A proposed fire safety ranking system for karaoke establishments and its comparison with the NFPA-fire safety evaluation system.

A fire safety ranking system (FSRS), excluding the fire safety management at the moment, is proposed for assessing the fire safety provisions for existing karaoke establishments in Hong Kong. The objective is to investigate how far existing karaokes deviate from the expectation of new codes. Suitable fire safety management can then be worked out based on the scores. There are three attributes in the FSRS grouped as the key parameters for local fire safety requirements, passive building design and active fire protection systems. From the results of a survey carried out in May 2000, fire safety of 19 karaokes is rated by studying their architectural features and interior details. The results are compared with those by the National Fire Protection Association-Fire Safety Evaluation System (NFPA-FSES) on the part on fire safety parameters. Apart from dealing with fire spreading for interior finish, the proposed FSRS and NFPA-FSES are similar. The study of 19 of the existing karaoke establishments shows that the assessed level of fire safety is similar to the result of an assessment using the modified American system of evaluation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]