ABUJA-BASED HOTELS AND NEED FOR FIRE SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Evidence has shown that fire occurrence in hotels indeed disrupt the 'going concern' in the tourism business sector. There are hardly a day without an incidence of fire outbreak, with its attendance destruction and devastating impacts on both human and infrastructural development. Therefore, the need for a mechanism for fire safety management in hotel business, towards limiting the potential and impacts of fire occurrence. The study adopts a pragmatic approach by sourcing data through a mixed method to explore this construct. The scope of the research is between 3 to 5 stars rated hotels in Abuja. The total population in the study area is 221 hotels, while the sample size is 142 in number. Data were sought using structured questionnaire and interviewer guide. Stratified random sampling technique was used for the selection of hotels while simple random technique was employed for the selection of respondents for questionnaire administration. The preliminary data are analysed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The preliminary data suggest five main variables; structural fire protection, detection and warning, fire equipment, escape route, and training and education are critical to meeting fire safety requirement in hotels. This is followed by the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It is used to establish the mechanism for fire safety management in hotels. The findings indicate that at least 0.83 (83%) improvement is required for Structural fire protection, 0.79 (79%) is required for fire fighting equipment and 0.78 (78%) status for fire detection and warning is required for adequate fire safety provision. It can be deduced that structural fire protection, can be improved in the design and construction of hotel facility and is very important in limiting fire incident among other factors in the proposed mechanism. It is, therefore, recommended that knowledge based decision making is required in the design and selection of fire retarding materials for the construction of hotel facilities, as well as proper adherence to the design codes.