Segurança contra incêndio e pânico em edificações hospitalares, estudo de caso - Hospital Universitário de Campina Grande - PB.

Abstract

Fire safety in Brazilian buildings, even though slowly, has been gaining prominence in recent years mainly due to the various accidents and the destructive action of these episodes. In the case of public hospital buildings, two critical points desserve to be highlighted: the lack of maintenance or even lack of a fire safety project and the evacuation capacity of the public that attend those places. Despite the existence of national and state norms on the subject, these are overly prescriptive, not allowing professionals to create projects according to their knowledge, even if adequate levels of fire safety are achieved. In this sense, some methods of risk analysis have been gaining prominence in the international and national scenarios for enabling the study of preventive measures against fire that can be applied in the buildings, besides the indication of areas more susceptible to damages. The main objective of this work was to carry out a fire risk analysis at the Center for Specialized Health Care and Education (CAESE) of the Universitary Hospital Alcides Carneiro (HUAC). This analysis was elaborated from the application of the Hospital Fire Risk Assessment Method (MARIH). For this, it was necessary to survey the real situation of the building with regard to the elements of fire fighting by applying a checklist. Subsequently, the establishment was divided into ten areas plus a neutral area according to its occupation. In order to obtain the Fire Risk Evolution Index (ERI), professionals contributed to the assignment of risk scores that ranged from 1 to 5. Finally, solutions were presented to mitigate this risk. The obtained results indicated a Fire Risk Evolution index that varied between important and high, a result that was already expected due to the absence of adequate fire safety elements in the building. The method was acceptable for the type of building studied, provided that local reality is taken into account, in order to avoid mistaken conclusions. It was also verified that the use of risk analysis methods can help professionals in the elaboration of fire safety projects, but does not dispense the consultation to the norms of prevention and fire fighting.