Community safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

Community safety - Essay Example In multi-storey buildings, the number of occupants is also more than in single dwellings. The increased population density gives rise to a greater risk of fires and other hazards. The increased height compared to other low height buildings and houses requires specific management strategies employed for large structures and necessitates the need for special fire safety systems and measures. Moreover, buildings which are under construction pose greater risks for domestic fires to the occupants. The need for an effective fire safety system becomes even more urgent if the occupants are migrant workers. Changes in the electricity and gas supplies by occupants can significantly increase the potential for a domestic fire. This paper attempts to examine fire safety strategies that can be employed to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities as a result of domestic fires in multi-occupancy high-rise buildings which are under construction and provide overpopulated temporary housing for migr ant workers. One of the major risks that an overpopulated high rise structure presents is the problem of evacuation. In the case of evacuation during a fire emergency, a large number of occupants inside the building can increase the time taken to evacuate. Many buildings do not have a sufficient number of staircases and fire escapes. Evacuation measures also delay the fire suppression by firefighters. This causes more spread of the fire, and even more damage to the property, not to mention the increased fatalities and injuries that will accompany the spread of the fire to other parts of the building. Evacuation measures are also hampered by the lack of internal staircases to protect from smoke and fumes. The heat emitted from the fire can also cause injuries and burns. The problem of limited stairwells becomes even more acute in a building that is under construction and is overpopulated. Not only would it be difficult to evacuate the building,