Fire safety in hotels
Hotel fires represent a major risk to people’s safety, the hotel property and business continuity throughout globe. In general, Fire safety is a relative term. If you define "fire-safe" as a zero chance of a fire, then one can never say that any hotel is fire-safe. However, we can describe hotels as relatively safer than others based on the fire protection systems that are installed and the safety practices that they follow. The amount and type of fire safety equipment in a hotel varies by the size of the building, its height and age. Many high-rise hotels are protected with fire sprinklers, but one out of four still lack them. For all hotels and motels regardless of height, only 50 percent have fire sprinklers. Some hotel owners have corporate policies to retrofit older properties with fire sprinklers, but this is not the norm. And some hotels install state-of-the-art, well-maintained fire alarm systems that render false alarm problems nil, but other owners continue to tolerate the problem.
As a result, many hotel guests ignore fire alarms. The quality of fire protection also varies by region. In some areas, building and fire officials keep their safety codes current and diligently enforce them. But code advancement and enforcement are not uniform around India. If these codes are not kept up to date and enforced by competent personnel, the quality of fire safety can suffer a great deal.
Common Fire Hazards in Hotels
The most common fire hazards in hotels include:
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Damaged fire doors
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Incorrectly installed Fire extinguishers
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Inadequate fire protection and detection
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Firefighting equipment that is in poor condition
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Inadequate fire water and pumping systems
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Insufficient fire safety signage
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Poor fire safety procedures in laundries, kitchens, or common areas
Figure 1 Potential fire hazards in guest room
Figure 2: Potential fire hazards in the hotel kitchen
Fire safety compliance
Overall, the hotel industry is experiencing a strong focus on risk prevention, which is driven by the market and insurance companies. This reflects on the one hand the expectation that hotels take care of the wider scale threats, such as terrorism and natural disasters, and on the other hand the growth that has been seen in the “compensation culture”.
For the hotel industry, securing hotel safety is in the first place a matter of confronting the existing risks and threats to consumers at the local level. Generally, it is the responsibility of the hotel operator to see that his hotel is operated in full compliance with existing legislation. Furthermore, Owners are also ensures hotel inspections that are carried out by fire authorities to obtain the fire safety clearances.
Statutory and Regulatory nature compliances are mandatory and hence mostly the compliances starts and ends here by hotel owners.
Design and Installation codes and standards compliances are directives and hence are not so strictly followed and so as the operation and maintenance codes of practices.
Beyond Compliances
Risk assessment is a better way to ensure that hazards and risks are identified and that systems, equipment, and safety procedures are used to minimise them in addition to meeting codes and compliances.
Numerous international hotel chains hire independent, third-party fire life safety consultants to incorporate fire safety into their development process and go beyond regulatory requirements.
Although your hotel may be compliant, it need not be safe!
Therefore, make sure that fire safety is built into the property and that people are aware of how to manage any fire emergency in order to prevent, prepare for, and defend it in order to minimise property damage or human loss.
Don't let this be your only obligation!
Beyond Compliances
Risk assessment is a better way to ensure that hazards and risks are identified and that systems, equipment, and safety procedures are used to minimise them in addition to meeting codes and compliances.
Numerous international hotel chains hire independent, third-party fire life safety consultants to incorporate fire safety into their development process and go beyond regulatory requirements.
Although your hotel may be compliant, it need not be safe!
Therefore, make sure that fire safety is built into the property and that people are aware of how to manage any fire emergency in order to prevent, prepare for, and defend it in order to minimise property damage or human loss.
Don't let this be your only obligation!
Hemant Khadse
Hemant Khadse is CEO of East Corp Group, fire and life safety consultant. He is engineering graduate with work experience of 30 years in fire and security; He has travelled and worked internationally. He is also certified fire safety trainer and conducted many FLS audits and risk assessments for many Hotels in India and globally.