A Case Study of Fire Safety Measures at Malaysian ...

1 Original Article A Case Study of Fi re Safety Mea sures at Malaysian University Residential Colleges Shazrizil Zakariaa*, Desa Ahmada, Khali na Abdana, Mohd Rafee Baharu dinb a Department of Biological and Agri cultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. b Occupational Safety and Health Management Office, Universiti Putra Malaysi a, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. *Corresp onding Author: sh ABSTRACT: Fir e emergencies are th rea t to th e occ upants of a residen tial co llege.

2 Some of th e Malaysian residen tial co lleges were built in th e 1970s. Back then , th e co mpliancy to Uniform Buil din g By-la w 1984 was not en tir ely practiced. This Study aims to ev alu ate fir e Safety Measures in selected res id en tial co lleges of a Mala ysian University, which were built before 1984. This includes occupants level of awaren ess and kn owledge of th e occ upants reg ardin g fir e Safety Measures . This stu dy was co nducted in selected residen tial co lleges, built bef ore 1984, whic h were named as A, B, C, and D Colleges.

3 One new college buildin g was selec ted to be the co ntr ol va ria ble, th e E College. Surve y questionnair es were given to 401 responden ts to obtain in fo rmation reg ardin g th e fire Safety awaren ess and kn owledge. Fire Safety in spec tions were co nducted to determine th e level of fir e Safety protection systems in co lleges and th e docu menta tion of emergen cy response pla n were rev iewed. From the stu dy, th e level of fir e Safety awaren ess among th e occ upants were hig her co mpared to th eir fir e Safety kn owle dge.

4 Fir e Safety in spec tion result in dicated that ove rall buildings in spec ted co mplies wit h th e lo ca l reg ulation while Safety documenta tion rev iews were satis fa ctorily adeq uate. Overall, th e sco re fo r fir e Safety Measures in all selected co lleges were sufficient and in good co ndition. This Study is significant fo r th ose in th e field of Safety and hea lth practi ce pertain in g to fir e Safety en gin ee ring and reg ulations, to plan for better and more efficient fire hazard and ris k assessment.

5 Key words - Fir e emergen cy response plan, fir e Safety awaren ess, fir e Safety in spec tio n, fir e Safety kn owledge, residen tial c ollege. All rights rese rved. INTRODUCTION Residen tial co lleges an d studen t housing fac ilities ar e shelter for stu den ts attendin g a univer sit y, an d is expec ted to provid e attrac tive en vir onment, co nduci ve for learnin g and ac ad emic succ es s, ap propriate functional it y that in co mpliance with co des or sta ndar ds, an d ad eq uate safet y fea tu res (Hassan ain , 1998).

6 Pr ovid in g fir e-saf e fac ili ties involves a compreh ensive an d well-balance d set of ac tions co nsisti ng of co ntin ual fir e safet y ed uca tion an d awar en ess programmes for th e sta ff an d stu dents , fir m ad her ence to fire saf et y le gis lative reg ula tions, ad eq uate fir e protection features maintenance, and preventio n mea sures to li mit potential fir e source s an d red ucing to tal fuel lo ad that may ex is t. If the fir e saf et y syste ms for a fac ility ar e designed in ac co rdan ce with prescrip tive reg ulatio ns, ther e ar e likel y to be some built-in assumptions regarding fuel lo ad , fir e sprea d potential, fir e detection, fir e alarm tr igger in g, and occ upan t ev ac uation (Meac ham, 1999).

7 Besides, it is nec essary to ensure th at, when a fir e occ urs, all the saf et y mea sures provid ed wil l be av ailable for use and will per form satisfac to ril y (Ramac handran , 1999). The aim of th is Study was to ev aluate fir e safet y mea sures in the residen tial co lleges in Univ er siti Putr a Mala ysia, built in the yea r before 1984. Fire saf et y mea sures in th is co ntext wer e ref er red to th e ac ti ve and pas siv e fir e protection syste m exis ted in th e selected residen tial co lleges whet her th ey co mply wit h th e Uniform Building By-Law 1984.

8 The sec ond objec tive was to ev aluate th e le vel of awaren ess and knowledge of the occ upan ts of the residen tial co llege, espec ially the studen ts , reg arding fir e safet y mea sures. The th ir d objec tive was to rev ie w fir e safet y docu men tation regarding the emer gency response plan of ea ch selected residen tial college. December 2019, Vol. 16 No. 241 Fire Safet y Scenar io in Mala ysia Fire an d Rescue Depar tmen t of Mala ysia (FRDM) had co mpleted a statistical annual rep ort on th e occ urrence of str uct ural fir e in 2016.

9 The rep ort was publi shed in th eir web site an d ca n be vie wed by th e public. The over all rep orted fir e in ves tigation for residen ti al ca tegories that had bee n co nducted was 3,178 ca ses as shown in Tab le 1. Table 1 Fire ca ses for re sidential c ateg ory No. Type of Buildin g No. of Cases 1. Ter rac e House 921 2. Squatter 147 3. Traditional House 128 4. Residen tial 1,263 5. Shop House 110 6. Hotels 41 7. Flat 331 8. Apar tmen t / Condominium 221 9. Premise / Budget Hotel 2 10.

10 Hostels 14 Total Cases 3,178 Source : (Fire an d Rescue Depar tmen t of Mala ysia, 2016) Ref er ring to Table 1, residen tial housing ca te gory was th e highest number of ca ses (1,263) involv ed in a fir e ac ross th e co untr y. Housin g ref er s to an y housin g built priv ately such as priv ate homes, bungalows or detached . The fir e statistics on residen tial ca teg ories th en followed by terrac ed houses (921), flat (331) an d ap ar tmen t / co ndominiu m (221) ca ses.