Assessment Of Fire Safety Management In The Government Hospital Building
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Date
2015-06
Authors
CHIN ONG, WOON
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Abstract
Fire safety in hospitals is a serious issue because fire risk in a hospital building is higher compared to other building. Besides that, fire safety management brings a lot of benefits and plays an important role in the fire safety of hospital buildings. In the case of hospital fire accidents, high human casualty occurs due to weak fire safety management. There are different considerations in hospitals fire safety management compared to other buildings, such as the incapability of self-evacuation by patients. This research studies the fire safety management in government hospital buildings and evaluate the hospital building with the related laws. Besides that, assessment of fire safety management in the hospital building is being proposed to identify the conditions of fire safety management in government
hospital buildings. The methods used are case studies, literature reviews, interviews with the relevant authorities, such as local councils, Fire Rescue Department Malaysia, Public Work Department, maintenance contractors, hospital management staffs. The main components of fire safety management in government hospital are identified as emergency management plan, fire safety training and practices, fire safety facility maintenance, life safety facilities, fire management procedures and fire safety rules. The fire safety rules are identified by the authorities, hospital management, staff, and maintenance contractor as the most important component. However, some hospitals did not comply with the latest fire code, especially the hospitals built before the establishment of the fire code. Furthermore, the authorities and hospital management are assessing the fire safety management in the hospital buildings in a qualitative way. Hence their assessment is very subjective, resulting in different fire safety standards from hospital to hospital. This research is based on the local fire code to develop a basic model to evaluate the fire safety management. A fire safety management scheme is then recommended to improve fire safety management of hospital. The result of this assessment indicates that the fire safety management in all selected cases were acceptable, but they faced several problems, such as documentation problems, combustible building materials, lack of the installation of the fire measures or using outdated fire safety technology, blocked escape routes, lack of training and so on. Prevention is better than cure. All problems in fire safety management should be solved immediately to prevent any future tragedy.
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Keywords
Assessment Of Fire Safety Management , In The Government Hospital Building