Fire safety in buildings

Many building, in many countries, throughout the world have substandard fire safety features. This discussion is restricted to hotels and hostels, which are often the only types of buildings readily accessible by visitors to a country. It attempts to explore some of the difficulties in that many building regulatory agents in some countries are not ensuring all building are safe from fire. It recommends that in the absence of fully safe buildings from the statutory approval process, private consortia of building owners should be initiating their own safety checklists. Key words: Fire safety; non-compliance; unsafe buildings; building codes; means of escape.