Introduction
Fires cause fatal and serious injuries to occupants
of buildings and inflict direct material damage to
buildings and their household goods. Some fires
cause indirect consequential losses such as loss of
production, unemployment and lowering of
exports, although at the national level, these losses
do not contribute significantly to the total fire
loss (Ramachandran, 1999). Humanity has had to
live with potential dangers from time immemorial.
Just about any human endeavor entails some
degree of risk (Granot, 1988). Residential colleges
in universities may be perceived as low fire risk
buildings due to the designation of purpose group
in the Uniform Building By-Laws [1]. Designation
of purpose group classifies the buildings according
to its use or intended use falling within one of the
purpose group set out in the Fifth Schedule to
the by-laws. The consequences of fire occurrence
in residential colleges might be low but the severity
will be high. This is due to the number of
occupants in residential colleges at any time.