Smoke Control Measures for High-rise Buildings and their Maintenance Requirements

SPEAKER:

Lui Tai, P. Eng., AIFireE
 
 

Lui Tai is a Professional Engineer with over 30 years of practical experience working in the fire protection industry in Canada. He is the Engineer of Record for many fire protection projects for landmark buildings in Canada and abroad, including Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminals 1, numerous OPG generation stations, Toronto Eaton Centre, North Warning System near the North Pole, and Abu Dhabi Midfield Terminal, just to name a few.

Lui had served on the OBC Part 3 Technical Advisory Committee in 2017, and also took part in the Technical Advisory Committee of Fire Marshal’s Office in 2018. Lui also teaches part-time in Seneca’s School of Fire Protection Engineering.

In addition to work, Lui actively volunteers in the industry. He was the Chair of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) York Chapter in 2018 and 2019, and a Director at Canadian Fire Alarm Association (CFAA) Ontario Chapter for the last 7 years. Lui is a council member of The Institution of Fire Engineers Canada Branch. He is also an industry advisor for Lassonde School of Engineering at York University.

SYNOPSIS:

Even though “Smoke Control” is not a defined term in the Fire Code, smoke control features are commonly present in high-rise buildings. Per the requirement of the Ontario Fire Code, if you have smoke control measures in your building, you are obligated to have these tested to ensure satisfactory operations.

A recent study revealed that the smoke control systems in the majority of high-rise buildings in Ontario are not tested per the Fire Code. The reason is that there is no stipulated standard on the procedures required for such tests. To make matters worse, most sequence of operations for the originally engineered smoke control features cannot be located. Maintenance contractors are at a loss when it comes to how the smoke control systems are supposed to be tested.

In this presentation, we will attempt to demystify smoke control, by review some of the most common smoke control features in high-rise buildings. We will refer to actual case studies to point out some of the most common issues we found in existing building, explore options on how smoke control features can be evaluated and reviewed. We will then look at means on how a new testing sequence for an existing smoke control system can be re-established and approved.

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