FIRE SAFETY MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE OFFICES IN Old INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS

With the change of the economic structure, most of the old industrial buildings built before 1972 inHong Kong are now used as offices or non-industrial workplaces. Those old building might not haveadequate fire safety provisions and it is difficult to upgrade these hardware provisions too. Theoccupational safety and health problems on fire safety are even more serious if the offices are use forsmall and medium enterprises which have special characteristics of small areas packed with largequantity of combustibles and high occupant loading. There is limited investment on safety in thoseoffices.This paper aims to solve the aforementioned problems by applying a total fire safety concept to the oldindustrial buildings. To provide adequate fire safety, software fire safety management schemesshould be worked out carefully. Actions to be taken in the management schemes are recommendedto control and integrate hardware passive building construction, active fire services installations andcontrol of risk factors. How a fire safety plan can be prepared by recommending a maintenance plan,a staff training plan, a fire prevention plan; and a fire action plan to outline the procedures clearly withnormal mode is illustrated in the paper.