Fire Safety Risk Assessment of Workplace Facilities: A Case Study

Ahmed M. Ibrahim,Mohammad A. Hassanain,Mohammed Al-Harogi

doi:10.3389/fbuil.2022.861662

Abstract

Workplace facilities are organizational capital assets, which entail high risks of fire occurrences. The fire risks increase based on occupants’ behaviors, lack of awareness and poor workspaces safety management. Thus, fire safety risk assessment is vital to raise awareness about workplace fire-safety culture, and to train employees on effective fire response requirements and methods. The literature lacks studies focusing on managing fire safety at the workplace, and limiting occupants dispossessed behaviors. This research presents a case study, which demonstrates the utilization of risk assessment for fire safety prevention in a workplace facility. Relevant literature is synthesized for identifying causes of fire, various propagation hazards, control measures to develop a risk assessment tool based on fire codes. The codes were analyzed by describing the requirements for fire safety precautionary measures, followed by an exemplary assessment. This research aims to provide professional practice and knowledge on the fire risk assessment methodology, serving safety professionals, and facilities managers. It serves to raise awareness on the causes of fire, consequences of fire events, and mitigation strategies in workplace facilities, for the purpose of protecting users’ lives and business properties against fires.

Highlights

Office WorkplaceAn office building is a form of construction, which provides a workplace for conducting business activities, such as administration, consulting services and client-related services (Aronoff and Kaplan, 1995)
Analyzing the fire codes to describe the pertinent requirements for fire safety precautionary measures, for office properties (International Fire Code, 2018; National Fire Protection Association 10, 2018; National Fire Protection Association 13, 2019; National Fire Protection Association 70, 2020; National Fire Protection Association 72, 2019; National Fire Protection Association 78, 2020; National Fire Protection Association 92, 2018; National Fire Protection Association 101, 2021)
The walkthrough was guided by the developed fire risk assessment tool for assessing the level of compliance level of providing and maintaining fire protection and prevention requirements in office properties

Summary

Introduction

Office WorkplaceAn office building is a form of construction, which provides a workplace for conducting business activities, such as administration, consulting services and client-related services (Aronoff and Kaplan, 1995). As in any built-environment, fires could occur in office properties, due to several causes (McDermott et al, 2010; Campbell, 2013; Shang et al, 2013). Fire events have destructive effects on business organizations. Fires could result in serious damages to property, and loss of valuable assets, documents, and data (Sun and Luo, 2014). These consequences cause organizations to lose productive time for business operations, and incur financial losses. Facilities managers of office properties should be prepared to conduct regular fire risk assessments, to identify the continually emerging hazards, due to users’ activities, design and operation of the workplace, and to safeguard against fire occurrence.

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion