PROVIDING SAFE ROUTES
HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS
High-rise buildings are an increasingly common sight across all over the metropolitan cities. Space constraints are forcing property developers to construct tall structures, which in turn present unique evacuation challenges in the event of an emergency.
Egress design needs to broaden its focus on improving the safety of the building occupants. The exit design must be treated as an integral part of the building design. When the building is occupied, the utmost importance should be given to the safe evacuation of all occupants in the event of a fire. Reasonable facilities are also required to assist the fire-fighters in carrying out their duties. From a life safety perspective, means of escape facilities are designed considering the time to complete the life safety strategy (occupants’ fire response and subsequent building evacuation), which must be significantly less than the time to when the tenability limits are reached.
The building evacuation is generally affected by uncontrollable and random variables and causes the output to be random as well. Fire check Consultants can design the egress facilities within the structure whereby a safe route is provided for occupants from any point in a building to escape in case of fire without outside assistance. Normally, no mechanical or other device is relied upon like the use of lifts, chute ladder devices and others. Fire Check Consultants have capabilities to introduce a lift as a performance-based solution for egress, especially in healthcare buildings.
Every exit should be visible, and exit routes should be conspicuously indicated in such a manner that every occupant of every building who is physically and mentally capable will readily know the direction of escape from any point. The building equipped for artificial illumination, adequate and reliable illumination should be provided for all exit facilities. The building of such size, arrangement or occupancy that a fire may not itself provide adequate warning to occupants, fire alarm facilities are provided to warn occupants, in case of fire, so that they may escape or to facilitate the orderly conduct of fire exit drills.
Many legislation exists to design the means of escape routes and our egress consultants normally consider the principal factors when assessing building about escape, such as type of construction, evacuation time, occupancy, exit and travel distance.
Not just this, Fire Check Consultants are considered to be one-stop solution for all the fire safety related services as we provide the reliability of our work with the coordination of the building certifier, building surveyors and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, NSW Fire and Rescue and other state and territory Fire Protection Services across the country for residential towers, commercial buildings, shopping centres, public assembly buildings and many more. Fire Check Consultants can help out in safe and secure building design.