EXAMINE THE EFFECT OF FIRE CONTROL AND SAFETY PRACTICES IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS (CASE STUDY SHOPPING COMPLEX)

ABSTRACT Fire safety culture and practices has been a thing of neglect in most public buildings in Nigeria and this has been a contributing factor to incessant fire incidents. This issue has generated a lot of concern among the public as well as construction professionals. The aim of this research work is to assess the level of fire safety provisions in public building and the level of fire safety awareness of users and occupants of public buildings. To achieve this, well-structured questionnaires were sent out to users and occupants of public buildings in the some selected cities of the western part of the country. From the analyzed data, it was discovered that most of the highlighted fire safety equipment are either not available or where available, they are oftentimes not functional, or that the occupants are not even aware of their availability, functionality or usage. The level of trainings received by occupants of building in respect to fire safety, first aid fire-fighting and evacuation procedure are found to be low, lack of effective government policy on administration and implementation of fire code and ignorance of building designers and professionals are among the militating factors against the integration of fire safety equipment’s in public buildings. The study recommends adequate training of building occupant and effective administration of the existing fire code and regulation should be improved upon, this will in turn reduce the case of fire incident. Keywords: Fire safety, fire safety awareness, fire safety practices, public buildings.