Marc Philippe Strich, general manager of Woodfield Mall, talked with LifeSafety about fire and life-safety protection measures taken at the 34-year-old mall.
Woodfield Mall regional shopping center in Schaumburg, Ill., about 25 miles west of Chicago, is one of the world’s largest malls, with 2.2 million square feet of selling space. It is home to nearly 300 specialty shops, restaurants and department stores, including Nordstrom, Marshall Field’s, Lord & Taylor, JCPenney and Sears.
Q. What issues concern you most when designing and/or maintaining a fire/life-safety system? What issues make retail space different from other facilities?
A. The system must be designed to accommodate the large amount of customers that come to Woodfield. A full-time public safety staff, along with other center departments, must be fully trained to deal with any possibility, as well as having contingency plans in place should the primary systems be compromised.
Due to the amount of glass fronts in our common areas, our staff is trained to move customers to secure, non-public, interior corridors in times of extreme weather, such as tornadoes.
Q. Does Woodfield Mall have an in-house fire department?
A. Woodfield has a 24-hour dispatch center, and the Village of Schaumburg Fire Department is equipped to respond to emergencies at Woodfield.
Q. Does the size or age of Woodfield Mall affect design/maintenance?
A. The size and age of the building require an organized inspection process to ensure complete review of all facilities. Cooperation and constant communication with local fire department and building inspection officers is crucial in dealing with the constant tenant movement in the center.
Q. What are your maintenance practices and how long do they take?
A. Maintenance practices include weekly sprinkler room and fire pump checks, along with all required NFPA testing. Outside contractors are utilized for the majority of the smoke/beam detector testing and assisting with sprinkler system flow testing.
Q. How does your notification/alarm system work to clear such huge areas?
A. Our public safety officers, along with other departments, are trained to clear out all public and non-public areas in an efficient manner. This includes section-by-section cross-check verification via our dispatch center.
A. Each restaurant has to meet Village of Schaumburg life-safety requirements. Restaurants are required to have fire suppression systems tailored to the unique needs of each type of cooking apparatus. All local and NFPA requirements are met in common and tenant areas at Woodfield.
Tags: A/V Notification, Smoke detection, Speakers and Strobes
Posted in Audible/Visible Notification, Cover Features, Fall 2005, Retail
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