A Cost-Effective Risk-Assessment Model for Evaluating Fire Safety and Protection in Canadian Apartment Buildings

Abstract

A description is given of a stochastic system model that was developed to represent the dynamic interaction between human behaviour, and fire growth and spread in multi-storey apartment buildings in Canada. The effects of the smoke and fire spread are calculated in terms of two performance parameters; namely the expected risk to life and the fire- cost expectation. These performance parameters are used to appraise the cost-effective provisions of fire safety and property protection in apartment buildings. The system model can be used to appraise (1) whether existing code provisions provide consistent levels of risk and (2) the cost-effectiveness of both existing code provisions and possible alternative design strategies.