Fire is a significant risk to any business, but even more so in the hospitality sector: hotels, restaurants, bars, leisure centres etc. are at a higher risk of a fire as they can be occupied up to 24 hours a day.
A hotel building presents many of the same challenges as a residence when it comes to preventing fires. Guests tend to stay in hotels for long periods of time and are often unaware of their surroundings or are unaware about fire safety practices. This could pose a particular challenge for evacuations. Hotels need to be aware of this and take steps to improve their hotel fire life safety.
Furthermore, Guests come in and out of a building so rapidly that it is challenging to identify who is there at any given moment.
The best way to prevent hotel fires is to have a comprehensive hotel fire safety plan in place. This plan should include training staff on how to respond to an emergency and making sure there are evacuation procedures in place.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India witnessed close to 63,557 fire-related accidents resulting in 62,832 tragic deaths between 2016-2020, which on an average translates to 35 people getting killed by fire every day during the five years period.
When it comes to the main causes of fire in hotels or restaurants, kitchens are one of the most common starting points. Heated oil and fat can easily ignite if they overheat or are forgotten.
Electrical appliances continue to be one of the main causes of fire in the hospitality industry and in both commercial and residential settings.
For example, hairdryers and kettles in hotel rooms, lights and illumination in pubs and restaurants, as well as any heating/cooling systems, can all cause problems.
Electrical appliances are more likely to cause a fire if they are deteriorated or overused.
Regular every after two years fire life safety assessments plays vital role in fire prevention. Many international hotel operators follows their own brand standard check list to evaluate fire life safety. Architects and building engineers now started involving independent FLS specialist during planning stages so as to incorporate the stringent building codes for fire safe hotels. Additionally, strict adherence to the National Building Code of India (NBC 2016) and National Electrical Code of India (NEC 2023) published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are critical to ensure quality electrical infrastructure in buildings and overall safety.
The hotels buildings specially are high rise or of mixed use development type are more complex to design and comply the fire codes and practices. Special focus is to be given on ;
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Passive fire measures
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Smoke management
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Egress design
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Refuge spaces
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Fire Compartmentation
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Interior finishes
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Façade protection
On one hand, India is one of the fastest growing nations in the world, but on the other hand, non-adherence to Fire and electrical standards, codes & regulations exposes the threat our urban population is facing in the for of electrical accidents and negligence toward the issue. As India continues to see more urban spaces, a collective effort is required to focus on providing safe buildings to our citizens.
Regular training and audits are key to prevent and prepare for any adversities during fire emergencies. The owner or developer should invest in safety; it is not an expense!
Lets make Surakshit Bharat.
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.