded. Video tapes will be used in capturing dependent measures, that is, behaviors and the times of the occupant at the beginning of each drill. 4.4 Measurement To test the validity of the data, the independent variable and the dependent variables will be measured. These clusters are socio-demographic variables, impediments, experiential, affiliations, and personal traits. Identification of each dimension will be done and different concepts will be defined. A single agent Multi method measurement will be used in testing hypotheses. Structure questionnaire will be presented to the participant through face to face interviews. Moreover, behavior via video camera and recording pre-evacuation time in the hallways would be recorded. 4.4.1Measurement scale for risky behavior Before creating risky behavior scale, concept will first be defined. The risk taking practices is defined as behavior that entails uncertainties on the resulting dangers and different negative outcomes. Examples of risky type behavior are: recreation bungee jumping; ethical – stealing, health – binge drinking and financial – gambling. For all these participant there is possibility of positive and negative outcomes that affects an individual. 4.4.2 Assessment of validity and reliability For newly created measures on pre-evacuation behavior and risky behaviors, reliability will be accessed. In the two scales, test retest assessment will be used. The main reason why this method was chosen for different risky behavior is because items are not actually correlated with one another, that is, there is no guarantee of the respondent taking financial risk. The choice of test retest method was because of the re-evacuation scale and due to the fact that the items on the list had no correlation with each other. This study will be undertaken with various ethical considerations in mind. The information collected will be ensured for confidentiality and privacy. The research will also ensure that the interviews are properly informed on the aims, benefits and the risks associated with the study. The identity of respondent will not be disclosed to anyone. 5 Mitigation strategies 5.1 Fire alarm Due to the fact that one cannot capture fire characteristics by a drill, survey will obtain information from occupants and the building characteristics. This will be done on whether the fire alarm was heard by the occupants, interpretation of the fire alarm, and pre-evacuation and movement of the occupants throughout the building. Raising the fire alarm should be responded with the warden moving towards the main entrance so as to check where the enunciator panel is located to know the source of alarm. The warden should also inform the nearby wardens, so that they are aware where the emergency has emanated from.  The warden also has to develop a report that would be presented to the management team so as the cause may be properly evaluated (Corbetta, 1998). The type of the fire alarm should be specified and be made aware to all the occupants so that they would be in a position to identify when there is an emergency. The assistant warden performs the role of providing with the first aid and may inform the emergency services in case there is a specialized hazard which has occurred on a given area. The assistant warden also ensures that the alarm is reset after the evacuation alarm has been raised. The rest of the warden who may be the area wardens would ensure all persons are evacuated. The members are supposed to be directed to move to a given common point such as the fire assembly point or the assembly area (Goodson and Cynthia, 2003).  The building may be entered again after the personnel from the emergency department have proved the building is safe to reenter. 5.2Roles of the managers Managers must be familiarized with the evacuation process. They must ensure that the injured individuals are assigned with individuals who would assist them to perform the required tasks as suggested by Tubbs, (2007).  The manager should ensure that the exits are always clear. The accelerator operators would be required to cease the injection electron beam. The accelerator operator acts as the chief warden when the accelerator is in operation. The manager should ensure that fire safety requirements in the building Fire Emergency Plan are well complied with. He must supervise the maintenance fire safety in the premises. The manager should make sure that the occupant load in the building does not go beyond the capacity that has been prescribed under Fire Code. He should conduct daily checks in the premises and remove any fire hazard found within the premises. 5.3An incident of fire occurrence In fire situation, four complex stages exist in an evacuation, which ensure that every occupant pass through before evacuating the building (Proulx, 2002). These stages include fire detection, fire awareness, the building pre-evacuation, and movement. First stage extends from the time of fire ignition to fire detection time for example through fire alarm. The second stage in fire awareness must extend from the moment the fire is detected to the time that the premises occupant discover that something is wrong. The third stage extends from the time the premises occupant are aware that there is danger to the time the occupant start to evacuate the premises. The final stage, involves evacuation process until all the premises occupants are safe. During the occurrence of fire, the residents should be advised not to panic.  The individuals who are nearby need to be alerted and, the materials which would be used in their aid should be provided (Brichson, 2002). If the fire cause is minimal, the personnel in charge may be advised to use the fire extinguisher. If the scene seems to prove to be uncertain, the individuals are required to leave immediately. The doors which are behind are supposed to be closed so as the fire is confined from spreading. After this, the fire alarm should be then activated. 6 Conclusions To identify the characteristics of the occupant affecting pre-evacuation times from complex buildings, cross-sectional survey design will be used consisting of two kinds of interview that will be conducted through face to face with the participants in the fire drill two weeks apart and a videotaped observation of the behavior of the occupants in the event of fire drill. During the evacuation process, the safety of human being is paramount in the act. Members are advised not to use the elevators unless it is safe to do so. The hazardous materials should be secured before leaving the building.  Individuals are required to move to the designated area and they may assist any person who may be incapacitated. The evacuation plan has to be systematic so that all the participating individuals achieve their tasks effectively within the shortest time possible. For every study proposed, strengths and limitation exist. In this study the main strength includes the extensiveness of hypotheses, use of pre-drill survey design, use of sample from multiple complex buildings and multi method approach in measurement. Many previous studies have collected data from single event only providing descriptive statistics associating occupant’s characteristics to some specific behaviors. This study will collect variety of situational and static variable data as was listed in hypotheses to begin to identify variables, which are systematically related to the pre-evacuation time. Analysis like this is yet to be performed in the fire evacuation field studies. Use of pre- drill survey will allow collection of variable data without the building occupant’s knowledge on the purpose of the study. References Avillo, A., 2002. Fireground Strategies: Fire Engineering. Tulsa, OK: Penn Well, Barney C., 2003. Elevator Traffic Handbook: Theory and practice, London: Spon Press. Bennetts, D. and Thomas, R., 2002. "Performance design of low-rise sprinkle red shopping centers for fire safety." Journal of fire protection Engineering 12(4), pp. 225-243. Billington, J., Anthony, F. and Copping. G., 2002. Means of escape from fire. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Brichson, D., 2002. Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings. London: BSI. 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