Perception of Fire safety evacuation design towards Fire Disaster in core towns of southern region of India

Old south Indian traditional towns are subjected to tremendous morphological changes. In an urban environment, fire is considered a manmade disaster. Urban pressure demands densely constructed built environments with critical fire risk parameters. In spite of various codes, building regulations that are formulated and enforced for the safety of human life and buildings, built environments in traditional areas of south India do not comply with fire safety codes and regulations. This study focuses on the perception of fire safety evacuation design by professionals who design buildings in the urban areas of south India namely “Kumbakonam, Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli.” The fire safety evacuation parameters related to building characteristics namely number of exits, occupant load, width of exit routes/exit doors, maximum travel distance and corridor widths are considered in the present study. A structured survey has been conducted among 380 architects and engineers, who are directly involved in building designs in the aforementioned cities of south India to understand the perception of fire safety design. Therefore, this study identifies the challenges in complying existing codes and regulations, perception and knowledge in application of fire safety codes in continuous building area (CBA). In continuous building areas, the existing regulations and codes are ineffective for fire safety concern as perceived by architects and engineers. A significant percentage of respondents does not consider maximum travel distance calculation (23.15%), occupancy load (24.21%) and capacity factors calculations (33.95%) in their building design which are important determinant criteria for fire safety evacuation design during a fire disaster.