Design and Remediation for Fire Safety of Ready-Made Garment Factories in Bangladesh. Felipe Herrera Arup Fire

Transcription

1

2 Design and Remediation for Fire Safety of Ready-Made Garment Factories in Bangladesh Felipe Herrera Arup Fire

3 Outline Introduction Background Project 1: Getting to know Bangladesh Project 2: Training fire-fighters Project 3: Analysing factories for fire safety Project 4: Ongoing training project Conclusions

4 Background Proliferation of RMG industrial buildings in Bangladesh RMG accounts for 80% of national exports Weaknesses in planning design and construction No clear authorities responsible of enforcing laws Rana Plaza structural collapse and Tazreen fire among others Collective action from national and international initiatives

5 Background Weaknesses in planning design and construction. Rana Plaza structural collapse

6 Background Fire incidents Shoe Factory, Manila Philippines May 2015 (72 deaths) Garment Factory, Dhaka Bangladesh, Nov (117 deaths) Tazreen fire

7 Background Who is responsable for fire safety design in the building process? Fire Services 16 out of 25 junior engineers reacted Rajuk 9 out of 25 Desco 5 out of 25 Building Approval Authority 1 out of 25 Public Works Department 4 out of 25 Architect or S.M.E.P engineers 2 out of 25 Others 3 out of 25

8 Project 1 Getting to Know Bangladesh 1 st visit to Bangladesh Fire safety training for surveyors Guidance for survey report production Data gathering and factory safety report analysis

9 Project 1 Findings Fire safety in Bangladesh is linked to a sociological complexity Solutions linked to: culture, RMG industry, idiosincracy of people, economy, design processes, approvals Fundamental flaws Industry wide solutions Global influences are clearly present Role of fire practitioner is complex everywhere

10 Project 1 Getting to Know Bangladesh

11 Collective Action National Tripartite Government (ILO), Factory employers + Accord + Alliance Phase 1 Inspections Phase 2 Detailed assessments Phase 3 Remedial Works Phase 4 Sustained local process

12 Project 2 Training Fire-Fighters (FSCD) Understanding of the basic design principles behind fire safety engineering practice as envisaged by (BNBC 2006). Assess fire safety issues on garment factories and understand remedial actions being proposed by reports Understanding of the design principles behind the requirements for means of escape Understanding of what an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) should consist of and how responsibilities should be assigned.

13 Project 2 Training Fire-Fighters (FSCD)

14 Project 2 Findings Fire safety principles shall be taught and learned within a longer educational process Some fundamental safety issues were completely foreign and design techniques have developed through the years with a gap in these fundamental topics. E.g. no-protection of stairs in multi-story buildings A few years will be needed for knowledge to permeate down

15 Project 2 Training Fire-Fighters (FSCD)

16 Project 2 Training Fire-Fighters (FSCD)

17 Project 3 Analysing Factories for Fire Safety In 2.5 years ILO surveyed 1350 factories (40%) Remediation of factories outside of Accord + Alliance initiative Capacity building of state and industry entities Fire safety approvals entities Ensure step change forward in industry Accord Alliance ILO/Government 1350 (40%)

18 Project 3 Analysing Factories for Fire Safety Provide international educational support (not only fire!) Sharing fire engineering and safety knowledge Training and technical guidance given throughout the surveying process A long-run process to assess, guide, improve and refurbish factories for clear set out safety improvements The benchmark was agreed and developed by many stakeholders under a governmental framework and initiative

19 Project 3 Analysing Factories for Fire Safety

20 Project 3 Analysing Factories for Fire Safety Priority fire safety measures 1. Effective fire detection systems 2. Automatic fire alarm systems 3. Protected escape routes 4. Fire separation of areas with unusually high fire loads Typical most critical defficiencies Endemic, no matter age or location of the building

21 Project 3 Findings risk factors to have a reference or rule of thumb framework of when a factory could have a higher or lower qualitative fire risk 1. High rise buildings 2. Multi-tenancy buildings 3. Having a ground floor with mixed uses 4. Having a basement 5. Having a mezzanine

22 Project 3 Findings Based on this approach: 31% were considered high risk ; with 12% of these having 3 or more risk factors present; 39% present one risk factor; 30% present no risk factors therefore can be considered lower risk in terms of fire safety and safe evacuation. Even with zero risk factors the factories could still display many fire safety deficiencies.

23 Project 4 Means of Evacuation

24 Project 4 Protection of Stairs

25 Project 4 Ongoing Training Project Build capacity and skills that engineers will require in the future Develop knowledge in fire, electrical and structural engineering Building design in a regulatory context: Technical surveys Design of new buildings Retro-fitting and remedial works Building Codes and Standards Regulatory framework and procedures

26 Conclusions Work in Bangladesh started as a conventional project Addressing the issues turned out to be a mission A tragedy can give rise to change

27 Conclusions Technical knowledge Technically skilled people (From Intl. sources?) Fire safety is more than design Vigilance at all levels training, design, approvals, implementation & maintenance Regulatory framework Responsibilities and accountability to be understood Fire risks and costs For financial benifit analyses, too Resilience and safety risks Fire risks may be undermined

28 Conclusions Is SFPE having a direct impact on the entire range of countries, from the highest developed ones to the lowest developed ones? Are fire engineered solutions or performance-based approaches practical or relevant in middle income and low income countries that are lacking fundamental fire safety practices? Would international standards such as ISO standards be helpful, if developed towards an international market of developing countries in parallel to their local building codes?