Fire & Life Safety Audit for Hospitals Buildings

Why Fire & Life Safety Audit in Hospitals important?

Multi-storeyed hospitals have the following differences in the evacuation of its inmates. A majority of the patients are ambulant or with life-supporting equipment and need external assistance for safe evacuation. Hence special attention needs to be paid for the safe evacuation which may be partial i.e. moving the patients of the floor where the fire has originated and the patients in the floors above and below the floor of fire or total evacuation i.e. safe evacuation of all inmates of all the floors to a safe place outside the building. In hospitals, there are different categories of Occupants present at all times

• Patients (ambulant, non-ambulant, needing oxygen another facilities)
• Patient’s relatives who visit them
• Medical staff
• Administrative staff
• Security staff and others.

In a big Multi-Storey Hospital, a majority of the visitors and attending relatives of the in-house patients are not familiar with the surroundings and hence incapable of offending their way to a safe place during an emergency. Unlike other occupancies, special hazards are associated with the equipment, materials used for treatment, various hazardous gases like ethylene, chloroform, ether, cyclopropane, and ethyl alcohol, liquid oxygen, used for operation theatres. There are too many people in the hospital premises who can commit an act of negligence which may result in fire and too many equipment which are capable of providing a source of ignition i.e. electrical heaters, laundry, sterilization plant, presence of a large quantity of Liquid oxygen, LPG supplies always turn small fires into an uncontrollable inferno. Therefore, initiation of fires in hospitals in the absence of fire prevention management is highly possible. Basic design and construction faults enable fire to spread and lack of proper escape routes and evacuation procedures place the life of people in danger.

Objectives of FLS Audit

The objectives of the Fire & Life Safety Audit can be focused on the following

• Review of Fire safety policy statement (Fire order)
• Identify all significant fire hazards
• Identify the people who are at risk from each hazard
• Evaluate the existing control measures
• Determine the additional control measures required
• Examine the availability of a suitable emergency plan detailing the responsibility and action of key personnel
• Review the availability of a suitable fire alarm and detection system
• Review the availability of suitable firefighting facilities, such as hydrants, sprinklers, extinguishers, etc.
• Evaluate passive fire protection systems provided
• Evaluate the general awareness of occupants and security personnel on matters relating to fire safety and rescue operations
• Evaluate the training and instructions on fire safety imparted to the employees and occupants
• Verifying the records of training imparted to employees and occupants with regards to fire safety
• Assessing all relevant electrical safety risks
• Examining the storage and control of flammable and hazardous substances
• Assessing the existing fire preventive and protective control measures, On-site emergency response plans and fire risk assessment report.