Assessment of Fire Hazard in Small News Agents in Transport Terminal Halls

Abstract

A large amount of combustibles are stored in small newspapers and magazine shops in terminal halls known as news agents in the Far East. Fire safety for those small shops located in crowded public transport interchanges should be evaluated carefully. In carrying out fire hazard assessment, the possible heat release rates should be estimated so that consequences of a fire can be assessed. As the shops are small with easily ignited combustibles, transition to a postflashover fire would be rapid. Therefore, the resultant heat release rates should be measured by burning those combustibles under flashover conditions. Hazard assessments based on full-scale burning tests for postflashover news agent fires performed in remote areas in China are reported in this paper. The effect of reducing the heat release rate by discharging water mists is illustrated. Such fire suppression systems are recommended for use in such shops.