The Readiness of High-Rise Buildings in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia to Evacuate Occupants in Emergency Situations

Abstract

High-rise buildings are part of magnificent urban infrastructure that form key skyline landmarks in most cities. Over the years, potential disasters such as explosions, fires, earthquakes, terror attacks, or any other natural or man-made disasters have presented potential challenges to architectural designers and investors. To ensure the safety of building occupants, countries have adopted specific building codes to facilitate timely evacuations and reduce significant damage and loss of lives. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of readiness among security and safety officials of high-rise buildings in Riyadh City’s to evacuate their occupants to a safe place in the event of an emergency and examine the impact of existing security measures on safety. A qualitative research method was used in this study were relevant data were collected using semi- structured interview questions. Through purposive sampling, a sample size of 12 participants from 6 different high-rise buildings from Riyadh City including office and hotel buildings were identified to participate in this study. Results from the obtained interview responses revealed that existing strategies in high-rise buildings in Riyadh City are largely based on total evacuation, phased evacuation, and delay evacuation. The main egress components used include stairways, elevators, and refuge floors. Preparation for emergencies in terms of training and evacuation experiences is achieved by holding of drills frequently each year, using evacuation coordinators, and encouraging detailed training and development plans for safety officials and for building occupants. The majority of the participants believed that the current situation with the presence of security and safety in a single administration is effective to solve part of the overlap and helps in the speed of decision-making. Additional preparedness may be achieved if officials of high-rise buildings apply partial evacuation drill as another option with full evacuation drill, thereby increasing the frequency of emergency drills held in these buildings per year. Conducting unannounced evacuation drill would also enable safety and security officials to determine the actual readiness of the occupants and gives a real indication of the speed of response to the same as the real incident. The application of delay evacuation for disabled people in buildings that implement total evacuation strategy would ensure that the evacuation process is not obstructed or delayed. Building directors may also consider the need to hire more safety officials to address personnel shortages to optimize emergency response and evacuation times.