Firefighting Tactics during a Fire Event at a Textile Factory

Abstract

Many factories contain chemical substances, raw materials, and finished and semi-finished products; thus, a factory fire can cause substantial property losses and endanger lives. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology was used in this study to simulate a fire event at a textile factory in Taiwan. The circumstances of a 2010 fire event in Zhubei City were recreated using data from the fire department and print media, exploring changes in temperature, smoke, and the concentrations of harmful gases (i.e., carbon monoxide; CO). Criteria were established for judging the firefighting techniques used during the fire event. In other words, simulated results of the FDS were used to analyze and assess the planning and use of firefighting tactics to enhance the efficiency of firefighting and rescue techniques, decrease casualties and property losses, and increase the reference value of this study in its application to fighting future factory fires.