Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE
The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors affecting fire accidents in high-rise residential buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah in order to find solutions that contribute to reducing injuries and deaths from fire accidents. A large urban expansion of the Emirate of Sharjah has ta...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Fire |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/6/2/68 |
| _version_ | 1797621080032018432 |
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| author | Musab Omar Abdelgadir Mahmoud Sa’ardin Bin Abdul Aziz |
| author_facet | Musab Omar Abdelgadir Mahmoud Sa’ardin Bin Abdul Aziz |
| author_sort | Musab Omar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors affecting fire accidents in high-rise residential buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah in order to find solutions that contribute to reducing injuries and deaths from fire accidents. A large urban expansion of the Emirate of Sharjah has taken place in the form of high-rise buildings, and the Emirate is now third in the UAE in terms of the number of high-rise buildings and is home to 19% of the population. As a consequence, an increase in the rate of fire accidents has also been observed. As such, there is a need to conduct research on enhancing fire safety in high-rise buildings by conducting a literature review, in which nineteen factors affecting fire globally were identified. Because the fire characteristic is unique in every country, to identify the nature of fire in the Emirate of Sharjah, we consulted sixteen subject matter experts in the field of fire in the Emirate of Sharjah to identify the factors applicable to the Emirate. We used the failure mode, effect, and criticality analysis methodology to accomplish this goal. The outcome of the consultations resulted in the three main factor categories, which are management factors, human factors, and technical factors, and the critical factors affecting the high-rise buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah were identified, which are: fire regulations, fire enforcement regulations, accident investigation, rescue speed, human behavior, lack of proper maintenance, fire training, building design, fire knowledge, combustible materials, fire culture of society, and urbanization. Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) tools implemented to measure the effect level of the sub-critical fire factors, 45 effects were identified, and the most common effects were: the building is fully covered by cladding, the effect of stopping activities in HRBs that are non-compliant with fire regulations, the residents practice activities related to fire knowledge, fire regulations efficiency, the training of new employees by their employers, and the residents have fire-related knowledge. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:50:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2d311cd7236e4a029979deadcca51f09 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-6255 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:50:36Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Fire |
| spelling | doaj.art-2d311cd7236e4a029979deadcca51f092023-11-16T20:27:26ZengMDPI AGFire2571-62552023-02-01626810.3390/fire6020068Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAEMusab Omar0Abdelgadir Mahmoud1Sa’ardin Bin Abdul Aziz2Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, MalaysiaRazak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, MalaysiaRazak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, MalaysiaThe purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors affecting fire accidents in high-rise residential buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah in order to find solutions that contribute to reducing injuries and deaths from fire accidents. A large urban expansion of the Emirate of Sharjah has taken place in the form of high-rise buildings, and the Emirate is now third in the UAE in terms of the number of high-rise buildings and is home to 19% of the population. As a consequence, an increase in the rate of fire accidents has also been observed. As such, there is a need to conduct research on enhancing fire safety in high-rise buildings by conducting a literature review, in which nineteen factors affecting fire globally were identified. Because the fire characteristic is unique in every country, to identify the nature of fire in the Emirate of Sharjah, we consulted sixteen subject matter experts in the field of fire in the Emirate of Sharjah to identify the factors applicable to the Emirate. We used the failure mode, effect, and criticality analysis methodology to accomplish this goal. The outcome of the consultations resulted in the three main factor categories, which are management factors, human factors, and technical factors, and the critical factors affecting the high-rise buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah were identified, which are: fire regulations, fire enforcement regulations, accident investigation, rescue speed, human behavior, lack of proper maintenance, fire training, building design, fire knowledge, combustible materials, fire culture of society, and urbanization. Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) tools implemented to measure the effect level of the sub-critical fire factors, 45 effects were identified, and the most common effects were: the building is fully covered by cladding, the effect of stopping activities in HRBs that are non-compliant with fire regulations, the residents practice activities related to fire knowledge, fire regulations efficiency, the training of new employees by their employers, and the residents have fire-related knowledge.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/6/2/68fire factorresidential buildingsfire accidents |
| spellingShingle | Musab Omar Abdelgadir Mahmoud Sa’ardin Bin Abdul Aziz Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE Fire fire factor residential buildings fire accidents |
| title | Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE |
| title_full | Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE |
| title_fullStr | Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE |
| title_full_unstemmed | Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE |
| title_short | Critical Factors Affecting Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE |
| title_sort | critical factors affecting fire safety in high rise buildings in the emirate of sharjah uae |
| topic | fire factor residential buildings fire accidents |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/6/2/68 |
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