Fire Incident in Regalia Tower Hotel on King Faisal Road in Abu Dhabi - Case Study Example

1 High Risk Building There has been a fire incident on the 30th floor of the Regalia Tower Hotel on King Faisal Road in Abu Dhabi. No casualties have been reported, and the loss to property is minimal as immediate remedial action was taken by Abu Dhabi Fire Service. However an issue has been raised whether there are adequate fire safety measures in place to protect loss of life and property in the event of such eventualities happening again in the high rise buildings of Abu Dhabi. Introduction In the light of this fire incident we will examine in this report the factors that characterise a high risk building that is over 54 floors in height and located in the city of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. We will identify the risks to the building from all identifiable internal sources, and subsequently the hazards that it may face due to external factors, which are not a part of the building. We will also separately examine the different levels of risks for the guests of the hotel during night and day times and then conclude the report. It is also essential to understand and gain knowledge about trends in risk alleviation compliance of fire risks in any building. 2 Description of Building The Regalia Tower Hotel, which is a prime property located in the elite area of Al Nud on King Faisal Road, is a hotel for the luxury traveller who seeks ultimate comforts while on a business trip. It has sixty four storeys with 620 guest rooms, and dominatingly rises with grace in the skyline of Abu Dhabi. The building is considered very safe in view of the high tech fire prevention equipment that has been installed by the planners and architects. Unfortunately the minor fire that had been detected on the 30th floor of the building, was immediately checked by the timely intervention of the Abu Dhabi Fire Service and was successfully doused with the help of the state of the art technologically advanced fire fighting techniques that had been provided in the building. It’s a matter of pride for the government and people of Abu Dhabi, that the city’s fire service is also well equipped and adequately trained to handle and cope with such eventualities (John R Hall Jr High Rise Building Fires, August 2005, National Fire Protection Association Practical Applications of the Urban Structure Framework Plan). In this context the building is well protected from the fire safety point of view and the amenities that are present adequately ward off potential dangers due to fire. 3 Building characteristics Most of the building is used as a hotel except the ground and 1st floor, which provide high end luxury shopping and dining experience to those with elitist tastes. The main kitchen areas of the hotel are located on the 3rd floor although there are a few kitchenettes on different levels of the building to cater to casual demands of guests for snacks and beverages. It is a practice to have the main kitchen of big luxury hotels on the lower floors since it is convenient to service guests from there in addition to being more safe and secure from fire hazards. It is also convenient because transporting food supplies to the kitchen is a regular feature on a daily basis and is made more convenient if located on a lower floor. Fortunately the kitchen areas were not affected by the fire. The storage areas are spread floor wise in the hotel and the main supplies for different services are stored at pre allocated sites at different floors in the hotel. Storage for food supplies is located alongside the kitchen, while for other services such as laundry, maintenance and technical services, areas have been earmarked on lower level floors (Robyn R M Gershon, Factors Associated With High Rise Evacuation, http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/water-supply-equipment). 4 Emergency preparedness The hotel is well occupied all the year with an annual occupancy ratio of 75%, which is considered to be good occupancy as per international hotel standards. That makes around one thousand guests at any given time and including all hotel staff of around 550 workers who take care of guests and engage in the upkeep of the hotel. So there are a total of around 1550 people in the premises at any given time. It implies that in the event of a of fire hazard, so many people would have to be evacuated to safety. During the fire incident on the 30th floor all guest were evacuated safely and no on was found to be missing.The hotel is located in the prime Al Nud area of Abu Dhabi and is frequented by elite businessmen who visit the city for business and sometimes for leisure. Abu Dhabi is a city with excellent infrastructure and is very well planned, especially the area in which The Regalia Tower Hotel is located. Public services are of the latest international standards and hence the Abu Dhabi Fire Service is a force to be reckoned with, being manned by technologically trained personnel who can meet the worst eventualities caused by fire tragedies (http://www.abudhabi.ae/Sites/Portal). Location of fire stations within the city is on a very systematic and 5 calculated basis with the nearest being only four kilometres from the hotel on King Faisal Road. Fire prevention facilities Like other high rise buildings in Abu Dhabi, the entire hotel premises has been granted the ‘fire-safe’ certificate, which virtually implies there is 0% chance of a fire. However since it is of fundamental importance to have all fire safety measures in a hotel, it is imperative that the hotel be fully sprinklered to enhance safety of the guests. All rooms in the hotel are fitted with automatic sprinklers, which are regularly tested for being operational in fire eventualities, and are maintained by professionally qualified technicians. It was a good test for the sprinkler system as they were found to be functional during the fire (Ken Richardson, Fire Safety in High Rise Buildings, http://www.aaa.ab.ca/pages/members/documents/CopyofFire- Safety). Smoke detectors of international specifications are installed in the entire premises, and in the case of fire, alarm systems are set in motion that alert the fire station immediately. The hotel is also equipped with a fire alarm panel and has a Fire Department Control Station. From here the Fire officer has access to and monitors all the devices and controls to ensure fire safety. 6 Risk Factors in Hotel In view of the fire incident in the Regalia Tower Hotel, a technical evaluation and research was done area wise of high rise buildings in Abu Dhabi to identify the risk factor of time taken for fire tenders to reach a place of fire eventuality. Consequent to this a strategy was put in place whereby the location of fire stations was ascertained on the basis of time required to be taken for the fire tender to reach a place of fire, where ever it may be within the precincts of the city, so that it reaches there within minutes of a fire incident being reported. The nearest fire station from The Regalia Tower Hotel is on King Faisal Road, barely four kilometres, and in the event of a fire, the tenders can be rushed immediately to reach within four minutes as they did during the fire incident. The Abu Dhabi Fire Service is well equipped with a large contingent of fire tenders of varied capacities and capabilities. It has in its possession the latest Volvo Bronto Skylifts that can easily access all the 64 floors of the building in the case of a fire, and have the capacity to pump in 25000 litres of water per minute. Evacuation preparedness The people present in a hotel can be found indulging in a diverse set of 7 activities at the time of occurrence of the fire. They could be sleeping, eating in a restaurant, indulging in casinos and ballrooms. Alternatively there will be several workers engaged in kitchens, laundries, electric rooms etc, and all would require to be evacuated in the least possible time. In this regard too, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council conducted experiments and research to increase its understanding of the parameters that contribute towards human behaviour and the response time they take to react under such circumstances. Accordingly it could be ascertained as to how much time is taken in such eventualities to evacuate people and a strategy was put in place thus reducing the time taken for such evacuation of people, thereby reducing the risk factor to a great extent. Hotel workers have been counselled to keep all fire escape routes and fire exits free of any obstructions and combustible materials to enable faster evacuation. Keeping in line with such facilities all the guests in the hotel were evacuated to safety (http://www.iklimnet.com/hotelfires/firesafety.html). Potential damage from falling glass High rise buildings pose a big hazard during a fire by way of falling glass from the several floors. The falling glass pieces and debris from the façade of the hotel building during a fire can sabotage rescue measures and create 8 hurdles for the fire service in effecting safe evacuation of people. In this regard it is essential that at such time no one should be present on the ground area in the vicinity of the building to avoid the falling debris and broken glass, a measure that has to be implemented at the time of fire and for which the fire personnel are well trained. No loss from falling glass pieces was detected due to the fire on the 30th floor. Inadequate water supply A big risk factor is the lack of availability of adequate water supply during a fire fighting operation. The Regalia Tower Hotel has advanced technological implements installed to meet the eventuality of fire and there has never been any problem in this regard. The water supply system needs to be fool proof otherwise inadequate water flows can delay the control of fire leading to further losses. The hotel already has in place hydrant supply of water as also a system of pumping in water as and when required (www.iklimnet.com). It also has at its disposal engine mounted water streams to keep the fire in check. The hotel also complies with ISO’s Public Protection Classification Programme (PPC), which provides 40% of the water in the premises for such processes. 9 State of Communication Communication plays a vital role in fire fighting operations and it is critical to avoid any risk that may jeopardise rescue efforts during a fire. Fire fighting personnel use different radio communication equipment such as handheld radio, pagers and mobile receivers to communicate with each other to coordinate the fire fighting operations. The hotel has a high tech communication system in place whereby hotel security and other service personnel, as provided in their service conditions, can be deputed for fire fighting operations as and when such need may arise. They are trained to handle the radio communication equipment. Therefore the risk of confusion arising out of improper and ineffective radio communication is considerably reduced. The Abu Dhabi Fire Service has a fool proof communication network to be used during exigencies of fire calamities (http://www.isomitigation.com/ppc/3000/ppc3010.html). External Risks Other than risk within the high rise building during a fire eventuality, there are several risks associated for the building due to factors that emanate from external sources as was witnessed during the fire incident. Major among 10 them were hurdles created by ongoing traffic on the road as also the delays caused due to resultant traffic jams in reaching relief supplies to the affected building. The traffic snarls also prevented fire tenders from reaching the building although supply of water was not hampered. However such circumstances may enhance the time taken by fire engines to reach the affected spot to the detriment of fire fighting efforts. The traffic situation also becomes unmanageabledue to the panic created in such a situation and often results in road tragedies. Higher the floor, higher the risk Research and factual data indicates that during a fire accident in high rise buildings and specially in such hotels, the risk for guests who are putting up on higher floors is much larger. Similarly the loss resulting from fire tragedies is always much more when it occurs in the night as compared to daytime. For as the fire spreads upwards in the building, rescue measures become more difficult to implement. Often fire fighting personnel get held up in their efforts to save people on the higher floors due to unavailability of the requisite facilities. Lift ladders that reach higher floors are limited in number and cannot cover the entire stretch of large buildings leading to loss of life and injuries to hotel guests staying on higher floors. Often guests 11 staying on higher floors are caught up and cannot be evacuated due to raging fires on lower floors (http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/water ) They cannot use the stairs nor the fire escapes and only extreme and risky relief measures such as airlifting with the help of helicopters can be possible. However since the fire was minor no such handicap was experienced. Risk more in the night Similarly there is a lot of difference in the risk levels of a fire incident depending on whether it has occurred during the day or in the night. A fire can be managed easily during the day, but if it occurs in the night too many complications have to be tackled by the firemen. A fire during the night often results in massive loss to life and property because of visibility issues that hamper effectiveness of relief efforts (W K Chow, Fire Safety Ranking Systems, July 2002, Hong Kong Polytechnic University). Visibility is poor during the night and more efforts are required by way of more lighting that may not be readily available as also lack of requisite infrastructure that cannot be available in the night. 12 Conclusion In conclusion it is stated that the Regalia Tower Hotel is a building that has been proactively constructed keeping in mind all safety measures required during a fire hazard. It is because of this almost fool proof system of fire controls and safety measures of latest technology that have been installed in the hotel, that the fire on the 30th floor was immediately controlled with no casualties being reported and the damage to the building was minimal. References John R Hall Jr High Rise Building Fires, August 2005, National Fire Protection Association Practical Applications of the Urban Structure Framework Plan, http://www.abudhabi.ae/Sites/Portal http://www.iklimnet.com/hotelfires/firesafety.html http://www.tycofireandsecurity.com/Internet/traffic.jsp http://www.isomitigation.com/ppc/3000/ppc3010.html www.iklimnet.com http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/water-supply-equipment/ Robyn R M Gershon, Factors Associated With High Rise Evacuation, http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/water-supply-equipment W K Chow, Fire Safety Ranking Systems, July 2002, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Ken Richardson, Fire Safety in High Rise Buildings, http://www.aaa.ab.ca/pages/members/documents/CopyofFire-Safety Read More