What are regulations on fire prevention and firefighting design for karaoke and nightclub establishments in Vietnam?

What are regulations on fire prevention and firefighting design for karaoke and nightclub establishments in Vietnam? - image from internet

Pursuant to Article 6 of the Circular 147/2020/TT-BCA stipulating fire prevention and firefighting design for karaoke and nightclub establishments in Vietnam as follows:

1. Fire prevention and firefighting design shall be adopted for stand-alone karaoke and nightclub establishments that have at least 3 storeys in height or at least 1,500 m³ in total volume and karaoke and nightclub establishments that are incorporated in buildings and structures specified under Annex V attached to Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP.

2. Karaoke and nightclub establishments specified under Clause 1 of this Article must be designed for fire prevention and firefighting purposes according to Article 11 of Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP, to be specific:

a) Ensure fire safety distance from other structures according to QCVN 06:2020/BXD “National technical regulations on fire safety for buildings and structures” (hereinafter referred to as “QCVN 06:2020/BXD”), in which, karaoke and nightclub establishments which are situated adjacent to other structures must have class 1 fire-rated wall (REI 150) for grade I, II, III buildings and class 2 fire-rated wall (REI 45) for grade IV buildings.   Distance from karaoke and nightclub establishments to schools shall conform to Decree No. 54/2019/ND-CP dated June 19, 2019 of the Government on karaoke and nightclub business;

b) Fire resistance category of buildings must conform to scale and operation of buildings; building structures must have fire resistance rating suitable for use purposes and height of the buildings according to QCVN 06:2020/BXD.  Karaoke and nightclub establishments shall be identified as group F2.2 fire hazard by occupancy according to QCVN 06:2020/BXD;

c) Maximum height allowed of stand-alone karaoke and nightclub establishments shall depend on fire resistance category and be identified similar to public structures but no more than 16 storeys; must not exceed the 16th storey in case karaoke and nightclub establishments are situated within buildings of other purposes according to QCVN 06:2020/BXD; may situate 1 basement or semi-basement if total area does not exceed 300 m² and at least 2 emergency exits from the buildings are installed;

d) Emergency exits must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD;

dd) The maximum number of people allowed in a room, a level or a building of a karaoke and/or nightclub establishment shall be determined on the basis of 1 m²/person;

e) Design and installation of advertising panels of karaoke and nightclub establishments must conform to technical, structural, material and lighting requirements under QCVN 17:2018/BXD “Regulations on construction and installation of outdoor advertising methods” (hereinafter referred to as “QCVN 17:2018/BXD”), to be specific:

Position of advertising panels must not cover the entire building and must not conceal emergency exits and balconies;

Materials used for advertising panels must be non-flammable materials and conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD and QCVN 17:2018/BXD;

Horizontal advertising panels situated at the front of the building are limited to one panel per storey with a maximum height of 2 m and a width that does not exceed horizontal clearance of the building’s front; the panels may protrude from the building’s outer wall by 0.2 m at most; vertical advertising panels situated at the front of the building must have a maximum width of 1 m and a maximum height of 4 m that does not exceed height of the storey where the panels are situated; the panels may protrude from the building’s outer wall by 0.2 m at most;

Electrical system for lighting advertising panels must be powered by separate power supply and protected by circuit breakers and aptomats.  Flammable commodities and materials must not be situated beneath or close to advertising panels;

g) Emergency lighting instrument and exit instruction lighting instrument must conform to TCVN 3890:2009 “Fire safety and firefighting equipment for buildings and structures – Equipment, distribution, inspection and maintenance” (hereinafter referred to as “TCVN 3890:2009”), in which, emergency lighting instrument and exit instruction lighting instrument must be situated in each room of karaoke and nightclub establishments;

h) Smoke control systems must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD and TCVN 5687:2010 “Air ventilation – Design standard”;

i) Traffic systems and parking lots serving operation of fire-fighting facilities and elevated entrance of buildings must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD;

k) Fire fighting systems must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD, TCVN 3890:2009, TCVN 7336:2003 “Automatic sprinkler system – Design requirements”, TCVN 5738:2001 “Automatic fire extinguishing system – Design requirements” (hereinafter referred to as “TCVN 5738:2001”) and national technical standards and national technical regulations on fire fighting and fire prevention, to be specific:

Fire safety and firefighting equipment must be in adequate quantity and quality according to technical regulations and technical standards on fire fighting and fire prevention, specific values are specified under Annex attached to this Circular;

Automatic fire extinguishing systems must conform to TCVN 5738:2001. Install fire sirens and fire alarm lights in corridors of each storey, fire sirens in each room of karaoke and nightclub establishments, interconnected fire alarms which automatically cut electricity of sound systems in singing rooms as soon as fire breaks out and fire alarms go off;

Fire fighting capacity and area of automatic sprinkler systems shall be determined for facilities with level III fire hazard for nightclub establishments and level I fire hazard for karaoke establishments. If rooms are separated from each other and from corridors by class 1 fire-rated wall according to QCVN 06:2020/BXD, may use area of the largest room to determine necessary flow rate and volume of reservoirs of automatic sprinkler systems.  Fire fighting duration must not be less than 60 minutes;

Outdoors water supply systems for firefighting must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD and TCVN 3890:2009. Karaoke and nightclub establishments situated within 100 m from fire hydrants of urban water supply systems or within 150 from rivers, lakes, etc. and having water collectors for fire-fighting facilities are not required to design outdoor water supply systems for firefighting;

l) Electrical systems, lightning arrester systems, static prevention system and distribution thereof within establishments must conform to QCVN 12:2014/BXD “National Technical Regulations on electrical systems of residential structures and public structures (hereinafter referred to as “QCVN 12:2014/BXD”), to be specific:

Electrical systems powering fire fighting and fire prevention systems and technical systems related to fire fighting and fire prevention systems must conform to Article 2.3 and Article 2.9 of QCVN 12:2014/BXD;

Electrical systems must be protected from thermal factors, overload and static according to Article 2.5 and Article 2.6 of QCVN 12:2014/BXD;

Lightning arrester systems must conform to Article 2.8 of QCVN 12:2014/BXD;

m) Fire spread prevention measures must conform to QCVN 06:2020/BXD, to be specific:

Walls separating corridors and rooms must be made of non-flammable or hardly combustible materials with fire-resistance rating of not lower than EI 30 for buildings with level I fire-rated category and not lower than EI 15 for buildings with level II, III or IV fire-rated category;

Rooms with at least 50 m2 in area and rooms situated in basements and semi-basements must employ non-flammable or hardly combustible materials for furnishing, sound-proofing and thermal insulation articles;

Areas for karaoke and nightclub functions must be separated from areas for other functions by fire-rated walls with fire-resistance rating of not lower than REI 45 in case of buildings with level IV fire-rated category or not lower than REI 150 in case of buildings with level I, II or III fire-rated category.

3. Karaoke and nightclub establishments not specified under Clause 1 of this Article must be designed for fire fighting and prevention conforming to Points a, b, dd, e, g, l, and m Clause 2 of this Article and QCVN 06:2020/BXD, to be specific:

a) Distance from traffic roads which are not narrower than 3.5 m and not shorter than 4.5 m and allowing fire engines access to any point on plan projections of the building must not be greater than 60 m;

b) Each storey must have at least 2 emergency exits. Rooms larger than 50 m² must have more than 2 emergency exits. A storey may have 1 emergency exit if the number of people simultaneously occupy the storey does not exceed 20 people and emergency exit leading to smoke-proof stairwells is installed with fire-rated doors that have fire-resistance rating of EI 30;

Clearance height of room doors must not be less than 1.9 m; clearance width of rooms must not be less than 1.2 m for rooms larger than 50 m² and not be less than 0.8 m for rooms as large as 50 m². Doors of rooms for karaoke and nightclub services must be opened in direction of egress;

c) Clearance height of emergency egress corridors must not be less than 2 m; clearance width must not be less than 1.2 m if business area of a storey is greater than 50 m² and not be less than 1 m for other cases;

d) Emergency staircases can be type 1, type 2, type 3, or N1, N2, N3 smoke-proof stairwells. Width treads for human evacuation must not be less than calculated width or width of any egress (door) along the stairs and not less than 0.9 m; slope (angle) of stairs for egress must not be greater than 45^o; depth of treads must not be less than 25 cm and riser must not be greater than 22 cm;   

dd) Design smoke extraction systems for following areas: corridors of basements, semi-basements which do not receive natural ventilation that lead to regularly occupied areas; rooms for karaoke and nightclub services with at least 50 m² in area.

Best regards!