Experts influence on fire safety criteria ranking for factory buildings in Nigeria

Abstract

The Ranking of fire safety attributes has been widely recognised in the evaluation of building fire safety. The ranking of the criteria and attributes depends solely on the experts’ opinion and judgments. However, the decision of the experts may be influence by their different background and professional training. This paper examines how experts’ professional background affects their decision regarding ranking of fire safety criteria and attributes. Four different groups of professional were participated in this study, which includes: Architects, Engineers, Contractors and Facility Managers. Survey questionnaire was administered to rank the fire safety attributes according to their level of importance using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) judgment scale. Expert choice software was utilised in the analysis. The finding suggests that the perception of the experts differs from one group of expert to another. Each expert attached more important to the attributes that are more relevant to his profession, which greatly influenced their decision.