Glass facade openings a must on all floors

A year after a building with a glass façade in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) caught fire, the city’s municipality has come up with guidelines for such buildings which are mushrooming across the city, especially in business hubs.

The guidelines prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been put together to safeguard human life and property especially in case a fire breaks out.

To begin with, buildings with glass façades will now need to have a window-like opening on every floor of the structure. This window should be of a minimum width of 1.5mt and a height of 1.5mt. On any given floor, such windows should be created at a horizontal distance of 15mt.

These window openings should be strategically located — such that a window is available at a place facing a motorable road. In case of a fire, the ladder of a fire brigade should have easy access from the road to a higher floor.

After last year’s fire, municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte had asked the fire brigade and the municipality’s building proposal department to put in place guidelines for glass façade structures. On September 7, 2012, a fire had broken out on the 12th floor of First International Financial Centre in Bandra-Kurla Complex. The building has a glass façade.

Officials from the fire department have said that they face a lot of difficulty in fighting a fire in a glass-façade building.

A senior fire official said that they are often unable to enter the premises. “If at all we do get in, the visibility is poor, hampered as it is due to the glass-façade structure which raises the temperature inside, affecting rescue operations.”

Deputy chief fire officer S Nesarikar said that the guidelines are applicable to all new buildings that will come up in the city. “The guidelines are also binding in order to procure a ‘no objection certificate’ from the fire safety point of view,” said Nesarikar.

“For existing buildings with glass façades, the guidelines apply to buildings which are yet to get occupancy certificates.”

Fire safety measures

A window-like opening on each floor of glass-façade buildings is mandatory. The opening should be at least 1.5 metre wide and 1.5 metre high. On each floor, such windows should be created at a distance of 15 metre.

The window should be positioned such that it is overlooks an access road. This will allow easy access to the ladder in case a fire breaks out an upper floor.

The window should have manual opening mechanism from not just from inside outside as well.

The glass panel should swing open horizontally — left to right or vice versa – instead of opening vertically like, for instance, the boot of a car .

The distance between a building’s glass exterior and the inner brick periphery wall should not be more than 300mm.

Smoke barriers should be placed on each floor. This will prevent the smoke from billowing onto either the higher or lower floors. The smoke barriers should be of non-combustible material.

The glass material should be such that it can withstand and resist a fire for at least an hour.

Coating of any film made of plastic or any combustible material shall not be allowed on either the internal or external wall of the glass façade.