Need for Better High-Rise Building Evacuation Practices

Abstract

There are various egress components for high rise building evacuation during an emergency. It is recommended to use these components depending on the type of scenario, but there are certain advantages and disadvantages associated with these egress components. The important concept of deciding suitable fire safety system of the building, i.e. Available Safe Evacuation Time (ASET) and Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET) is very important while deciding their use. Apart from these egress components, there are few important evacuation strategies which can be used during building evacuation. To study the characteristics of fire and evacuation of the building and decide further evacuation strategy, few computerized fire models are also available. But we need further better evacuation strategies, as there are certain limitations to every egress component. Introduction Due to the commercial and educations development in large cities, urban population and population density is increasing and being the only available solution, high rise building is becoming popular day by day. Modern day construction technology aided by 3D modeling using sophisticated software is also supporting this concept to enable maximum occupancy per unit ground area. In India, there will be 251 buildings which are above 60 M by the year 2018 and out of which 176 buildings will be in Mumbai only. Before the year 2000, there were only 26 buildings above 60 M. [40] This shows rapid increase and the demand for high rise building. It is also essential to understand the meaning of high-rise building. There is no one specific definition of high rise building. Various standards have defined 'high rise' by different ways : [11]