Title : ISSUES IN DESIGN OF MEANS OF EGRESS FOR FIRE SAFETY
Authors : Parvathy, U. V. (1), Virendra Kumar Paul (1) and G. C. Misra (2)
Publication : February 13-16, 2013
Volume :
Pages : 9-Jan
Price : 250
Abstract : Most cities in India have adopted National Building Code (NBC) of India 2005 Part 4, Fire and Life Safety in their local building bye-laws as a requirement to enforce fire safety in high rise and certain other buildings. The NBC draws provisions related to means of egress from IS 1644, ‘Code of Practice for Fire Safety of Buildings (General): Exit Requirements and Personal Hazard’ which framed such provisions first in 1960 and were amended in 1988 by a significantly different version. Owing to incorporation of most of the current revision / affirmations of IS 1644 in the NBC, the focus has now been on the Fire and Life Safety rather than Fire Protection alone. The issue of Life Safety has, thus, attained statutory prominence to assure that the occupants egress safely in the event of fire. It is therefore, important to critically ascertain suitability of Life Safety requirements governing planning and design of egress in relation to approaches followed in some of the key international codes and standards. The travel distance to the place of safety and occupant load being the most significant consideration for planning and design of means of egress, this paper is an attempt to critically examine these key issues in the NBC with respect to their adequacy and compare them with the international codes and practices. The discussion on these issues aims to suggest possible areas for improvement in the context of NBC.