In India, there have been several incidents of fires in educational buildings, which have highlighted the lack of fire safety arrangements in many such buildings. One major issue is that many educational buildings in India do not have proper fire safety systems in place, such as fire alarms, sprinklers, and fire escapes. Additionally, many buildings are not properly maintained, which can lead to the build-up of flammable materials and other hazards. Another issue is that many educational institutions do not have fire safety drills or evacuation plans in place, so staff and students may not know what to do in the event of a fire. This can lead to confusion and delay in evacuation, increasing the risk of injury or death.In addition, in some cases, there is lack of awareness among the building occupants. About the fire safety measures and emergency exit routes. To address these issues, the Indian government has implemented several fire safety regulations for educational buildings, including the National Building Code of India and the Indian Standards Institution Code.
As per the National Building Code of India, the educational building comes under Group B and there are two (02) subdivision, as of now been defined in that code, that is Subdivision B1 and Subdivision B2. The categorization of the schools as per the table given in the National Building Code is that a building has height less than 15 meters to maximum height up to 30 meters.
Generally, If I will have to speak about the day-boarding schools or schools up to Class V, these types of schools have several types of occupancy in-built according to the National Building Code either 2005 or 2016 based codes. These schools have swimming pools, indoor stadiums, have a very large ground, large and narrow corridors, classes in basements, and lots of machinery load available on the terrace. There are eight (08) to nine (09) elements which can be described while defining the Fire & Life Safety arrangements that are required for the educational buildings i.e.,
(1) Means of Egress
(2) Requirement of water-based fire suppression system
(3) Non-water-based fire suppression system
(4) Fire detection and alarm system,(5) Firefighting pump rooms
(6) Emergency lighting and stand by lighting arrangements
(7) Somewhere you will find IT Server Room
(8) Issues of Basement areas
(9) Issue related to the LPG or PNG storage areas, and last but not least major part of life safety belongs to the electrical safety, anyhow electricity plays an important role to develop fire in the property as well.Overall, we will demystify the complex concepts and all these elements in our next blog… till then read, comment down below your views and stay tuned!!#firesafety #electricalsafety #safetyinschools #schoolsafety #nationalbuildingcode #NBC #EHS #EGSS
Author: Neeraj Khare