You have been commissioned to develop a Fire Risk Management Strategy for a supermarket situated within a single level regional shopping centre.
Following are main characteristics of the building and the supermarket:
- The building is of rectangular shape (including open car park) with the long sides running from south to north. The supermarket is at the southern end. The footprint of the supermarket is approximately 40m south to north and 60m east to west. The retail mall is 80m long from south to north, with specialty shops on both the eastern and western sides. The floor area of the mall including the specialty shops is approximately 3,000 m2. The supermarket and the mall are NOT fire
- The supermarket is only accessed from the mall during mall trading hours, so that patrons going to the supermarket may be attracted to the specialty shops on the way. A direct after hour access to the supermarket is provided from the open car park, which is locked up on the outside except during supermarket operation hours outside of mall trading times. The after hour access of the supermarket, including the doorway and the corridor connecting the doorway and the forecourt of the supermarket, is required to be an emergency exit for occupants in both the supermarket and the
Your task is to “Establish the Context” for developing a fire risk management strategy (FRMS) for the supermarket.
Required:
- Develop a Communication & Consultation Plan with consideration to the following elements: (10 marks)
- Stakeholders;
- Establishment of Communication team;
- Platform for communication; and
- Frequency of and/or key milestones requiring
2. The strategic context – external context (8 marks)
- Consider the interest of the manager of the shopping centre. What risks are acceptable and not acceptable and priorities; and
- Describe main concerns of the council who represents the
3. The organizational context – internal context of the supermarket (10 marks)
- Describe structure for decision making and responsibilities;
- Key objectives for the supermarket to develop the FRMS and risk policies that may be used to achieve these;
- Criteria for evaluating the FRMS against objectives of internal and external stakeholders.
4. The risk management context – for particular (part of) building (7 marks)
- Describe limitations for fire safety of the supermarket;
- Describe roles & responsibilities of staff;
- Develop risk
You should treat the exercise as a qualitative, preliminary task and hence not go into too much detail.
Question 2 – Fire Risk Audits (25 marks)
You are required to conduct a fire risk audit of the supermarket in Question 1 for the purpose of identifying fire risks.
As part of the audit you are expected to investigate and comment on the following issues:
- A brief of active and passive fire safety systems present in the 5 marks
supermarket in accordance with DtS Provisions of the Building Code of Australia.
- Identification of possible ignition sources in the following parts of the 5 marks
supermarket: (i) trading area; (ii) storage; and (iii) office.
- Identification of fuel loads in the three parts identified in Item 2 5 marks
above. You may refer to statistics of fuel load in various occupancies.
- Occupant characteristics (including estimated number of occupants) in 5 marks
the supermarket. Consider different characteristics of staff and patrons.
- Identification of hazards as a result of a fire commencing near the 5 marks
main entrance to the supermarket on the supermarket side.
Question 3 – System Reliability (40 marks)
The supermarket in Question 1 is equipped with the four fire safety systems: (1) a smoke detection system, (2) an automatic sprinkler system, (3) a smoke exhaust system, and (4) a fire alarm system.
Tasks: Conduct reliability analysis by answering the questions below. Please provide enough significant digits especially when the answer is very close to zero or one.
- Calculate the “series system” reliability of the above four fire safety systems. The “series failure system” is defined such that all four fire systems operate together. Draw a block diagram. (3 marks)
- Calculate the “parallel system” reliability of the above four fire safety systems. The “parallel failure system” is defined such that at least one of the four fire systems operates. Draw a block diagram. (3 marks)
- Calculate the system probability that none of the four systems operates. Do NOT draw a block diagram. (5 marks)
- Calculate the system probability that the fire alarm system and automatic sprinkler system operate but the smoke detection system and smoke exhaust system do not operate. Do NOT draw a block diagram. (5 marks)
- Calculate the system probability that two of the four fire systems operate and the other two do not operate. Do NOT draw a block diagram. (8 marks)
- Calculate the system probability that only one of the four fire systems operates. Do NOT draw a block diagram. (8 marks)
- Calculate the system probability that at least three of the four fire systems Do NOT
draw a block diagram. (8 marks)
Assumed reliabilities for Question 3
Smoke detection system | 95% |
Automatic sprinkler system | 95% |
Smoke exhaust system | 85% |
Fire alarm system | 98% |