Indoor play areas have become hugely popular over the last 10 years and although they have a good safety record, they present unique fire safety issues. James Lavender reports on research findings which have been adopted by the indoor leisure industry as best practice.
The number of indoor play areas open to children, from toddlers to teenagers, has grown significantly over the past 10 years. The fact that these facilities are fully enclosed, often within a barn or warehouse-type building, gives parents the reassurance that their children are out of harm’s way. But it also presents a challenge in terms of fire risk.
Chiltern International Fire addressed this risk in a research project funded by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) and supported by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) as part of a Partners in Innovation project. Completed in 2003, the project started from the premise that these indoor play facilities present unique fire safety issues. The play equipment can be up to three storeys high, and often comprises a series of convoluted passageways and contains combustible materials.
Furthermore, the equipment is designed to cater for large numbers of young children, who might well need help from older children or adults to make their way out in an emergency. The nature and the design of the structure could also have implications for fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus and protective clothing, trying to make their way in and out of the play equipment.
The research enabled the project team to produce a quantitative fire risk assessment methodology, which draws together the appropriate aspects of fire safety for indoor play areas. This can then be used to ensure that the relatively low number of serious fires in indoor play areas does not increase as the market continues to grow.
The project approach
Before any large-scale laboratory testing could be undertaken or any risk assessment could be developed, site surveys were carried out at a range of play facilities across the UK to identify potential hazards.
Samples of new and used play equipment were collected and exposed to small flame ignitability tests – using a flame similar to that from a cigarette lighter – to see how easily they would ignite. The tests also helped to ascertain whether the reaction to fire properties of the play materials could degrade over time and/or by the continued use of cleaning products.
Another important area for research was the effectiveness of current fire service search and rescue (SAR) techniques. A full-scale experimental indoor play facility, known as ‘Lavender World’, was designed and built for the project (see Figure 1). A total of 14 experimental search and rescue exercises were simulated to establish how effectively search and rescue could be conducted within the confines of an indoor play structure.
Further fire scenarios were set up to study the ‘available safe egress time’. These involved fire tests inside Lavender World to assess smoke layering and movement, as well as the temperature and tenability of the environment, including different ventilation conditions.
The research demonstrated that the frequency of serious fires in indoor play facilities is currently very low, and that no fire injuries or fatalities have so far been recorded. However, the site surveys demonstrated that within the management of indoor play areas, standards of monitoring of play equipment vary greatly, as do training and awareness of fire safety issues. Managers and staff need more or better training to ensure that escape times are within the available safer egress time for a real fire.
The project also demonstrated very clearly that the indoor play industry would benefit greatly from a risk assessment methodology to assist with the design, management and use of such facilities. Such information would also be useful for those agencies involved in the design and enforcement of fire safety in these premises. The research report breaks down its recommendations into key aspects of indoor play design, management and operation.
Recommendations for the building
A fire originating within an auxiliary area – particularly relevant for a kitchen equipped with deep fat fryers or open hobs – could potentially create life threatening conditions in a play facility. Operators should therefore consider providing fire compartmentation of the area to a minimum standard of 30 minutes, or providing a fixed catering-specific automatic fire suppression system.
Another key recommendation is that doorways linking the play facility with another part of the building where parents or carers could be waiting – for example, a cafe/restaurant – should not be used as the sole means of escape, without robust and established management procedures. This would avoid parents or carers trying to fight against the flow of escaping occupants to find their own children.
Plans of the building and the play structure inside can provide a positive resource to the fire service. The report recommends that portable, A3-sized plans of each level of the building – including services – be provided at a location accessible to fire service personnel.
The research demonstrated that smoke venting of a play facility would help in the early stages of a fire to extend the available safe egress time; that powered smoke extraction equipment was the most effective; and that temperatures during the period critical for escape would not necessarily dictate the use of high temperature fans. However, care must be taken to avoid too high an extraction rate which, it was demonstrated, could speed up fire growth.
To allow sufficient safe egress time from the play facility, it is fundamental that the fire be detected at the earliest opportunity. Good supervision, good management procedures and the appropriate automatic detection technology all have a part to play.
Operators should employ suitable individuals and provide training for those staff who would be expected to perform a crucial role in an emergency situation. The use of slides from upper levels can be considered as a good way of getting children out quickly. It is recommended that a slide is provided from all upper levels of the play structure, to discharge close to an exit. The health and safety aspects of using vertical drop slides as an escape mechanism should, however, be considered carefully by the operator.
Small children are likely to want to stop to find their shoes before going outside. Hence shoe and clothing storage should be designed to be well away from the means of escape, to avoid congestion during evacuation.
The human factor
Arson and unintentional accidental fire setting (through play) present one of the biggest fire risks to play areas. Operators can manage the risk by implementing good housekeeping to keep rubbish and other combustible items out of the play area. Effective monitoring of the play structure will also reduce the risk and provide for faster detection of a fire.
When presented with threatening or frightening situations, such as smoke and fire, young children can ‘freeze’ or hide, instead of making an escape to a place of safety. The research indicated that, when planning procedures for evacuating children from indoor play areas, operators should give serious consideration to turning off the fire alarm sounders as they may exacerbate such problems. Turning off fire alarm sounders should only be conducted after the initial alarm has been raised and evacuation initiated. Staff should then provide clear, verbal instructions on how to escape from the facility. Operators considering such a strategy would be advised, prior to its implementation, to discuss appropriate management procedures with the local fire authority.
Operational exercises using the ‘offensive’ (i.e. before the fire is extinguished) deployment of positive pressure ventilation (PPV) demonstrated that this fire fighting technique was very effective in increasing visibility in the play facility, so significantly reducing search and rescue times.
The research also indicated that prior knowledge of the play structure environment benefited the fire fighters, and increased their effectiveness during the search and rescue exercises. It is therefore recommended that the fire service should consider indoor play facilities as a priority when conducting inspections of fire risk assessments.
Further work
While the research project has produced many practical recommendations to improve fire risk management in indoor play areas, further work on real evacuations is needed to identify possible human behavioural conflicts that could affect evacuation times. The project demonstrated that the available safe egress time from a play structure can be as short as three minutes, when the materials within the structure are subjected to an ignition source representative of that which could be readily available to an arsonist or to children playing with fire. Many operators conduct evacuation exercises when the facility is not at peak occupancy, and tend to inform their staff of the impending drill. Drills cannot therefore be considered as a true representation of real evacuations.
This project is the first of its kind to be undertaken and supported by the UK indoor play industry. The fire risk assessment method that has been developed from the findings is already being implemented by operators. It is also recognised that specific areas relating to aspects of the research would benefit from further study.
James Lavender is senior engineer at Chiltern International. The report is available from www.chilternfire.co.uk. A CD-Rom is also available with additional graphics, video files and the risk assessment methodology. contact James Lavender on 01494 569841 or email [email protected].
