Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Firfightingfinal 160731111525 PDF
Firfightingfinal 160731111525 PDF
IN
COMMERCIAL
BUILDINGS
SNEHA COUTINHO
DHWANI KARIA
SONALI DESHMUKH
PRIYANKA BHAGAT
DHWANI KARIA
CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDINGS
• GROUP A-RESIDENTIAL
GROUP D: theatres, motion picture houses, assembly halls, auditoria,
• GROUP B-EDUCATIONAL exhibition halls, museums, skating rinks, gymnasiums, restaurants,
• GROUP C-INSTITUTIONAL places of worship, dance halls, club rooms, passenger stations and
terminals of air, surface and marine public transportation services,
• GROUP D-ASSEMBLY recreation piers and stadia, etc.
• GROUP E- BUSINESS GROUP E: halls, town halls, court houses and libraries shall be
classified in this group so far as the principal function of these is
• GROUP F-MERCANTILE
transaction of public business and keeping of books and records.
• GROUP G-INDUSTRIAL
GROUP F: These include any building or part of a building, which is
• GROUP H-STORAGE used as shops, stores, market, for display and sale of merchandise,
either wholesale or retail.
• GROUP I-HAZARDOUS
MAIN REASONS WHY COMMERCIAL FIRES SHOULD BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY FROM RESIDENTIAL
FIRES
1.Commercial buildings lack the compartmented features of a house
2.Hidden fire
3.Access, egress & ventilation:
4.In a residential building, we have a relatively small area to search. We also have more available access and
egress points, as well as a better ability to ventilate the search area
• BMC and Fire Brigade rules for buildings with glass facades:
1. Every floor must have a two-way opening measuring 5×5 ft in the wall, as access points for rescue workers.
They must properly labelled as ‘Emergency Exit’.
2. The distance between building structure and glass facade must not be more than 300 mm
3. Smoke seals made of non-combustible material must be laid between building structure and glass facade.
4. To restrict spread of fire, there must be an automatic water curtain system on each floor
5. Each ceiling must have a pop-up vent, which can be easily reached from the floor, to be integrated with the
smoke detection system
6. All glass walls must not have any coating of combustible materials like plastic, and must be designed to
resist fire for atleast 2 hours
• As per Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, for buildings:
1. The owner or occupier has to furnish to the Chief Fire Officer, a certificate issued by a Licensed Agency
regarding compliance of the fire prevention and safety measures in the building, twice every year, in January
and July.
2. The Chief Fire Officer can report deviations in the Inspection report of the building and issue a notice
thereafter directing removal of objects that will cause the risk of fire. The deviations can be rectified by the
owner. The Chief Fire Officer can also take the assistance of the local police station to ensure compliance
and then issue NOC under section 390 and 394 of BMC Act
• As per the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, Section 3(1), Schedule I,
pages 29-37:
1. Fire Extinguishers are required at prominent places
2. Hose reel, Wet Riser, Down comer, Sprinkler systems, courtyard hydrant, Smoke and Fire Alarm System
(manual or automatic) may be required
3. Underground static water storage tank is required (depending on the type of the building) with a
corresponding water pump
4. A separate terrace tank is required to store water to fight fire; along with a corresponding booster pump on
the terrace
5. Sand buckets have to be installed at prominent places
6. Floor indicators and signages for fire alarms and fire extinguishers have to be given in lobbies, staircases,
refuge areas and any other escape routes.
7. Proper training of fire fighting system, including operation of water pumps, must be given to security
personnel
8. Self closing devices must be used in staircase doors
9. Waste and scrap materials must be cleared immediately from staircase and lobbies.
10. Terrace door must not be kept locked
11. Mock fire drills must be conducted at regular intervals (ideally 2 times in a year)
HEAT DETECTORS
•A 'heat detector is a fire alarm device designed to respond when the convected thermal energy of a fire increases
the temperature of a heat sensitive element.
•Two types : "rate-of-rise" and "fixed temperature.“
•Heat detectors are not meant to replace smoke detectors. A heat detector will nonetheless notify of a fire in a
kitchen or utility area (i.e., laundry room, garage, or attic), where smoke detectors should not be installed. This will
allow extra time to evacuate the building or to put out the fire if possible.
TYPES OF HEAT DETECTORS
Fixed temperature
•when the heat sensitive alloy reaches the a point changing state from a
solid to a liquid.
•The most common fixed temperature point for electrically connected
heat detectors is 136.4°F (58°C).
•Technological developments have enabled the perfection of detectors
that activate at a temperature of 117°F (47°C), increasing the available
reaction time and margin of safety.
Rate-of-Rise (ROR)
• heat detectors can operate at a lower temperature fire condition than
would be possible if the threshold were fixed.
•Detector responds when first’s temperature increases relative to the
other.
SMOKE DETECTORS
• A smoke detector is a device that detects smoke, typically as an indicator of fire.
• 150 millimetres (6 in) in diameter and 25 millimetres (1 in) thick.
• Smoke detectors in large commercial, industrial, and residential buildings
• usually powered by a central fire alarm system, which is powered by the building power with a battery backup
-Manual fire alarm boxes may be used for the following types of systems:
General Alarm
When activated, the fire alarm evacuation signals sound immediately throughout the premises
RESIDENTIAL:
•TYPES OF FIRE ALARMS IN RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES:
•smoke detector used in residential properties:
a.photoelectric :
-use light beams, which cause a reduction in light passing to a photocell if smoke is present
b.ionisation
-work by ionisation reactions inside the alarm being disrupted by the presence of smoke particles
-In a residential setting, photoelectric alarms are more responsive to smouldering fires whereas ionisation detectors are
better for fl
aming fires
-Photoelectric tend to be more commonly used in homes, as they are quick to detect smoke coming from burning
fabrics and
furnishings
POSITIONING AND SIZE OF RESIDENTIAL FIRE ALARM SYSTEM:
a.tend to be fairly small and simple
b.usually consist of one or two smoke or heat detectors fitted in a central location or near to areas that pose a greater
risk of fire,
such as kitchens
-Where there are compartmented areas, such as a block of flats, smoke detectors will needed to be fitted in each flat
and ideally
these should be interlinked
COMMERCIAL:
COMMERCIAL FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS:
• Size, positioning and interlinking of commercial fire alarms
• usually much bigger and more complex than in residential applications
• With larger sized buildings such as big office blocks or retail areas, fire alarm systems will need careful design
and planning, with a full fire risk assessment taking place before installation
• Fire detectors will need to be spread out across buildings, with several in each main area as required to provide
full coverage – so that anywhere a fire starts, the alarm will be able to quickly alert people to the danger
• All fire alarms or sub components of such need to be interlinked together with a central control panel, which
should ideally be monitored around the clock
• These systems should preferably be addressable, so that the exact location of the fire can be pinpointed
• Heat and Smoke Vents are installed in buildings as an active fire protection measure
• They are openings in the roof which are intended to vent the heat and smoke developed by a fire inside the building by the action
of buoyancy, such that they are known as "gravity vents".
REASONS TO ADD VENTS
• Storage occupancies - The heat release rate from high piled storage commodities is expected to be very high.
In such cases, it is considered by some fire protection professionals desirable to vent the heat from the building
if the temperatures in the building reaches sufficiently high levels to endanger the structural stability of the roof
system.
• Smoke venting is also considered to provide a minor benefit to increase the visibility in the interior space to
facilitate manual fire fighting efforts for a limited period of time.
• The use of vents in sprinklered buildings has been controversial over the last 25 years. Vent technology and
sprinkler technology were developed independently of one another. Their interaction as beneficial technologies
working together has not been successfully demonstrated. Many fire protection professionals are concerned
that vents may cause sprinkler systems to fail to control a fire.
• Large internal volume spaces – Venting smoke from large spaces which regularly contain large numbers of
people, such as malls and atria
HOSE REEL
• Hose reel system is intended for the occupant to use during the early stages of a fire
and comprises hose reel pumps, fire storage tank, hose reels, pipe work and valves.
The Fire Alarm Control panel should normally be sited in an area as follows:
• Preferably in an area of low fire risk and on the ground floor by the entrance used by the Fire
Brigade and preferably viewable from outside of the building.
• It should be located in an area common to all building users and where automatic detection is in
use, the Control Panel should be in a protected area.
EMERGENCY LIGHTING
• Lighting provided for use when the supply to the normal lighting fails.
• Emergency lighting is provided to ensure that the escape route is illuminated at all
material times.
• Escape lighting luminaries should be sited to cover the following locations:
(a)Near each intersection of corridors,
(b) At each exit door,
(c) Near each change of direction in escape route,
(d) Near each staircase so that each flight of stairs receives direct light
(e)Near any other change of floor level
(f)Outside each final exit and close to it
(g) Near each fire alarm call point
(h)Near fire fighting equipment, and
(i)To illuminate exit and safety signs as required by the enforcing authority.
PRESSURISATION SYSTEM
3.Wet riser cum down comer system along with yard hydrants
.
SPRINKLER SYSTEM
• A fire sprinkler system is an active fire
protection measure, consisting of a water supply
system, providing adequate pressure and
flowrate to a water distribution piping system,
onto which fire sprinklers are connected.
• THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO SPRINKLERS SHOULD BE AT MAXIMUM OF
DISTANCE OF 4.6 METERS- 3 METERS
PUMPS USED:
• used to boost the water pressure in sprinkler and standpipe systems
• to deliver the required amount of water
• The pipes supplying water to the hoses are pressurized all the time. Three pumps supply the water
from the tank to the hoses
• The pumps are the duty pump, the stand-by pump, and the jockey pump. Pressure switches along
the pipe control the starting of each pump
• The pressures are monitored at the pump room to control the pumps
• A typical system for a high-rise building is described below
JOCKEY PUMP:
•set to start the pump at a pressure of 150 psi and stop it when the pressure
reaches 230 psi.
• If a small leak exist in the wet riser piping - either on the wet
riser or hose reel - the pump will start in order to
compensate for the leak.
DUTY PUMP:
•If the pressure drops below 125 psi,
this means a wet riser landing valve or a hose reel
gate valve has been opened
• The pressure switch that senses this set pressure
STAND BY PUMP:
•pressure continues to
drop below 125 psi, it means either the duty pump has not
started or is not available (under repair)
•set to cut-in at 95 psi.
The jockey pump continues to run until the system pressure reaches its
cut-out pressure of 230 psi
DRY RISER SYSTEM:
•internal hydrant for the
fireman to use and are always charged with water
•Wet risers are only required for building where the
topmost floor is higher than 18.3 meters and less than 30.5
meters above the fire appliance access level
•depend on the fire
engine to pump water into the system
•comprises a riser pipe with
landing valves at each floor and to which rubber-
lined hose with nozzles can be connected to direct
the water jet at the fire.
•Breeching inlet into which
the firemen pump water are provided at ground
level and connected to the bottom of the dry
risers.
WHY DRY RISER ARE USED IN COLD COUNTRIES?
•tend to freeze up when water is held inside them
•a hosepipe or a sprinkler system that does not
have any water in it but instead is filled with air