Arranque y ejecución sin fallos – solo fase de protección y detección de fallos

Stairs and enclosed stairwells need to be maintained so that they are fit for purpose as originally designed. Improvements can be made in line with those described in Section 2.7. Evacuation drills should be held at least once per year in line with recommendations made by Averill et al (2005) and Gershon et al (2007) as a result of the WTC 9/11 incident and also as now required by Occupational Safety and Health Legislation in the US, UK and Australasia as described in 2.3.2.

2.8.1

The inclusive approach

Evacuation planning is all about planning for everyone so that an inclusive approach as suggested by Gwynne (2008) is advised where the individual and the potential ‘group’ are involved68. The procedures should be

66 _{A going of 300mm should increase the rate of descent because of better foot placement and} increased confidence but distance is the main determing factor (Peacock et al, 2009)

67 _{Equivalent to a Pendulum Test Value (PTV) of 40.}

68 _{In real life emergencies Zmud (2007) shows how a severely mobility impaired female person} survived the WTC 9/11 incident due to this type of planning where a group of her colleagues

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simple e.g. uncontrolled evacuation where people can enter into the stairwell when they are ready so as to avoid confusion. Staged or sequential evacuation that normally addresses fire related emergencies involve making PA announcements with instructions that people either cannot hear or understand (Proulx and Reid, 2006 and Kuligowski and Hoskins, 2010) will cause confusion. When this is coupled with lack of inclusive planning and planning as recommended in numerous guidelines (NFPA, 2007 and DCLG, 2007) then individuals will be confused and at risk especially where they should not be using the stairs at all (Proulx and Reid, 2006 and Kuligowski and Hoskins, 2010).

2.8.2

Emergency response planning and strategy

Emergency management involves the direct process of developing a plan, building and maintaining a strong emergency control organisation (transparent and inclusive), developing a set of procedures that includes a review step so that improvements can be made after each trial evacuation and the implementation of the process. Such an approach fits in well with quality assurance which underpins health and safety (MacLennan et al, 1999).

People will be more familiar with an emergency procedure if it refers to their normal use of the building and if they were involved in its development.

“People will trust a procedure that they understand and with which they are familiar.”

(Gwynne, 2008, pp. 457).

responded rapidly and took her to safety down the stairs in an “evacuation chair”. Additional studies by Adams and Galea (2010) show that this device need not slow others down.

This section will not be concerned with the details of the policy and plans as these can be found in Codes such as AS 3745-2010 (Standards Australia, 2010). There are some issues, however, that need to be raised:

• Evacuation routes – it is quite common in some buildings to designate stairs for various levels. Whatever the approach is the user should negotiate the entire route as part of their evacuation training programme. (Gwynne, 2008).

• Central control – where evacuations are run from central control points these points may be blind i.e. they are not visually connected to the various floors or even the stairwell so that it is difficult for a central ECO to monitor all aspects of the evacuation or stair descent. This can impact on communication especially with sequential evacuation. Decentralisation of control to the floor evacuation teams should be considered. (Dwyer and Flynn, 2004).

• Floor evacuation teams that can motivate, lead and co-ordinate groups are essential for each tenant in high rise office buildings. These groups need to reflect the decisions of the occupants on each floor and have standard plans to cater for visitors (assign to groups). The rapid response of major tenants in the WTC9/11 Incident is an example of this (Dwyer and Flynn, 2004).

• Training and practice – at least one drill should be conducted per annum that involve moving though the exit system. Practice should also involve the development of skills such as that required for assisting others, operation of evacuation chairs as evidenced by the Adams and Galea study (2011) and Zmud (2007).

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• All plans should include inspection and maintenance of all essential services and this includes the elevators and the stairwells. There are Codes and Standards that cover this aspect. (Beck, 1977)

The above requirements reflect the basic requirements of AS 3745-2010 (Standards Australia, 2010) which is also representative of the NZ requirements as well as those of the US and UK.

2.8.3 Maintenance

All essential services, i.e. those to do with life safety need to be inspected, tested and maintained to ensure that continue to be fit for purpose over the life of the building (e.g. requirements under BCA 2011 (ABCB, 2011)). This requirement refers especially to illumination, ventilation and stair condition in studies over the last three decades commencing with Beck (1977). Many high rise office buildings in the modern era were designed using specific design methods permitted under various building regulations (e.g. BCA 2011 (ABCB, 2011)). Inspection, test and maintenance protocols may vary from those in the Codes so that they should be documented using a combination of quality assurance and maintenance Codes that are already available (e.g. AS 3900 and AS1851). An example of this is the proper functioning of the stairwell ventilation systems and not their failure as will be seen in the 2008-2010 Case Study forming part of the PhD Study (Building M2).