Fire safety in local office buildings

Abstract

The concept of Fire Safety in office buildings is practically new to the local building trade. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the safety level in the buildings under study, and what would happen if there had to be an outbreak of fire within them. This study will first focus on the British Regulations and Requirements followed by a Fire Safety assessment of three local office buildings. A Fire Safety report for these three existing blocks was prepared with the aim of estimating the fire risks present and then to recommend the fire precautions to be provided. These could be avoided if a number of issues were correctly addressed at the design stage. Fire safety systems can be adapted to a building at the design stage, so that there will be no unnecessary repetition of building elements. In this way Fire Safety standards can be followed to the letter at a relatively low cost in relation with the total outlay for the building itself. Apparently the main concern in Malta at present is to achieve access at the least cost possible, while not enough space is dedicated to safety related features, such as fire lifts and stairs. The damage caused by fire to property and even life is not considered, while the general impression is that masonry and concrete buildings do not normally catch fire. Therefore it is hoped that this dissertation will be instrumental in the introduction of a concept which unfortunately in Malta is still in its infancy.