Building fire safety in the far east

Building fire safety activities in the Far East will be briefly reviewed in this paper. Fire safety concerns in some buildings with new architectural features will be discussed. Glass constructions need special attention. Key points on building fire safety provisions, including both passive building construction and active fire protection systems will be pointed out. Whether the current fire codes are applicable for new architectural features, the use of new materials, new style of living and capability of solving the new fire safety problems will be discussed. The total fire safety concept of implementing software fire safety management to control hardware provisions is recommended. Application of fire models is reviewed. Performance-based design is then discussed. New problems to consider such as fire spread over buildings, crowd movement and control, and fire impact to structures are outlined.