Fire Safety Management for Heritage Buildings in Malaysia: Practical Guides and Recommendations
Authors: N. Hamiruddin Salleh and A. Ghafar Ahmad
Paper for The International Conference on Built Environment for Developing Countries, USM,
Note: Figures are not attached.
ABSTRACT:
In
In Malaysia, there are few old buildings with architectural and historical significance that may classified into several categories, namely traditional timber Malay houses, pre-world war shop-houses, colonial office buildings, institutional buildings and religious buildings. Some of them have been listed or gazetted as a
2.1 Introduction
It is widely accepted that fire is one of the greatest threats not only to the building’s occupants but also to the building’s fabric and contents. Fire has long been an enemy of heritage structures, with some older structures falling victim many times. One example is the LaFenice Theatre (Venice Opera House) that first opened in 1792 on the site of a theater that burned down in 1773. The construction took two years because the building suffered a fire during construction and had to be rebuilt. It was again extensively damaged by fire in 1836 and 1996 (Bukowski, Nuzzolese and Bindo, 2001). The Windsor Castle (UK) also was badly damaged by fire in 1992; it was probably caused by curtain being ignited by a wall-mounted spotlight which was too close behind it and resulted total loss at least USD 90 million.
In fact, history shows that fire was recognised as a threat to great civilizations as early as 2000 years ago. The
2.2 Fire in
In Malaysia, fire was caused total loss of more than MYR 760 million in 2006 that claimed 71 lives and injured 86 people (Table 2); from the total of 18913 fire cases in 2006, 3353 (18%) is involved building fire. In the context of heritage buildings, fire was damaged and destroyed many heritage buildings in
Table 1: Fire statistic for heritage buildings in
| Date | Building | Year of Built | Function | Estimated Loss (MYR) | Cause |
| 17/09/92 | Muzium Negara | 1959 | Museum | 100,000 | Short-circuit |
| 1999 | Panggung Bandaraya, | | Theatre | | |
| 02/12/01 | Muzium Rakyat, Kecantikan dan Layang-layang, Melaka | | Museum | | Short-circuit |
| 20/10/03 | Rumah Pak Ali, Kampung Kerdas, Gombak | 1876 | Museum | > 1 mil. | Short-circuit |
| 27/06/05 | 23 Shop-houses pre-World War, Meru, Klang | 1920 -1930 | Shop house | 5 mil. | |
| 27/06/05 | 13 Shop-houses pre-World War, Kampung Sentosa, off Jln Klang Lama, KL | 1920 -1930 | Shop house | > 500,000 | |
| 17/07/06 | Shop house, Jalan Laksamana, Bandar Hilir, Melaka | > 1806 | Shop house | | |
| 27/07/06 | Kuching | 1876 | Club house | | |
| 24/07/07 | Kelab Sukarelawan Polis Diraja Malaysia Ipoh | 1910 | Club house | | |
| 30/09/07 | PULAPOL Senior Police Quarters, Jalan Semarak, KL | 1940 | Quarters | 300,000 | Short-circuit |
Table 2: Fire statistic in
| | Fire call | Affect of Fire | Estimated loss (MYR) | |
| Death | Injured | |||
| TOTAL | 18913 | 71 | 86 | 760,682,593.45 |
(Source: Fire and Rescue Department of
3.0 THE SCIENCE OF FIRE
3.1 Introduction
In formulating strategies on life safety and property protection in building designs, architects, engineers or other related professional are essential to understand the characteristics of fire and how it can spread.
3.2 Fire Stages
Kidd (2001) and Mohd Fadzil (1997) have summarised that fire may classified into four stages, namely incipient fire, fire growth, fully developed fire and fire decay.In most cases, fire can be controlled from spread if it being notified at an early stage, but becomes critical when at the stage of fire growth and fully developed fire.
3.3 Classes of fire
When deciding on what fire protection is appropriate for any given situation, it is important to assess the types of fire hazard that may be faced. In
- Class A fires: fires involving organic solids e.g. paper, wood, etc.
- Class B fires: fires involving flammable liquids or liquefiable solids, e.g. petrol, kerosene, diesel, etc.
- Class C fires: fires involving flammable gasses, e.g. oxygen, LNG, LPG, etc.
- Class D fires: fires involving metals, e.g. sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc.
- Class E fires: fires involving electrical equipment.
- Class F fires: fires involving cooking oils and fats.
4.0 FIRE SAFETY AND FIRE PROTECTION STRATEGY
4.1 Fire Safety Objectives
In general, there should be three broad safety objectives regarding protection from fire in all buildings, namely:
a) Life safety: in buildings in which there are normally occupants, they will require adequate time and appropriate facilities to enable a safe escape.
b) Prevention of conflagrations: in other words, preventing the spread of fire from buildings to buildings.
c) Property protection: this includes protection to contents such as furnishings, fittings, objects of value, as well as the property itself.
However, in many countries only the top two objectives have been more emphasised. For example in
4.2 Fire Protection Strategy
In practice, there are two types of fire protection for a building, namely passive fire protection and active fire protection. In most cases, the combination of these protection types could provide an optimum protection. The relationship between fire, passive systems, active systems and people (occupant movement) in the event of fire is illustrated in Figure 2.
4.2.1 Passive fire protection
Passive fire protection comprises all fire safety concepts which embrace the passive measures in fire containment design (e.g. means of escape, fire exit and compartmentalisation). It is a proactive approach taken at the building design stage, aimed at addressing a comprehensive solution to the fire problem. In the simple words, these systems do not require power or water to operate in case of fire.
4.2.2 Active fire protection
Active fire protection is an installed fire protection system (manual or automatic) that detects and/or suppresses structural fires such as: fire alarms, detectors (heat & smoke), hose reels, fire telephones, CO2 fixed installation, automatic sprinklers and etc. The main purpose of this protection is to give a warning of an outbreak of fire and the containment and extinguishment of a fire. It is highly advisable that in selecting which active fire protection systems to be installed there are three main factors to be considered, which are:
a) whether the systems are adequate that could provide at least satisfactory protection;
b) the systems must be appropriate and efficient to the building’s scale, usage and contents (for example, sprinkler could be the best system to distinguish fire but may damage heritage artifacts); and
c) the system should be cost-effective in long-term e.g. easy/low maintenance.
4.3 Fire Protection for Heritage Buildings
In protecting and preserving the historic fabric of the heritage structure, Escape Consult (2006) stressed that there are some major differences which is a challenge for the architect and fire protection engineer in the application of general fire protection principles. The challenge in protecting heritage structure is to maintain their historical fabric while providing a reasonable level of safety for their occupants and contents. To avoid harming the building’s historic character, the architect and engineer will need to have the sensitivity and ingenuity approaches to provide fire prevention and protection measures that do not damage the historic fabric of the building.
In other words, in upgrading any heritage buildings the architects, engineers or conservators should with a concept of balancing fire engineering with conservation aims in their mind. Practically, factors to be considered in determining acceptable levels of fire protection and life in heritage buildings are:
a) the age of the structure and its type of construction, its uniqueness;
b) site location and accessibility;
c) occupancy and use;
d) means of egress and distances of travel to exits;
e) height of the structure (floor levels);
f) qualities of finishes; and
g) types of building contents.
In this regard, Kidd (2001, 2005) suggested that all fire protection improvements for heritage buildings should follow the following principles:
· Minimal Intervention: Any changes to a listed or heritage building must cause as little impact on the building and its fabric as possible. Any work undertaken to improve compartmentation, or to provide fire detection or suppression, should not cause unnecessary disruption or damage during installation, maintenance or eventual removal.
· Reversibility: Any changes to a heritage or listed building should wherever possible be reversible, i.e. adopting a ‘plug in, plug out philosophy’.
· Essential: Only the minimum amount of work necessary to achieve the stated objective(s) should be undertaken and all the work should be justified and informed by a detailed fire risk assessment.
· Sensitive: Fire protection devices, equipment and systems should be installed with due consideration to the overall appearance of the building as well as having the minimum impact on the fabric of the building which they are intended to protect.
· Appropriate: The fire protection measures adopted must be appropriate to the level of risk- for example there may be little point in providing a full automatic sprinkler system for a location which is sparsely furnished and where there is little or no fuel load.
· Legal Compliance: The fact that certain fire protection measures are required by law does not overrule the need to comply with other legal requirements (listed building consent, planning permission, building standards, fire regulations and certification procedures).
5.0 LEGISLATIONS AND GUIDES ON BUILDING FIRE SAFETY AND
There are five main legislations in
Table 3: List of legislations related to fire safety for heritage buildings in
| Building Fire Safety | Heritage Buildings |
| 1) 2) Building Ordinance - Sarawak & Sabah 3) Fire Services Act 1988 (Act 341) 4) Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514) | 1) National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645) |
At state level, all local authorities in
Table 4: List of international fire protection and fire safety codes and guides for heritage buildings.
| No | Description | Publisher | Current Edition |
| 1 | NFPA 909: Code for the Protection of Cultural Resource Properties—Museums, Libraries, and Places of Worship | NFPA | 2005 |
| 2 | NFPA 914: Code for Fire Protection in Historic Structures | NFPA | 2007 |
| 3 | TAN 11: Fire Protection Measures in Scottish Historic Buildings | Historic | 1997 |
| 4 | TAN 28: Fire Safety Management in Heritage Buildings | Historic | 2005 |
| 5 | TAN 22: Fire Risk Management in Heritage Buildings | Historic | 2001 |
| 6 | TAN 14: The Installation of Sprinkler Systems in Historic Buildings. | Historic | 1998 |
| 7 | Heritage Under Fire: A Guide to the Protection of Historic Buildings | Fire Protection Association | 1995 |
6.0 FIRE SAFETY MANAGEMENT FOR HERITAGE BUILDINGS
6.1 Introduction
Normally, fire takes place without warning and may cause building occupants have limited time to react either to distinguish the fire or to escape. Spadaccini (1998) highlighted that when fire is not controlled the following may result:
1) Death and injury of people who cannot escape its smoke, gases and heat;
2) Destruction of buildings, their contents and other tangible property;
3) Building have to close either temporary or permanent which could cause loss of income or possibly bankruptcy; and
4) Destruction of irreplaceable reminders of human heritage.
Therefore, the most effective method to eliminate the risks of fire is to conduct a fire risk assessment regularly with close monitoring and reviewing; i.e. ‘prevention is better than cure’. Indeed, a heritage building owner / manager should play an important role in safeguarding their building and must possess a good fire safety management. An efficient fire safety management is essential because the majority of heritage buildings in
a) existing structures weak on fire resistance; aging or decaying building materials and combustible materials e.g. timber;
b) inadequate fire prevention and protection systems, notably passive fire protection; building built before the UBBL.
c) poor fire safety awareness among the building owners, managers, staff and public;
d) low standard of management, housekeeping and maintenance;
e) few heritage buildings located at busiest area or narrow road where without a good access for fire brigade;
f) existing electrical wiring not been upgraded or replaced accordingly; few heritage buildings are still using old electrical wiring;
g) storage for many flammable artifacts or heritage collections such as old books, manuscripts, traditional costumes and antique furniture;
h) large number of visitors; most open daily to public;
i) the danger from renovation works;
j) possible danger from nature factors such as lightning, overheating etc.; and
k) the danger of careless and arson.
In this regard, Opus Consulting (2004) recommended that the ‘best-practice’ management procedures are the steps that are taken when planning the management of fire risk. They are based on the four following criteria: prevention, preparation, response and recovery (Figure 3).
Nevertheless, fire safety in a heritage building is the joint responsibility of building owners, occupants (staff and visitors) and related authorities because an authentic heritage fabric and content lost to fire is irreplaceable; no matter how good subsequent restoration may be, the original has been lost forever. All concerned must be aware of their individual duties in ensuring that adequate standards of fire safety and property protection are both provided and maintained.
6.2 Recommendations to improve fire safety management
The obligations and duties imposed on those responsible for fire safety management in a heritage building can be summarised as follows:
a) Each heritage building should have a written fire safety policy statement that to be distributed to all staff. Effective internal mechanisms should exist to ensure that the policy is properly implemented;
b) Each agency should appoint an individual at senior level as fire safety manager with specific responsibility to implement the fire safety policy. The fire safety manager (who may have other duties) may be assisted by a full-time expect fire safety officer;
c) Each agency should have a central fire safety committee, meeting at least once a year to review fire risk management and ensure that the fire safety policy statement is implemented;
d) The fire safety manager should ensure that all information (e.g. signage) on fire safety and procedures are sufficient and should be properly displayed and located;
e) The fire safety manager should inspect that no obstacle at all times to fire exits, hose reel, evacuation routes, etc;
f) Each heritage building should compile a fire safety manual setting out its strategy and detailing its plans in case of fire and as a basis for training;
g) All fire prevention and protection measures should be inspected and maintained periodically; to ensure all systems are in working order;
h) Appoint a reliable consultant to carry out a detailed fire risk assessment annually;
i) The installation of a modern, reliable fire detection and alarm system should be seen as a high priority;
j) Each heritage building that containing many historical contents (e.g. museum) should have a trained salvage team, with regular exercises in co-operation with the local fire brigade; and detailed plans for the salvage of contents;
k) Following the fire risk assessment, each heritage building should establish a priority for implementation of physical fire safety improvements including establishing or upgrading fire compartments, segregation of areas of high fire risk, providing protected escape routes and upgrading electrical installation;
l) Where legally required, fire certificates should be obtained and their requirements fully complied with;
m) Systematic and effective fire training and fire drill should be conducted to ensure that all staff knows how to minimise fire risks, how to raise the alarm in case of fire and to provide enough trained staff to tackle incipient fires quickly. Fire drills should be conducted at least twice a year;
n) Clear fire safety requirements should be included in all contracts for building, maintenance, renovation and for special events. Management must check to ensure that the requirements are being carried out;
o) Management should liaise regularly with local fire brigades on risk management, fire fighting and salvage. Exercises should be arranged periodically; and
p) A proper programme of preparation and safe storage (possibly off-site) of architectural, photographic and other information should be put in place.
7. CONCLUSIONS
Heritage buildings are exposed to the same fire threats as other buildings, including arson, lightning, construction operations, faulty equipment, and inadequate maintenance. In the case of fire safety objective for heritage buildings, life safety and property safety (heritage contents and buildings) should be considered accordingly. Standard fire protection approaches, based on ideal (new construction) conditions that drastically differ from the conditions presented in heritage buildings can have adverse impacts on historic materials and spaces and destroy the very qualities that give a space its historic character. Therefore, for heritage buildings, it is highly advisable that the architect or engineer will need to have the sensitivity and ingenuity fire protection approaches that do not damage the historic fabric of the building. An individually designed package of fire protection measures should also include management policies and procedures for particular buildings. By this approach it may be possible to achieve the impossible- a sufficient standard of fire safety with minimum irreversible disturbance to the character of heritage buildings. In addition, fire disasters could have been prevented if there had been an adequate level of fire safety management before, during, and after the incident.
Effectively, management of fire safety in heritage buildings should be on an ongoing basis. Fire safety systems need to be regularly checked and maintained. Furthermore, where a fire safety engineering approach has been utilised, there is a need for auditing. In other words, every decision which has been made needs to be recorded and periodically re-evaluated to ensure the effectiveness of arrangements.
Obviously, protecting heritage buildings from fire is important and a selected fire prevention and protection system must conform to all appropriate codes of practice and legislation. In
8. REFERENCES
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Escape Consult Mobiltex (S) Pte Ltd. (2006). A Balance between Life Safety and the Preservation of Historic Buildings.
Forrest, R.(1996). Strategic Fire Protection in Historic Buildings. The Building Conservation Directory.
Hamzah Abu Bakar (ed) (2006). Guide to Fire Protection in
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Kidd, S. (2005). TAN 28: Fire Safety Management in Heritage Buildings.
Kidd, S. (2001). TAN 22: Fire Risk Management in Heritage Buildings.
Kidd, S. (ed) (1995). Heritage Under Fire: A Guide to the Protection of Historic Buildings.
Marchant, E.W. (1989). Preventing Fire in Historic Buildings: The Acceptable Risk. Fire Technology, May 1989, pp. 165- 176
Opus Consulting (2004). Guidelines for Identifying and Preventing Fire Risks to
Pickard, R.(1993/4). Fire Safety and Protection in Historic Buildings in
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