Fire safety in high rise residential building in Malaysia

Abstract

With the increase in the high number of tall buildings being constructed in Malaysia, the building owners face many challenges. Not only the building owners will have to look after the maintenance of the buildings but they have also to consider the safety of the occupants, especially, in case there is a fire break out. The fire department will need the necessary equipment to ‘fight’ the fire and they need to be updated in the construction of these buildings. The aim of this study is to assess the fire safety regulation and also the factors taken into consideration in designing the fire safety requirements. The objectives of the study are to study the requirements of By-Laws 1984 (Malaysia) regarding the fire i.e. escape staircase, to identify the factors taken into consideration by building owners in term of fire regulation requirements, to assess the risk of fire in building and to evaluate the perception and behavior of occupants in case of fire outbreak. The study is focused on high-rise residential buildings with minimum of five storey’s height. The data was gathered from observing five numbers of selected high-rise residential buildings in Kuala Lumpur. The data is also collected through questionnaires. From the study, the staircase width and intermediate floor depth are designed and constructed using different dimensions. There are five basic steps to carry out a fire safety risk assessment in buildings i.e. to identify fire hazards, identify people at risk, ‘evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk’, ‘record, plan, inform, instruct and train’ and review. The perception and behavior of occupants in case of fire outbreak is that they will immediately evacuate the building if the fire alarm goes off. The occupants wish to evacuate the building using the staircase instead of the elevator.