An Interface with Mr. Ali Al-Khatib, Executive Director, NAFFCO

1. What Fire Safety Planning needs to be incorporated in residential, commercial or industrial facilities?

The incorporation of Fire Safety Planning is very essential  today and in design process to make our living and workplace safer. The combined efforts of designers, code officials and stakeholders can result is safer work areas, residence for both firefighters, residents  and workers as well. When Fire Safety Planning is implemented the designs of facilities are tailored to meet emergency service operation and response needs, the time and complexity needed to mitigate and incident is often reduced. The faster the fire services can respond , enter, locate and safely operate in or near  a building, the sooner  they can usually mitigate or resolve the incident in a safe manner. This in turn increases the Safety of the building occupants, workers, residents, visitors and reduces property damage and limit related indirect loses. During the early stages of the planning process the identification of suitable roads, water, fire protection, response times,  around  the city and surrounding areas is vital for the fire service to gain access to any property, resources as  fire suppression systems into the design and subsequent construction we ensure homes and business are not only consistent with government regulations are also safe fort their occupants and workers. 

2. What are the steps involved in Fire Safety Planning?

There  are ten steps in Fire Safety Planning:

1. Conduct a fire safety audit of the facility- Identify Building Features and Human resources .
2. Appointment of Supervisory Staff-Identify Trained Supervisory Staff Duties and responsibilities.
3. Develop  Emergency Procedures- Establish Fire Emergency Evacuation Procedures
4. Fire Drill Procedures and Training- Training and Practicing fire Drills is an integral part of preparedness. Fire Drills should be in consultation with the local Fire Service
5. Maintenance of Building Facilities and Fire Protection Equipment- detailed schedule of fire protection features checked , inspected, tested and maintained.
6. Alternatine measures for Occupant Safety-Establish fire watch procedures for temporary shutdown of fire protection equipment or systems.
7. Control of Fire Hazards- Avoid, Prevent, Reduce, and Control Fire Hazards.
8. Preparing  Evacuation and Site Plans- Fire Plan Diagram identifies type, location and operation of building features
9. Approval Safety Plan- Requires approval by Fire Officials or Fire authority. 
10. Implement and Maintain Fire Safety Plan- Owner implements and maintain safety plan.

3. How Fire Safety Planning can be helpful in averting fire hazards?

Some of the benefits of a Fire Safety Plan includes; reduction in incidence of fire through awareness, Promotes  fire hazard identification and elimination. It also promotes employee safety and awareness. Increases employee morale  by  allying safety concerns. It coordinates business and fire department resources during a fire emergency.  It reduces the potential impact of a fire on the business and communities, injuries, losses, liability and it also enhances fire code compliance. The implementation of a Fire Safety Plan helps to assure effective utilization of life safety features in a building, to protect people from fire.  The required Fire Safety Plan should be designed to suit the resources of each individual building or complex of buildings. Fire Safety Plans are intended to assist the owner of a building with the basic essentials for the safety of all occupants, to ensure an orderly evacuation at the time of an emergency and to provide a maximum degree of flexibility to achieve the necessary fir.

4. What are the latest technologies and solutions for Fire Safety Plan;

Early and reliable fire detection, clear and fast  alarming and evacuation procedures, intelligent extinguishing tailored to each room's requirement.

Filling ling the gap

There currently exists a range of methods for making ventilation gaps fire resistant. Intumescent materials that  expand  on exposure  to flames and hot smoke gases create a seal against the spread of fire. However, these take a few minutes  to fully seal, so still allow fire to spread in the critical early stages. An alternative technology, flame arresters, uses the principle of a quenching distance to prevent combustion.

Cloud system for Fire Pumps

Fire pump is considered the most important and critical equipment in the whole fire fighting system. It is considered as the heart of the system. Due to this, it became very necessary to monitor fire fighting pump on 24 / 7  bases. This is to make sure the system is running perfectly, and to get immediate alarms or messages incase of any failure, critical or up normal situation, so as the dedicated maintenance team can do the necessary actions in early and immediate stages.

NAFFCO implementing new innovative monitoring system, which enable us to monitor your Fire Pump 24/7 where ever it is.

Features

Real-Time Information

• Captures real-time information about the Fire Panels.
• Integration with map
• Generate Alerts to the Service Desk

Fault Management

• Assists to identify and notify fault conditions to operators immediately.
• Content based routing through notifications via email, SMS
• Alerts passive assets failure
• Alerts when events deviate from preset threshold

Analytics

• Helps to visualize and gain insights in a centralized point of control for pro-active decisions thus improves profits.
• Ability to select and filter events based on specific criteria
• Ability to forecast outcomes based on the archive report

ESFR systems

Are ceiling-mounted, featuring high-pressure heads capable of producing a high volume of water – we're talking about 100 gallons of water per minute. Unlike a conventional sprinkler system made to control a fire, ESFR fire safety  technology suppresses the fire (shrinks it back to the point of origin). These systems require large amounts of water and are hooked up to fire pumps.

Integrated Voice Evacuation and Messaging System

Not all fire safety technologies are built to fight fires: some protect the people a fire can hurt. An integrated voice alerts occupants with pre-recorded messages when a fire breaks out.