We are once again reminded of the devastating destructive Force of a Wildfire, as the hills and forest around table mountain continues to burn with no end in sight. Local fire departments were alerted at 9:00 on Sunday, 18 April, and about 250 firefighters have been battling the Inferno since.
A vagrant fire that started near the Cecil Rhodes memorial, raged through pine trees and dried vegetation, destroying a restaurant and a large part of the University of Cape Town's library. The University has been closed, and several Estates have also been evacuated due to the unpredictable spread of the fire.
A vagrant fire burning up the hillside isn't uncommon but when buildings, residences and schools are destroyed the question is what could have been done to prevent such tragic loss.
Fortunately there is a standard by which all buildings, parks , garages , offices , commercial and industrial buildings can be measured against to see where systems are insufficient, and most likely to fail.
The SANS 10400 PART T is a 93 page document and is divided into different parts namely:
● Requirements
The fast majority of the Standard deals with requirements relating not only to residential buildings but to parks, hospitals and any other structure.
● Safety distances
This section deals with the correct distancing of structures like walls and boundaries. For instance, ordinary houses where the area of elevation facing any boundary is not more than 7, 5 m2 that distance may be reduced to 0,5m.
● Fire resistance
There are five tables that indicate requirements for compliance with presumed fire resistance of building materials and components. There is a table for the requirements for structural walls and a table for non structural walls just to mention two.
● Rational design.
The design requirements include the need for a competent person to ensure that the level of fire safety is adequate. This is particularly important in large and public buildings.
The Standard is a long extensive document with too many aspects to cover here, but the full document can be accessed online or you may request a copy from your local municipality.
Make sure you adhere to the SANS10400 Fire Safety regulation. Contact us for a free survey of your buildings.
Photo Credits: Aljazeera, DW, EWN
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