Improving fire safety

Apart from the loss of life, buildings that catch fire get delayed which causes financial losses as well.

Dubai, in particular, saw some major fires break out on under-construction buildings over the past two years such as the Fortune Tower, a high-rise next to Zabeel Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road, a warehouse in Al Quoz Industrial area and the Atlantis hotel.

Major general Rashid Thani Al Matrooshi, Director General of the Dubai Civil Defence, says that fires in Dubai are united by some common causes.

“Some of the construction companies’ staff and workers are not committed to safety measures at sites, there is lack of basic fire fighting systems in these buildings, building materials are stowed in escape routes and inflammable materials are stored in under construction buildings,” he says.

The UAE has fire regulations in place in particular for completed buildings.

Over the last year, the Dubai Civil Defence department has also put fire regulations for buildings that are under construction, because of the major fires in Dubai.

Manohar Raghavan, general manager of 3M, says that for his company fire safety is a big market and the company has thousands of products for the segment.

To tackle issues related to fire safety, it is important to educate people, detection, containment and suppression systems need to be in place. To prevent fires, everyone needs to be responsible, from the developer to the contractor, consultants and labourers.

“Fire safety is now taken very seriously in Dubai. Though there are strong fire regulations for new buildings, there are not too many regulations regarding fire and safety for buildings under construction.

It is now mandatory that every construction site should have a safety officer appointed who should be qualified and experienced. There will be a number of additional mandatory requirements coming in very soon from Dubai Civil Defence,” says Raghavan.

Raghavan feels that personal safety is another area where adequate care is not being taken.

“Most of the construction labourers are from Asian countries and they are not trained or experienced in the fire and safety areas. Coming from abroad they lack training and don’t know how to use personal safety products. So proper training needs to be in place,” he says.

Usually a fire breaks out due to an electrical short circuit; or waste material is carelessly dumped on a construction site, so even a small spark is enough to set it aflame and the labourers on the site are not properly trained in fire prevention methods.

Dubai civil defence is making efforts to create awareness and enforcing the use of mandatory equipment on site.

With the green buildings issue staying on top of the industry’s priority list, Craig Nixon, business development manager, Tyco wants everyone to adopt sustainable fire system and technologies.

People don’t think about fire systems from a green building point of view. For all the new buildings to be green, fire systems need to be sustainable as well,” he says.Speaking at the “Don’t Get Your Fingers Burnt” seminar held at the Big 5 last month, John Williamson, chairman of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers, said that fire safety has been an issue that has been largely ignored and currently there is just one piece of fire legislation for the whole of Europe.

“In the UK, fire legislation came into effect just two years ago. It is only when people started dying in fires and the government realised how much it would cost them in litigation that this legislation was put into effect. Construction law and fire legislation needs to be simple and clear,” says Williamson.

According to Phil Richardson, group director, Liquid Plastics UK, the recent fire at the Atlantis, Palm Island, was accidentally caused by a worker using a blowtorch on the roof of the lobby of the building.

“Heat applied roofing installations are very common all over the world and these can set off major fires because of human error,” says Richardson.

The best way to reduce the risk of accidental fire caused by hot works or burning embers is to use a fire-resistant cold applied roofing membrane.

“Cold applied roofing membrane has taken off very well in UK and the US. In the Middle East, this technology is still in its infancy stage as most people here don’t take very well to technology and new ideas.

They are steeped in old technology and the Bitumen torch used for hot works which is being used for roofing works in this region is old technology,” says Richardson.

Liquid Plastics has just completed 50,000 m2 of roofing for the Museum of Islamic art in Qatar.

Manufacturers of fire safety products are coming up with better solutions, systems and products because of the growing concerns about health and safety risks caused by a fire.

Products such as low smoke Noryl is now being used in building and construction products. Azam Khan, Noryl resin product manager (Europe), SABIC Innovative Plastics says that Noryl resin is a miscible blend of Polyphenylene ether (PPO) and polystyrene.

“As PPO has good inherent flame retardancy, Noryl resin flame retardant grades offer excellent flame retardancy performance as tested by UL94 standard,” says Khan.

And though there is no fool-proof way or a product to prevent a fire from breaking out, there are some precautions that all buildings under construction must take.

“All construction companies should make sure their under-construction sites have basic fire fighting systems in place; safety teams are trained on the basics of fire fighting and evacuation procedures; keep escape routes clear; apply safety measures to equipment that might spark or heat up and don’t store flammable materials in under construction buildings,” says Matrooshi.