Over recent years, fires have caused extensive damage and loss of lives due to ineffective fire and life safety systems within organizations. Other than taking up insurance for the property against the fire peril, organizational leaders and building owners should also put in place fire and life safety mechanisms into the buildings’ structures to safe lives as suggested by Loftness et al. (2018). This term paper seeks to analyze Drake Hotel, Illinois while elaborating on the life safety as well as fire safety systems built into the building’s structure. Subsequent sections will also highlight fire drills, plans as well as a comprehensive evaluation of the hotel’s structure preparedness for fire emergencies.
Hilton International (public corporation) is currently the sole owner of Drake Hotel, which houses 535 bedrooms, two ballrooms, six-room Presidential Suite among other luxurious suites. The building’s structure is designed with smoker detectors, carbon (II) oxide detectors, water-flow detectors, automatic fire alarm systems, manual activation systems, fire exit doors, and voice evacuation systems which facilitate effective fire management within the building (Loftness et al., 2018). Smoke detectors are mounted on ceilings and walls at strategic locations within the building to facilitate early fire detection, as suggested by Van Weyenberge, Deckers, Caspeele, & Merci (2019). Carbon (II) oxide detectors, on the other hand, ensure safety of the building’s occupants by detecting minute levels of carbon monoxide gas, which is toxic to humans in high concentrations (Van Weyenberge et al., 2019). In the case of the fire incident at Cook County Administration Building, most victims died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning; thus detectors of the gas can provide life safety to building occupants as suggested by Madrzykowski and Walton (2004).
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The building is also fitted with water detectors, which are installed in sprinkler systems to monitor water flow to the fire sprinkler heads to identify malfunctions within the systems. Automatic fire alarm systems, as well as manual activation systems, are installed in the building’s structure to alert the building’s occupants during fire incidents (Loftness et al., 2018). Moreover, the building is structured with emergency fire exit doors and voice evacuation, which facilitate the safe exit of people in case of fires.
The life safety and fire safety mechanisms within Drake Hotel meets the safety requirements and utilization of the hotel since the system facilitates early detection of fires and prevent carbon (II) oxide accumulation within the building during fires. The life safety and fire safety systems are installed in walls and ceiling at a strategic location; thus they do not interfere with people’s movement and visitor bedrooms’ layouts within the building. The bedrooms and suites within the building host a large number of people daily, which renders the fire and life safety system a necessity rather than a choice.
The federal government organizes periodic fire drills to orientate the building occupants on what to do in case of fires. According to Van Weyenberge et al. (2019), drills are meant to assess the occupants’ preparedness for fire emergencies, evacuation time as well as malfunctions in the fire and life safety systems within buildings. The building security and fire alarm systems are monitored continuously by the Chicago Fire Department brigades and the Black Fire Brigade who provide fire rescue services, emergency care, and also extinguish fires (Loftness et al., 2018).
Following the review of the fire and life safety within Drake Hotel, it is quite clear that the building’s structure is ready for any fire emergency. The automatic fire detection systems and smoke detectors within the building can help to prevent the spread of fire from the point of origin to other parts of the building. Moreover, the carbon (II) oxide detectors can also help to prevent multiple fatalities attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning in cases of fires. The fire exit doors and voice evacuation system within the building can significantly save many people’s lives during fires since they promote the orderly exit of occupants. Therefore, it is quite evident that Drake Hotel is well-structured and designed with fire and life safety systems to deal with fire emergencies at every location within the building.
References
Loftness, V., Hartkopf, V., Aziz, A., Choi, J. H., & Park, J. (2018). Critical frameworks for building evaluation: user satisfaction, environmental measurements, and the technical attributes of building systems (POE+ M). In Building Performance Evaluation (pp. 29-48). Springer, Cham.
Madrzykowski, D., Walton, W. D. (2004). Cook County Administration Building Fire, 69 West Washington, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 2003: Heat Release Rate Experiments and FDS Simulations. Building and Fire Research Laboratory.
Van Weyenberge, B., Deckers, X., Caspeele, R., & Merci, B. (2019). Development of an integrated risk assessment method to quantify the life safety risk in buildings in case of fire. Fire Technology , 55 (4), 1211-1242.
