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July, 2004 MULTIPLEX era is on. Every big city is planning to have multiplexes. Gurgaon and Delhi have many; Faridabad and Chandigarh have one each. Panchkula has auctioned multiplex sites and many others are in planning stage. Soon a city without a multiplex will be reckoned as a backward one. As the number of multiplexes rises now and multiplies later, the shock unleashed by the news of a fire in a multiplex may severally shake the confidence of visiting public and hold them, back thereby defeating the very purpose behind existence of multiplexes. It is therefore extremely important that full fire safety measures are taken while building multiplexes and no relaxation on any account is allowed in doing so. Devastating fires in Gopala Towers, Sidhartha Continental, Vigyan Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan and Uphaar Cinema in Delhi are a few incidents still fresh in the minds of people. Each of these mishaps sent a grim reminder to the builders of the country to adopt minimum required standards of fire fighting and evacuation facilities in public places. But again, the elementary precautions and safety measures against fire have not been adhered to while raising big or highrise buildings. Mere provision of fire extinguishers, fire alarms or keeping contact with fire stations is not enough to kill a fire breakout and avoid loss of human life and property in a multiplex. Micro-planning needs to be done and stringent provisions made to prevent occurrence of a fire. Most of the fires that occur in multi-storey buildings are due to electrical shortcircuits. Same rule is applicable to multiplexes also. To avoid a short circuit in a multiplex and Prevention of fire, following steps need to be taken at the time of its construction : 1. Separate shafts should be provided to carry electric cables. These shouldn’t be common with water supply or telephone lines. All shafts should be provided with fire resistant seals having a fire resistance of minimum two hours. All electrical ducts should be closed type so that fire may not travel from one floor to another. 2. Every Distribution Board should be provided with auto-trip MCBs which may trip on large current variations and Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCBs ) which may cut off power supply on any leakages. 3. All materials used in electrification and lighting of multiplexes should be ISI marked and fire resistant. Specially the wires must be fire resistant and should emit little smoke on burning. 4. Separate conduits should be provided for different circuits and no two phases should be passing in same conduits. 5. High capacity equipment like transformers, projectors, DG sets, microprocessors and amplifiers should have separate copper earthing arrangements. 6. Special clause should exist in the rent/lease document to make retailers to stick to above provisions in their part of electrical wiring. In order to minimise chances of spread of fire, following points should be kept in mind during the construction of multiplexes: 1. Minimum use of wood should be made. Wherever used, wood should be painted with fire resistant paints. Sometimes some paper or fabric covering is provided over the walls of cinema halls in a multiplex. These should also be treated with fire retarding chemicals. The kitchens should not be wooden but should use stainless steel shelves and cabinets. Kitchen walls should have ceramic tiles instead of wooden panels often provided these days. 2. All retailers should also be bound to use minimum of wood and treat it, wherever used, with fire retardant paints. This clause should exist in the standard agreement document. 3. As far as possible, kitchens should be planned as isolated from the main restaurants. 4. Building basements are always more susceptible to fire. All basements should have sprinklers installed in them. It is preferable if the basements of multiplexes accommodate the water storage tanks to meet its requirements for AC plant, domestic purposes and for fire-fighting. If the number of water tanks is more than one as is usually done to keep domestic water separate, provision should be made to inter-connect the tanks with fire water tank to transfer water to it in case of fire. All basements must have adequate ventilation and exhaust machinery. 5. A.C. ducts of every floor should be kept separate. Wherever AC system has to be kept centralised, air handling units should be kept separate for each floor. In centrally airconditioned multiplexes, the smoke may travel quickly through A.C. ducts and prove fatal. The smoke in a building spreads so quickly that it may engulf a multiplex within five minutes. This fact should be given due attention while planning airconditioning of a multiplex. 6. Smoke detectors provided in all areas of a multiplex should be optical or photo-electric or heat detector type which must work efficiently and detect smoke at the earliest. In theatres, projected beam smoke detectors equipped with receivers, transmitters and reflectors should be provided. Fire fighting equipment: Despite taking all measures to prevent fires, a multiplex has to remain ever ready to fight a fire-breakout. For this certain equipment should be made readily available and kept in working condition. Some of these equipments are: 1. Fire alarm system: Addressable as well as manual. 2. Fire extinguishers: Portable, of water type, foam type, gas type and dry powder type. 3. Sprinkler system: Automatic with a minimum pressure of 5 kg/cm2. A sprinkler should itself burst at a preset temperature and start spraying water. Sprinklers should always be provided in all cinema halls and basements in addition to other places felt necessary. 4. Hydrant system: A multiplex should be equipped with wet risers able to deliver water at high pressure at the highest point. The system should be backed by DG sets to restore power supply to fire hydrants within 6 to 8 seconds of power failure. All hydrants should have independent hoses and spray nozzles with length of each hose sufficient to cover the beat circumference of a hydrant. 5. Building management system: To automatically trip all fans in case of fire to avoid spread of smoke. 6. Public address system: It must be computerised, should assess fire situation and address people in case of emergency. 7. Breathing apparatuses: To help people feeling suffocated and fire fighting staff. 8. Emergency lights: Battery operated emergency lights, able to run for 3 hours. 9. DG sets: To switch on ventilation fans as soon as the power supply fails. Evacuation facilities: Despite all prevention and provisions, if the unfortunate thing happens, following evacuation facilities must exist in a multiplex to take people out : 1. Most important is to avoid a stampede. Generally, electric supply goes off and lifts become inoperative. People can escape only through staircases. All staircases should be minimum 8 feet wide while the main staircases connected to fire exits should be 10 to 12 feet wide. 2. Staircases for each floor level should be independent. Their location within the multiplex must be staggered. 3. Exercise should be made to check that a multiplex full of people can be evacuated within 4 to 5 minutes of a fire. 4. Staircases should be designed as enclosed type to keep them free of smoke. Maintenance of fire-fighting provisions: Every multiplex must have trained manpower to fight fire in most efficient manner at any hour of day or night. Mock trials should be conducted on a regular basis, preferably every week, under the eye of an expert fire officer. All electric provisions should be checked regularly with a suspicious eye and kept in best conditions. Eliminating loose electric connections must be a special task during the checking process. Smoking should be prohibited in a multiplex. If allowed, cinema halls should have smoking zones which must be kept under strict watch.
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