International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, Volume 6, Number 2, p.

47-52, 2004

ASPECTS OF FIRE SAFETY IN ULTRA HIGHRISE BUILDINGS

W.K. Chow
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

(Received 6 July 2004; Accepted 15 July 2004)

ABSTRACT

Aspects of fire safety provisions in ultra highrise buildings will be discussed in this paper. The total fire safety
concept of implementing software fire safety management to control hardware provisions in passive building
construction and active fire protection system is recommended. Key points on fire safety in these buildings are
pointed out for further research. These include fire spread over buildings, crowd movement and control,
preventive measures such as applying appropriate fire protective coatings to give a longer fire resistance period,
and a feasibility study on using new fire protection systems. A risk management scheme should be worked out
scientifically. Education and training of fire engineers are essential. The possibility of inducing an urban mass
fire is also pointed out.

1. INTRODUCTION SAR government in addition to the existing fire

codes [13-16] were:
With the rapid increase in population (of value
about 37%) in the Far East, especially the • Old highrise buildings, i.e. those erected
development of big cities in China, and the before 1972 without tight fire regulations,
increasing number of non-accidental fires, fire were requested to upgrade their fire safety
‘safety’ in dense urban areas has to be considered provisions.
carefully. Big accidental fires had happened before • New Fire Services Ordinance [17] on
in old highrise buildings such as the big Garley sprinkler system has been set up.
Building fire [1,2], cross-harbour tunnels [3] and
• Implementation of Fire Safety Inspection
buses [4] in Hong Kong (now the Hong Kong
Scheme [18] on structural stability, external
Special Administrative Region HKSAR); and in
finishes and fire safety.
many old highrise buildings and new shopping
malls in China. Non-accidental fires reported over • There had been request on installing
the world included arson fires in a bank [5], a temporary doors with adequate fire resistance
karaoke [6], and an underground railway [7] in in the lift shaft while replacing the lift.
Hong Kong; terrorist attack fires in the World
Trade Centre on 11 September, 2001 (WTC-911) Whether those actions are workable for the existing
in USA [8]; arson fires in universities in Beijing; highrise buildings is a question. It has not yet been
and underground railway arson fires in South demonstrated that providing these fire safety
Korea and Russia. New architectural features such provisions in ultra highrise buildings will give
as deep plan, highrise, framed structure and well- adequate protection.
sealed buildings; the use of new materials; new
style of living; and the growing number of people Basically, building fire safety codes deal with
living in cities or ‘city groups’ would give new fire accidental fires. Consequent to the WTC-911
safety problems of concern [9]. incident [8] and so many arson fires, there are
concerns that whether non-accidental fires should
There are many highrise buildings in the Far East, be considered. With so many political and social
and those of more than 40 levels are understood as issues, there will be a higher possibility of having
ultra highrise buildings in Hong Kong. Among the terrorist attack and arson fires than before [7,8].
top 100 highrise residential buildings in the world, New architectural features, such as using so many
over half of them are in Hong Kong and some of glass constructions, might give additional problems.
them are of height over 200 m [10]. There are Cracking and falling down of glass panels due to
concerns on fire safety in those ultra highrise explosion or failure of the fittings for fixing the
buildings [11]. A very big fire happened [e.g. glass panels would give a higher air intake rate to
1,2,12] in the old highrise Garley building during sustain combustion. As a result, higher heat release
the replacement of lifts on 20 November, 1996. rates would be emitted to cause severe damages. A
Consequent to that big fire, actions taken by the big fire might be resulted due to storing large
amount of combustibles (allowed up to 1135 MJm-2)
[13], leading to urban mass fires [19].

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The following areas will be pointed out in this − Terrorist attack fire
paper: − Disaster fire

y Typical fire safety provisions in highrise Main passive means are:

buildings.
y Total fire safety concept [9,20]. y Confine fire area when the ‘preventive’
y Key fire problems to study in ultra highrise defense line is broken, when a fire occurs.
buildings [10,11]. y Items include:
y Impact to structural elements. − Fire-resistant wall, door, floor, etc.
y Possibility of having an urban mass fire [19]. − Compartmentation, etc.
y Education and training required [21-23]. − Fire resistance period FRP [26] is larger
than the duration of the fire.
y Believed that the fire will be extinguished
2. TYPICAL FIRE SAFETY within the confined area when the
PROVISIONS IN HIGHRISE combustible materials are consumed:
BUILDINGS y Means of escape for occupants
y Means of access for firefighting
Fire safety problems for highrise buildings are:
Active protection systems are also known as fire
y Direct rescue by ground applications from the engineering systems or fire services installation
building exterior is impossible. (FSI) in Hong Kong [13]. These systems might not
y Direct water application by fire fighting jets be successful in controlling fires sometimes. For
from the building exterior is impossible or examples, hot gases spreading out from the
much hindered. confined area due to air-leakage, stack effects, etc.
y Normal escape routes for occupants are
downward through staircases or lifts. y Among all the fire-fighting agents, WATER
is still the most important agent. It has a good
y Firemen access and equipment delivery to cooling effect and is non-toxic, cheap, and
rescue people and fight against the fire are easily available.
upward through staircases or lifts.
y Essential FSI for highrise buildings are fire
y Fire fighting techniques (water application, hydrants, hose reel systems and sprinkler
fire ventilation, etc.) are to be applied inside systems.
the building.

Current fire safety measures in those highrise 3. TOTAL FIRE SAFETY CONCEPT
buildings are [e.g. 11,13-16,24]:
The concept of total fire safety [9,20] in buildings
y Passive building construction [14-16] can be achieved by improving:
− Building will be finished without these!
− Difficult to upgrade after the building has y Passive building construction for fire safety.
been constructed. y Active fire protection systems.
y Active fire protection system [13] y Fire safety management [8,25].
− Used to be installed after the building
structure has been constructed. Fire codes, prescriptive [e.g. 13-16,24] or
performance-based [e.g. 9,27,28], should be
y Preventive measures established based on the concept of total fire safety.
− Adopted to minimize fire occurrence. In fact, prescriptive fire codes are easier to
− Might be taken as part of fire safety implement. But it has shortcomings when there are
management. new architectural features say in designing green or
− Includes applying fire retardant to sustainable buildings, new fire protection systems,
combustibles; good fire training of new style of living such as staying more time
occupants; and minimum storage of indoor in enclosed buildings with controlled
dangerous/flammable goods. environment, and using more new materials that
the fire behaviour has not been tested properly.
y Objectives [8,25] to clarify on the fire types to
be protected against Applying performance-based fire codes is only
− Accidental fire feasible in the transition period when the
− Arson fire

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prescriptive fire codes are not yet updated, say due with fire detection systems and global
to shortage of manpower as it takes a long time to positioning systems. The use of personal
train sufficient number of qualified fire engineers. protection equipment and emergency escape
Performance-based codes, or at least, application of equipment from ultra highrise buildings
fire engineering approach [9,27,28] is suggested to should be watched. The results should be
be applied in complementary to prescriptive fire useful for working out crowd control schemes.
codes, particularly for buildings not complied with
the codes. • Prevention measures

The followings should be clarified: Topics include fire-safe materials, fire-safe

furniture and passive building construction for
compartmentation, fire resisting constructions,
y Fire safety objectives (goals are life safety
means of escape and means of access. The
design for both occupants and firefighters,
use of fire retardants for delaying ignition
protection of property, non-disturbance to
times and reducing heat release rate should be
business and environmental protection) not
developed through more in-depth studies.
complied with prescriptive codes. The issues
Smoke suppressants for plastic materials
of protecting against accidental and non-
should be searched.
accidental fires should be clarified.
y Safety level expected for the design such as • Active fire protection systems
with high hazard; ordinary hazard; and light
hazard. New technology on fire detection and fire
suppression for reducing the heat release rate
y Engineering approach adopted, hazard should be developed. Equipments for quicker
assessment say with three levels [9] as basic movement of firemen and rescues, new
studies; intermediate-level studies; and designs to consume oxygen, heat reduction
advanced studies. and installing water network systems through
y Actions to take on passive building the urban areas for fire fighting should be
construction; fire services installation; and considered.
fire safety management.
• Risk management
A maintenance plan, a fire action plan, a staff
4. KEY PROBLEMS TO STUDY training plan and a fire prevention plan should
be worked out [25] based on scientific studies.
The number of fires due to accidents or other Care should be taken in dealing with dense
causes appeared to be increasing. Fire safety population, crowd movement and mass
engineering should be applied to design adequate evacuation under heavy traffic conditions.
fire safety provisions. Design fire scenarios must New engineering tools such as computational
be decided carefully, say to get a typical scenario, fluid dynamics had been applied in working
the worst scenario or a normal scenario. Statistical out a risk management for gas station
theory should be used where necessary. explosions in dense urban areas [29].
Studies should include:
5. IMPACT TO STRUCTURAL
• Fire spreading over buildings ELEMENTS
Mathematical modeling on fire spread with
thermal radiation; wind effects [e.g. 19] on Structural members are required to be stable under
fire growth and spread to adjacent buildings; a fire for some time. In fact, structural stability
and the effects on smoke spreading should be will be assessed in determining the fire resistance
studied. Experimental studies with a fire period (FRP), such as having 0.5 hr, 1 hr, 2 hrs or 4
wind tunnel over fuel packs are recommended. hrs under BS 476 [26] in Hong Kong. There are at
least two points of concern:
• Crowd movement and control
• The structural members will be tested by a
Dynamics of crowd movement include not
standard fire furnace, following a standard
only motion analogy to track ‘fluid particles’.
temperature-time curve. The effects of
Human factors should be considered and these
thermal radiation heat flux had not yet been
will be different for different countries, races
included.
and styles of living. Topics include the
analysis of evacuation pattern to safe places, • The standard temperature-time curve was
modeling of crowd movement, and integration determined from experiments in compartment

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fires with wood. Different values of fire load high fire load density might lead to a mass fire.
density and ventilation factors of the room Statistical analysis of different fire scenarios should
were tested. Nothing was mentioned on the be carried out. Places with earthquake risk might
heat release rate of burning different materials. have mass fires after those natural disasters.

In an enclosure fire, air will not be sufficient after

flashover. There is too much fuel and the fire can 7. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
be classified as a ventilation-controlled fire. Any
exposure to ambient such as the breaking of glasses To support smooth implementation of the fire
will supply air for combustion. The heat release safety engineering approach, education and training
rate will be highly increased. In this way, the are required. First degree programmes [e.g. 21],
structural members are exposed to a much more taught master’s degree programmes [e.g. 22] and
severe thermal environment. They might not be research degrees up to PhD level should be offered.
able to bear the loading and sustain for the FRP as However, it would take over eight years to train
specified. That was clearly demonstrated in the adequate number of downstream engineers, even
WTC incident that the FRP of 4 hours could not be though a full-time first degree programme is
sustained under such a big fire. offered now. Immediate actions to take are:

y Running high-level Continued Professional

6. URBAN MASS FIRES Development CPD programmes for practising
professionals like architects, engineers or
As reviewed [19], the criteria for forming fire surveyors;
storms are a fuel loading greater than 39 kg/m2,
over 50% of structures in an area greater than 1.3
y Organizing joint training and discussion
forums with universities and professional
km2 initially ignited, and a localized heat release of
institutes and authorities such as Fire Services
106 MW over a period of 2 to 3 hrs. Thermal
Department and Buildings Department in
radiation is not the only factor governing spreading,
Hong Kong; Armed Police, Ministry of Public
radiation from the burning surface and convection
Security and Ministry of Construction in
are also important. Sources for giving a mass fire
China.
might be due to nuclear weapons, natural disasters
and terrorist attacks. Accidental or arson fires are
These courses cannot be offered without research
not so likely to give a mass fire in urban areas,
support. More importantly, the training of Hong
apart from gas pipe explosions, petroleum station
Kong engineers with adequate theoretical and
and storing tank explosions. Buildings with glass
experimental techniques, and the training of
constructions storing numerous combustibles
Mainland engineers by exposing them more to
exceeding the allowed value (fire load density of
advanced building technology in Hong Kong is a
1135 MJm-2) of the regulation [13] should be
key point. This should be a joint function working
watched [30].
collectively with universities in the Mainland and
Hong Kong, training research degree PhD and
Further, city fire hazard assessment with intelligent
taught MSc students as the first step [23].
input of physical data measured from fire tests
including those from a fire wind tunnel should be
carried out. The National 973 Project “Fire
Dynamics and Fundamentals of Fire Safety” in 8. CONCLUSIONS
China was established [31] with the following
objectives: With so many accidental and non-accidental fires
occurred since 1996 such as the one in Garley
• Fire control, including detection and Building [e.g. 2], building fire safety is a concern.
suppression improvement. Fire safety provisions in ultra highrise buildings
should be designed carefully. Studying the above
• Prescriptive fire codes updating and
would help to work out appropriate fire safety
implementation of engineering performance-
design to give adequate public safety [11].
based fire codes.
• Safety management in dense urban areas. As common practices in safety engineering,
technology (T), procedure (P) and behaviour (B)
This is a great move towards achieving safety. are the three essential elements. Scientific research
can give T and P properly, say using the total fire
Investigating the possibility of starting a mass safety concept to work out appropriate software
urban fire would involve studying the physics of management to control the hardware system [9,25].
accidental building fires on architectural features. However, B is the key point to achieve safety. This
The breaking of those glass constructions with a

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refers to not only the occupants’ awareness on fire 15. Code of Practice for Provisions of Means of
safety, but also the ability of the building owner Escape in case of Fire and Allied Requirements,
and management to take actions as stated in the fire Buildings Department, Hong Kong (1996).
safety plan, and the attitude of the professionals in 16. Code of Practice for Provisions of Means of
designing and installing workable systems. Access for Firefighting and Rescue Purposes,
Buildings Department, Hong Kong (1995).
17. Fire Services Ordinance, Chapter 95, Laws of
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empirical equations”, Journal of Fire Sciences, Vol.
and P.L. Ho, “Fire safety engineering: Comparison
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desired”, Proceedings of the Subgroup 4 “Smoke performance-based fire codes and education
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building”, Safety Bimonthly (An Quan), Vol. 25, Principles to the Design of Buildings - Code of
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Transfer/Fluids Engineering Summer Conference,
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Buildings Department, Hong Kong (1996). Accepted to present, April (2004).

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30. H. Raes, “The influence of a building’s

construction and fire load on the intensity and
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research in dense urban areas and National 973
Project in China”, Lecture notes for CPD Lecture,
13 June 2003, Research Centre for Fire
Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong (2003).

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