A probabilistic risk analysis methodology for high-rise buildings taking into account fire department intervention time

Abstract

Fire safety regulations have a major impact on many aspects of the overall design of high-rise buildings, where complex and non-conventional architectural elements and designs can lead to fire environments diverging significantly from those used in the development of current codes and standards. Additionally, fire-fighting in high-rise buildings must be carried out from the inside of the building and fire-fighters must use stairwells or special fire-fighter lifts to access the floors which are on fire. One way of assessing fire risk in such complex buildings is to use the principles of quantitative risk analysis (QRA), where deterministic and probabilistic models are combined to quantify risk and compare different fire safety strategies. In order to do this in high-rise buildings, account must be taken of the fire department intervention time in the QRA methodology, but data on the various parts of fire department action time has been scarce. This paper focuses on the effect of the fire department intervention in high-rise building fires and how information on fire department intervention can be accounted for when using quantitative risk analysis to compare different fire safety strategies in such buildings.