Citation: Omar, M.; Mahmoud, A.; Aziz, S.B.A. Fire Safety Index for High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE. Fire 2023, 6, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/ fire6020051 Academic Editor: Tiago Miguel Ferreira Received: 24 December 2022 Revised: 13 January 2023 Accepted: 29 January 2023 Published: 1 February 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). fire Article Fire Safety Index for High-Rise Buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE Musab Omar * , Abdelgadir Mahmoud and Sa’ardin Bin Abdul Aziz Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia * Correspondence: alkhaldy70@hotmail.com Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to develop a fire index system for measuring the compliance of high-rise residential buildings with fire requirements in the Emirate of Sharjah, and also to develop an index system for measuring the fire response efficiency, which is linked the two indexes, and the higher the compliance rate, the greater chance of a successful response. The two systems depend on the automation of the firefighting system management processes using the techniques of the fourth industrial revolution, and they were developed based on consultation with subject matter experts in the field and used multiple methods, such as the analytic hierarchy process, failure mode effect, criticality analysis, and Delphi techniques. The main criteria of the indexes were identified as the fire risk assessment, fire suppression system, fire accident management, fire alarm system, fire extinguisher, employees, residents, service rooms, lifts, gas connections, waste, housekeeping, and evacuation facilities. Each main criterium was detailed in the sub-criteria and weighted to achieve the index for each sub-criteria based on the fire legislation in UAE, the fire response index (developed based on the high-rise building fire index), the category of the building in terms of floor numbers, and the distance between building and the fire station. The two index systems can contribute to improving emergency preparedness in high-rise residential buildings in the Emirate of Sharjah and are also considered as measurement indexes for compliance with fire requirements in the Emirate of Sharjah. Keywords: fire factor; residential buildings; fire accidents 1. Introduction The Emirate of Sharjah is the third in the ranking of the UAE in terms of the number of high-rise residential buildings, and based on the analysis of accidents in the previous nine years (from 2013 to 2020), an increase in fire accidents in residential buildings was observed, which confirms the need to improve the fire management system in high-rise residential buildings and to develop an index system that monitors compliance with fire requirements in high-rise residential buildings. This would help to determine the required minimum requirements. Compliance falls under one of the variables that affect the success of the fire response process. A system for measuring response efficiency based on compliance rate, number of floors, and geographical location would contribute to improving the fire management system in the Emirate of Sharjah. A building’s functional diversification makes fire prevention is more complex. For the layers and sizes of high-rise buildings, a high concentration of people and property make the firefighting and evacuation operations very difficult when a fire occurs [1]. The most crucial aspect of a building’s safety in the face of a fire is the possibility of safe escape. An important precondition is that a building’s fire safety facilities enable independent and adequate fire response performances by the building’s occupants [2]. Currently, a country such as China may opt to use the fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) for fire management. “Industry 4.0” is a term that was coined in Germany in 2011 to describe technology that fits into the design principles of interconnectivity, information transparency, Fire 2023, 6, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020051 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fire