Application Of The UK Fire Safety Engineering To Apartment Building

Application Of The UK Fire Safety Engineering To Apartment Building Application Of The UK Fire Safety Engineering To Apartment Building Design For Means Of Escape â€" Assignment Example > Introduction: The management of fire and safety within buildings is an important process. In the UK, the government provides standards that are applicable in the design of new buildings and material alterations to existing buildings. These standards are intended to safeguard the occupants of a building from injuries in the event of fire and hopefully assist firefighters in accessing the building. Causes of fires are mainly electrical installations or explosions from the use of flammable chemicals. However, extreme events like terrorist attacks can also lead to fires in a building. The British standards do not cover the design for safety in the event of such extreme scenarios such as a terrorist invasion (Thenbs. com, 2015). This is due to their undefined nature. As a requirement, the design of the building should allow for easy horizontal escape in a fire situation. The British standards require that at an instance of a fire, a person should leave the building without being blocke d by the fire or smoke. This should be achieved by moving in a single direction away from the fire. This implies that there should be a couple of exits to a building that occupants can use to exits the building to safety. In some instances, the standard permits the existence of a single escape route. However, the provision of an alternative route is important to avoid the population of the house from being trapped by congestion of the escapes. The number of tenants in a building therefore becomes an important factor in designing for escape. Additionally, the indented use of the building will also affects the number and distance from the exit doors. This paper gives a review of the design specifications that are expected in escape instances in buildings in the UK. It intends to show how the UK building standards that are contained in the approved document B affect the specifications of the buildings designed in the country. Evacuation strategiesIn simple buildings, upon the discove ry of fire, each individual will require to move from the fire zone to a more secure location. This can happen simultaneously and can include all the occupants of the building. There should be alternative exits available to the people inside a building. For instance the building design below, the escape routes are given in green. There are numerous exits to o the building and an individual at each point can take optional exits through the corridors. All the corridors have two or more exits according to the design plan bellow. This method of evacuation is called the simultaneous evacuation. After the warning is given, everyone walks out the building through exits. The major exits should be designed to carry a large number of people. Doors opening towards the outside of the building can be helpful in times of emergency with easy opening or break through. The major exits can also have double doors to cater for the huge population that are likely to use it simultaneously at an instanc e of a fire within the building.