The importance of fire safety considerations at design stage for occupants at multi storey car parks

Abstract

The following thesis aimed to explore if fire safety legislation that requires fire safety to be considered at the design stage of multistorey car parks is needed in Malta. More specifically, the thesis will have the following objectives: The researcher carried out a literature review on local legislation to determine what is prescribed within the occupational health and safety law and compared that to international standard such as BS9999 Code of practice for fire safety in the design stage (2017) and Approved Document B (fire safety) Volume 2: Buildings other than dwellings (2022) to determine what ‘suitable and sufficient’ is. In addition, modes of retrofitting were also research to analyse the possibility of retrofitting fire safety should this had not been considered at design stage. A series of interviews were carried out with Fire Engineers, Architects, Health and Safety professionals and project managers following an interview guide design to assess their perception of ‘suitable and sufficient’ and the benefits of fire safety considerations at design stage. The findings suggest that through a complete retrofitting process the same level of life safety standard could be achieved however, certain limitations exist when it comes to requirements relate to construction properties. Primarily these related to the number and dimensions of fire escape routes however items like reservoirs were also determined to be harder to achieve once the building is occupied. It was concluded that currently there is not enough prescribed in the local legislation to ensure that a ‘suitable and sufficient’ life safety standard can be achieved for the protection of workers at multistorey carparks should an international standard or code is not used as a guide at design stage. The study has shown that employers although their perception of ‘suitable and sufficient’ might be related to signage, drills, and fire extinguishers when this is compared to international standard and codes the minimum requirements are not being reached. The law allows a certain degree of false interpretation of what is required to ensure the Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET) and an adequate life safety standard.