EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS AND ADEQUACY OF EXISTING FIRE SAFETY MEASURES IN FUTMINNA STUDENTS’ HOSTELS

Abstract

Fire safety measures are of utmost importance in the design of any building, particularly in high occupancy structures such as student hostels. This paper is aimed at evaluating the adequacy of fire safety measures across the six hostels located at the Federal University of Technology Minna (FUTMINNA) Gidan kwano campus. The research methodology adopted in the study was the mixed method approach employing a structured questionnaire, and physical inspection/observation. To determine the adequacy of the existing fire safety systems in the students’ hostels, a multi-attribute evaluation approach was employed which facilitated the classification of fire safety systems into five categories: non-existence, non-fulfillment, low-fulfillment, High fulfilment and Full fufillment of the assessment criteria in the checklist. Descriptive statistics was adopted to analyse the data obtained from the survey questionnaires, while mean score was used to analyse the data collected by observation. The study reveals that, the existing fire safety measures in FUTMINNA students’ hostels is effective however, there are some others measures that are not provided such as fire stoppers on doors, windows and compartmentalization of spaces. Conclusively, the findings will be of relevance to other hostels within and around the campuses of other universities in Nigeria serving as guidelines and reference. The study recommends that, adequate attention should be paid to existing fire safety measures in students hostels while due consideration be given to the provision of fire safety measures and systems right from the design stage.