Document mq0gOwR4QM3npMb0zj37Da9yk

22--Non-Employee Accident Prevention mediately dispatch a representative to investi gate the trouble and notify proper representa tives of the property tinder surveillance If central station tie-in is not available. In areas where no central station supervision is available, the local fire or police depart ment may accept a remote fire alarm panel to be installed at their headquarters or firehouse If central station or telephone-leased line tie-in is not available. If none of the fore going possibilities is available, then considera tion should be given to the use of qualified and hcensed telephone answering services Automatic dialing units connected to responsi ble officials of the property is another alterna tive Burning plastics. It should be noted at this point that some fuels such as plastic waste receptacles can produce a great deal of toxic smoke when they bum Therefore non-toxic and non-combustible materials (such as metal cans) might be used For example, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) m a single foot of one-inch size PVC rigid non-metallic conduit involved in a fire 1 Can produce a sufficiently heavy, dense smoke to obscure 3500 cu ft of space, and 2 Can generate enough hydrogen chloride to provide a lethal concentration of HC1 in approximately 1650 cu ft of space High-rise building fire and evacuation controls Just what is a high-rise building'* The General Services Administration, at a con ference in Warrenton, Virginia, m Apnl of 1971, established four basic criteria to desig nate a high-nse First, the size of the build ing made personnel evacuation impossible or not practical Second, part or most of the building was bevond the reach of fire depaitment aerial equipment Third, any fire within the building must be attacked from within be cause of building height Fourth, the build ing had the potential for "stack effect " The huge high-rise megastructures now building or on the drafting boards all have one thing in common--they are intended to house people As buildings go higher, the population density per square foot of ground areas increases, which poses a whole new set of problems concerning the health, safety, and welfare of their occupants Actually, each building is a sealed life-support system Pres ent engineering approaches facilitate heating and cooling but are extremely wasteful of energy They are more airtight than ever, thus there is increasing danger from smoke and toxic vapors All businesses to some extent must be con cerned about panic and crowd control during those times when an emergency and evacua tion takes place The threat of unusual oc currence (such as not, bomb threat, and the like) cannot be overlooked and plans must be made to handle such a possibility High-nse buildings pose new and special problems but other public places such as theaters and other amusement and recreation facilities must also provide well planned emergency procedures Panic and the press of frantic, hystencal peo ple have caused wholesale destruction of life m many emergencies Often times, such losses could have been prevented Stnct ob servance to building and fire codes can do much to eliminate physical hazards and "death traps" through improper design and installa tion of facilities Design and installation of the suppression system for life safety should be considered by every business Architects should be held ac countable for proper design for new construc tion, especially in the high-rise buildings Stack effect. Every building has its own peculiarities for creation of a "stack effect," among them being structure configuration, height, number and size of openings, wind velocities, temperature extremes, number and location of mail chute openings, and elevator shafts All of these factors create varying air flows which tend to accelerate and intensify an interior fire Unprotected air conditioning svstems are an open invitation to catastrophe If there is no automatic smoke and heat de tection, no automatic fan shutdown, and no automatic fire dampers, smoke and toxic fumes would be quickly drawn into the exhaust or return air duct system and promptly dis tributed to all other floors and areas of the building served by the air conditioning system The National Fire Protection Association 584