Letters in High Energy Physics (Feb 2024)
Relation between The Architectural Design and Fire safety Evacuation: The case of High-rise Residential Buildings-Bengaluru, India
Abstract
Protections of the persons occupying tall residential structures has become a critical issue, especially due to occurrences like the Grenfell Tower fire that occurred in London. In particular, the immediate subject of this study is to assess qualitative aspects of fire safety precautions and exit paths in high-rise apartment complexes in Bengaluru, which is characterized by constant growth of urbanization and specific fire safety concerns. However, the research established that while the National Building Code (NBC) provides the theoretical framework on how facilities should be developed free from major fire risks, the reality on the ground shows that this is more of a wish than reality since there is a big gap between the providers and end users, and this leads to the failure to adhere to even the most basic of the NBC rules and regulation and hence making buildings highly susceptible to fire incidents. The study is carried out on five high rise residential buildings located in Bengaluru. The research adopts both, the orthodox techniques as well as questionnaire assessment to pinpoint certain weaknesses in the architectural and operational integrities of fire safety. The research tools adopted by the researcher include checklists that are specifically developed by the researcher, observational checklists, which are administered during researcher’s visit to the facility and qualitative analysis of the residentials behaviour during fire incidents. These issues include; lack of proper exit ways, limited fire prevention measures, and blindness and negligence in common areas. Significantly, architectural deficiencies pertain to the absence of appropriate signs that indicate the location of exits, improper positioning of fire suppressing facilities, and poor/minimal maintenance of fire safeguard amenities. That is why resident behaviours add additional layers to the evacuation processes with many of them giving preference to their items over evacuation. The paper under discussion stresses the need for a comprehensive approach in fire safety management, which is to encompass such aspects as upgrade of architectural solutions, legislative measures, residents’ training, etc. Better compliance with the current codes and common understanding of fire risks and primary responsibilities of the building owner, architect, fire safety engineer, and residents can make high rise residential buildings fire safe. Therefore, it is important that these challenges are solved in their entirety to reduce calamities arising from fire incidences and enhance the protection of lives and property of the residents.
