Penentuan Kesesuaian dan Perbaikan Sarana Evakuasi Gedung 11 Lantai di Salah Satu Perguruan Tinggi Teknik di Surabaya

Abstract

One of the universities in Surabaya has an 11-story building that serves educational activities, provides administrative offices, lecturers’ rooms, laboratory facilities, and other academic functions. The building is equipped with portable fire extinguishers, fire alarm system, fire detection system, sprinkler system, and hydrant system. However, in terms of passive fire protection, the emergency staircases on the 9th and 11th floors are used as storage areas for unused desks, which reduces the effective width of the evacuation route. In addition, all emergency staircases are not yet equipped with a ventilation system. This study aims to evaluate the compliance level of the fire protection system in the 11-story engineering college building in Surabaya with applicable regulations and standards, analyze occupant evacuation time using evacuation-path software, and formulate improvement recommendations to enhance building fire safety. The research was conducted using a descriptive-evaluative method with a qualitative approach through field observations, interviews, checklist assessments based on applicable standards, and evacuation simulations. The evaluation results show that the average compliance level of evacuation routes for the 11 floors is 85.64%. The evacuation simulation under existing conditions indicated a total evacuation time of 18 minutes, with several areas exceeding the safe limit for reaching the emergency stairs, and also exceeding the safe limit while using the emergency stairs due to the absence of a ventilation system. Improvement recommendations were proposed in the form of rearranging the emergency staircases and adding ventilation. The simulation results after improvements showed that evacuation time decreased to 12.76 minutes, representing an improvement of 29.11%. Based on the findings, the building’s fire protection system is already available, but improvements are still needed in the passive fire protection aspects to increase evacuation effectiveness and occupant safety during a fire emergency.