Authorities conclude that those old buildings which are still visible around Singapore required an upgrade on their fire -safety system, published by The Straits Times.
The organizer of SD Architects & Associates, Chan Kok Way explained that the said buildings might have design problems such as lack of fire compartmentation which is significant in controlling fire from affecting other things or neighboring buildings. Also, the fire sprinkler system is already obsolete.
The old fire code which was coined in 1974 following that fire incident at Robinsons Department Store which claimed 9 lives, doesn’t include those buildings developed before 1974. These are the buildings compelled for fire safety retrofitting if they will undergo major repair or renovations.
However, Chong Kee Sen, Singapore’s former president of The Institution of Engineers revealed that some of those old Housing Board blocks have done upgrading such as placing dry risers on all floors.
Although some new actions were taken, the experts still claimed that features applied might not succeed because of factors such as cost and technical issues.
In relation to the issue, K Shanmugam, the minister for Law and Home Affairs disclosed plans requiring 1974 and below buildings to upgrade its fire -safety systems.
Although no deadline set was given, there are already pre -1974 property that took action.
The spokesman of building management around People’s Park Center explained that since “day one’ they took action in reconstructing the units with fire safety measures like wet risers, fire sprinkler, the automatic one, high-end fire alarms and firemen lift. Contractors for fire safety had been hired to assure that all features in place are working well together with the engineer who is responsible for the test and inspection to the said safety features.
