Fire Safety Risk Research Articles

Fire Behaviour of Treated Insulation Fibreboards and Predictions of its Future Development Based on Natural Aging Simulation

Wood-based composite materials represent a major fire safety risk. The application of water-based fire retardants (FR) can improve their fire performance. However, it is important to investigate the performance and stability of this protective system over time, as the ageing of materials and their exposure to climatic conditions can change their properties. The aim of this research work was to evaluate the effect of long-term aging on the combustibility of low-density insulation fibreboards (IFs) treated with a water-soluble flame retardant (FR) based on inorganic salts. Both natural and accelerated aging simulations were conducted. The accelerated aging simulation was performed using climate chambers. The FR efficiency was evaluated by the mass loss rate of the tested specimen. As expected, the FR formulation used significantly enhanced the fire properties of the boards, reaching maximum efficiency 6 months after its application onto the fibreboards. Markedly, after 4 years the efficiency of the investigated FR additive was considerably decreased with weight loss values comparable with the values of the untreated samples. Markedly, besides the apparent protection of wood fibers, the retardant did not prevent the gradual increase in mass loss rate of samples, it just slowed down the process. The main result of the study is to determine the effectiveness of the investigated FR on IFs during their natural ageing. The development of accurate datasets on the thermal behaviour of IFs is critical for their proper utilisation in building and construction applications.

Fire Safety Risk Assessment of Workplace Facilities: A Case Study

Workplace facilities are organizational capital assets, which entail high risks of fire occurrences. The fire risks increase based on occupants’ behaviors, lack of awareness and poor workspaces safety management. Thus, fire safety risk assessment is vital to raise awareness about workplace fire-safety culture, and to train employees on effective fire response requirements and methods. The literature lacks studies focusing on managing fire safety at the workplace, and limiting occupants dispossessed behaviors. This research presents a case study, which demonstrates the utilization of risk assessment for fire safety prevention in a workplace facility. Relevant literature is synthesized for identifying causes of fire, various propagation hazards, control measures to develop a risk assessment tool based on fire codes. The codes were analyzed by describing the requirements for fire safety precautionary measures, followed by an exemplary assessment. This research aims to provide professional practice and knowledge on the fire risk assessment methodology, serving safety professionals, and facilities managers. It serves to raise awareness on the causes of fire, consequences of fire events, and mitigation strategies in workplace facilities, for the purpose of protecting users’ lives and business properties against fires.

Evaluation of a fire safety risk prediction model for an existing building

Abstract Fire is one of the most critical risks devastating to human life and property. Therefore, humans make different efforts to deal with fire hazards. Many techniques have been developed to assess fire safety risks. One of these methods is to predict the outbreak of a fire in buildings, and although it is hard to predict when a fire will start, it is critical to do so to safeguard human life and property. This research deals with evaluating the safety risks of the existing building in the city of Samawah/Iraq and determining the appropriateness of these buildings in terms of safety from fire hazards. Twelve parameters are certified based on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA2016) code. The concept of giving weight to each criterion was adopted to classify the criteria according to their importance and then conduct an on-site examination of these existing buildings to test the selected criteria. The result indicates a possible fire risk in these buildings due to the lack of compliance with fire safety instructions in the approved codes.

Analisis Karakteristik Busur Api Listrik Pada Tegangan Rendah Arus Searah (DC) Dipengaruhi Oleh Resistansi Konduktor

Arc faults are a fire-safety risk in both AC (alternating current) and DC wiring, but reliable detection of arc faults and determining the appropriate response is particularly difficult in DC plug-load circuits. This study will discuss the impact of impedance on arc interference characteristics in DC low voltage systems. Experiments were conducted involving accidents that increasingly occur using the arc chamber as a means of experimenting with independent variables including cable cross-sectional area and the number of fibers and control variables will consist of currents and voltages using devices using a Picoscope. In the analysis obtained values of the conductor resistance affect the characteristics of electric arcs. The smaller the value of the conductor resistance, the greater the value of the arc current produced. This is consistent with the values obtained from the study, when the smallest conductor resistance of 0.036 Ω obtained the highest value at the current value and electric arc power of 20.57 A and 19.43 W at the cross section of the conductor 1.5 mm2 with 24 fibers.

The Evaluation of Torrefied Wood Using a Cone Calorimeter.

This study focuses on the energy potential and combustion process of torrefied wood. Samples were prepared through the torrefaction of five types of wood: Ash, beech, oak, pine and spruce. These were heated for 2 h at a temperature of 300 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere. Torrefied wood was prepared from wood samples with dimensions of 100 × 100 × 20 mm3. These dimensions have enabled investigation of torrefied wood combustion in compact form. The effect of the external heat flux on the combustion of the samples was measured using a cone calorimeter. The observed parameters, include initiation times, heat release rate and combustion efficiency. The results show that increasing the external heat flux decreases the evenness of combustion of torrefied wood. At the same time, it increases the combustion efficiency, which reached an average value of approximately 72% at 20 kW m−2, 81% at 30 kW m−2 and 90% at 40 kW m−2. The calculated values of critical heat flux of the individual samples ranged from 4.67 kW m−2 to 15.2 kW m−2, the thermal response parameter ranged from 134 kW s0.5 m−2 to 297 kW s0.5 m−2 and calculated ignition temperature ranged from 277 °C to 452 °C. Obtained results are useful both for energy production field and for fire safety risk assessment of stored torrefied wood.

Fire Safety Risk Analysis of Conventional Submarines

Conventional (diesel-electric) submarines can provide improved stealth compared to nuclear submarines once submerged. This is because nuclear submarines are generally larger and are required to operate their nuclear reactors at all times, unlike diesel-electric submarines which are generally smaller and can run exclusively on batteries when submerged which generally requires fewer moving parts. These characteristics normally result in a smaller acoustic, thermal and magnetic signature which afford diesel-electric submarines greater stealth when submerged. However, the current underwater range and endurance is limited by the energy storage or generation for submerged operation. The application of emerging energy storage technology seeks to address this limitation and provide significant tactical and operational advantages to the conventional submarine operator. From a fire safety perspective, the potential addition of technologies such as rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems and increasingly sophisticated electronic equipment dramatically changes the risk space in an already challenging and unforgiving underwater environment. This study reviews the functions, failure modes and maturity of emerging technologies that have serious submarine fire safety implications. A semi-quantitative assessment of the fire risk associated with potential large future conventional submarine design options for batteries and AIP is provided. This assessment concludes that lithium-ion batteries pose the greatest challenge with regard to integration into conventional submarines without compromising reliability or safety.

Power Generation Fire Risk Evaluation Using House of Risk (HoR) Method With an Asset Management Approach

The risk of fire in power generation is the latest issue of concern to the electricity business. Several preventive programs such as coal dust control and the improvement of coal handling facilities to the provision of fire fighting infrastructure have been carried out continuously, but the main problem in the implementation of further work programs is finding the right policy in the main risk and determining the priority of mitigation. Integrating the House of Risk method with ISO 55001 can become an alternative to the previous methods that already exist and will be able to support the establishment of fire safety risk mitigation policies. A holistic review of business processes taking into consideration emerging risk agents in addition to risk events, risk impacts, and the occurrence of risk agents, then the method used will be able to generate a selected list of prioritized preventive actions. The results showed 41 risk events with 28 identified risk agents, furthermore, 17 risk agents were chosen as a preventive measure, and finally 8 proposed preventive actions to reduce the probability of the occurrence of risk agents that can lead to business interruption.

Fire Safety Management in High Rise Buildings of Lahore, Pakistan

Basic objective of this study was to assess the degree to which the high rise buildings situated in Lahore are in compliance with the fire safety standards and SOPs regarding evacuation plans. Quantitative approach was adopted to meet the objective of the study. Ten high rise buildings situated in Lahore city were taken as sample. The buildings were selected on the basis of their size, height, and area. The selected buildings included new and old buildings, commercial and residential buildings so that the variations regarding fire safety standards could be measured. A comprehensive survey questionnaire was developed. Results of the study show that besides various critical incidents, no proper measures are taken on scientific grounds to ensure prevention or at least taking rapid response to minimize losses. There exist no fire safety risk assessments, zero ongoing monitoring, no ongoing fire safety training or awareness program, inadequate or dysfunctional fire extinguishing instruments, no building fire safety control, no automatic fire detection and alarm system, no ongoing fire evacuation drills, and the access of fire brigade to the fire sight is inadequate. Recommendations of the study may prove highly productive in constructing safe buildings from safety point of view.

Analysis of the Risks arising from Fire Installations in Workplaces using the Ranking Method

The aim of this study is to analyze the risks arising from fire installations in workplaces. It also aims to propose a risk analysis method in the form of a “Fire Safety Risk Ranking System” for enterprises with a closed work area of more than 1000m2 in accordance with regulations in Turkey. The relative weights of fire safety factors were determined by Fuzzy AHP. The ranking points of the enterprises were calculated by using the weights obtained with FAHP. From the 45 enterprises where the risk assessment was applied, only 3 enterprises scored 100 full points according to the fire risk ranking method, and 30 enterprises had a score below 80 points. Out of these, 6 scored below 60 points, which is considered a low score. The distribution of enterprises within sectors was not equal. According to the results, only 6.6% of the enterprises are in compliance with legislation and standards, about 67% are inadequate in terms of fire safety and continue to operate under serious fire risks.

Fire Safety Related Challenges Faced by Existing Hospitals: A Review

Background: Hospital fires are real dangers and have historically caused life and property damages. A review of major research databases like Scopus, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, IET site, PubMed, Cochrane library and ASCE Library was conducted to explore fire safety challenges faced by existing hospitals and possible recommendations made thereof to overcome such challenges. Methods: The review was conducted for key words- “Fire safety”, “Hospital Fire”, “Fire risk” and “Fire safety challenges”. The search found 684 articles in total which were screened for relevance to research area and 27 articles were reviewed in detail. Findings: There is poor enforcement of law by agencies. Retrofitting for conformance to fire safety regulations is difficult. Issue like faulty equipment, improperly kept inflammable material, evacuation difficulties due to higher acuity of patients, operational issues like maintenance of all fire safety equipment and installations, and training of staff, etc. are highlighted. Conclusion: Focussed interventions and an all-encompassing fire safety risk management plan is the need of the hour. Significant insights into critical issue of fire safety is of immense benefit to healthcare professionals as a basis to make hospitals safe places.

Based on fuzzy theory analysis method applied to community underground building fire risk assessment

The overall stability of the underground building community is related to the community, and the fire safety of the underground building is the top priority. Starting from the fire safety of underground buildings, this paper establishes the fire safety risk assessment system of underground buildings, uses AHP to determine the index weight, then applies the fuzzy theory to the comprehensive evaluation of underground buildings, determines the grade of underground buildings, and applies the fuzzy theory to the community fire safety of underground buildings, hoping to provide some reference for community fire safety.

Human Rights and State Accountability for Fire Safety in Blocks of Flats

Two years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, it is estimated that maybe as many as 200,000 people in the UK are living in buildings with major fire safety defects. Some of these blocks are wrapped in flammable cladding, as was Grenfell Tower, but many blocks have other fire safety risks, both known and unknown, for which we have only limited data. With only inadequate recourse through private law for most of those affected, can human rights law offer an effective avenue for redress? This paper will illustrate the UK government’s failure to implement an effective regulatory system for the building and refurbishment of high-rise buildings (especially in relation to combustible cladding systems). It will then consider whether this failure constitutes an ongoing violation of Articles 2, 3, 8 and Article 1 Protocol No. 1 (“A1P1”) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Discovering worst fire scenarios in subway stations: A simulation approach

Abstract This paper develops a systematic hybrid approach that integrates Available Safe Egress Time (ASET), Required Safe Egress Time (RSET), numerical simulation, and Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis (MADA) to support fire safety risk assessment and to discover the worst fire scenarios for improving evacuation efficiency. Three factors, namely heat release rate, fire location, and occupants, are used to identify the most likely fire scenarios with a high-potential risk. The main classes of hazards yielded by fire, including heat (temperature), toxic gases (carbonic oxide), and smoke obscuration (visibility), are employed as untenability criteria for the estimation of ASET in the numerical simulation. A more comprehensive indicator, SITotal, is proposed to quantify the magnitude of the overall safety risk of a building fire, in order to fully consider the fire escape performance in different evacuation routes. One realistic subway station located at the Wuhan Metro System in China is utilized as a case to testify the applicability and feasibility of the proposed approach in this research. Result indicate that (i) among the identified four most likely fire scenarios, Scenario IV, where the fire is located at the exit of Sair I at the hall floor of the station with a heat release rate of 3 MW/m2, is identified to be the worst fire scenario with an associated lowest value of SITotal; (ii) the fire release rate plays a very significant role in the magnitude of the fire safety risk, as a 50% increase of the fire release rate can lead to a rough 36% decrease of SITotal; and (iii) exits should be regarded as super bottlenecks with significant importance during the fire escape process, and much more attention should be paid to those bottlenecks in the possible evacuation routes. The simulation models developed in this research are further validated by the observed results from the field test and experiment. This research contributes: (a) to the body of knowledge by providing an improved ASET/RSET approach that is capable of taking numerical factors (i.e., fire, building, and human features) into account to assess the safety risk of fire conditions in a three-dimensional environment; and (ii) to the state of practice by providing a more accurate data-driven solution for the perception and discovery of the worst fire scenarios.

Moisture transport in pine wood during one-sided heating studied by NMR

The quantification of moisture transport in heated wood is relevant to several fields, e.g. for lumber drying and processing and for fire safety risk assessment. We present non-destructive and simultaneous measurements of the moisture content and temperature distributions in pine wood during unilateral exposure to a heat source. The moisture content is measured by a nuclear magnetic resonance setup specifically built for the evaluation of moisture transport in porous materials at elevated temperatures. Temperature profiles are obtained by thermocouples placed at different distances from the exposed surface. While the temperature rises, a peak in the moisture content is formed, which travels towards the unexposed surface. The velocity of the moisture content peak depends on the principal direction in which transport occurs, as confirmed by experiments. Numerical simulations of moisture transport are performed which can qualitatively reproduce the behavior observed in experiments. Moreover, several characteristics, such as the timescale and non-linearity of the moisture peak position, are well captured. The influence of several input parameters, such as the permeability and diffusion coefficient, on the moisture peak dynamics is elaborately explored.

Analysis of Fire Safety System for Storage Enterprises of Dangerous Chemicals

Abstract In recent years, fire and explosion accidents of warehouses caused by dangerous chemicals frequently occur, such as 4•22 Jingjiang storage house explosion accident, and Tianjin port 8•12 fire explosion accident. Therefore, a mature and perfect fire risk assessment method should be established to further improve fire safety and eliminate fire safety risks. To evaluate the fire safety of dangerous chemical warehouse, identification of hazard source, fire and explosion model, analytic hierarchy process, and safety evaluation score over an interval have been applied in this paper. Combining with the actual situation of a dangerous chemical warehouse enterprise, fire safety situation of dangerous chemical warehouse is assessed, and a series of targeted measures are put forward. This paper provides a scientific basis for the fire risk assessment of dangerous chemical warehouse, and ensure to establish a perfect safety inspection system, and can manage fire safety effectively.

Partnership working between the Fire Service and NHS: delivering a cost-saving service to improve the safety of high-risk people.

BackgroundThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and NHS Tayside piloted partnership working. A Community Fire Safety Link Worker provided Risk Assessments to adults, identified by community health teams, at high risk of fires, with the aim of reducing fires. An existing evaluation shows the Service developed a culture of ‘high trust’ between partners and had high client satisfaction. This paper reports on an economic evaluation of the costs and benefits of the Link Worker role.MethodsAn economic evaluation of the costs and benefits of the Link Worker role was undertaken. Changes in the Risk Assessment score following delivery of the Service were used to estimate the potential fires avoided. These were valued using a national cost of a fire. The estimated cost of delivering the Service was deducted from these savings.ResultsThe pilot was estimated to save 4.4 fires, equivalent to £286 per client. The estimated cost of delivering the Service was £55 per client, giving net savings of £231 per client. The pilot was cost-saving under all scenarios, with results sensitive to the probability of a fire.ConclusionsWe believe this is the first evaluation of Fire Safety Risk Assessments. Partnership working, delivering joint Risk Assessments in the homes of people at high risk of fire, is modelled to be cost saving. Uncertainties in data and small sample are key limitations. Further research is required into the ex ante risk of fire by risk category. Despite these limitations, potential savings identified in this study supports greater adoption of this partnership initiative.

Fire and heritage protection in Australian public housing

Purpose – Heritage housing in inner city areas represents a valuable cultural asset that belongs, in part, to the community as a whole. Despite this, the risk of destruction by fire in closely spaced heritage housing has not received a great deal of research attention. The purpose of this paper is to identify potential faults in building fabric that may result in unacceptable fire safety risks to irreplaceable heritage streetscapes. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines a sample of publically administered heritage houses in inner Sydney. A condition survey looks at the occurrence of noted defects, or non-compliances to the current building regulations, in fire separation between attached or closely spaced occupancies. Findings – Fire spread between adjacent buildings is identified as a potential hazard which needs to be addressed in order to ensure both the sustainability of the remaining heritage housing stock and the safety of the occupants. Research limitations/implications – While the survey is small, it represents a significant proportion of a dwindling stock of nineteenth century heritage housing in public ownership in Sydney. Practical implications – Based on the results of the survey, a recommendation has been made in regard to improving building surveying practice when dealing with renovation of heritage housing. Social implications – Concern over the diminishing availability of social housing in inner city locations indicates the need for more attention to the fire safety of the remaining stock. Originality/value – The research provides original data on the level of fire safety risk in a regional cluster of heritage housing.

Case Study of Fire Risk Management of Tourist Hotels

Tourist hotels are part of service industry, thus fire safety issues are particularly important. Due to the complexity of the hotel’s construction, most of the tourists are not familiar with the environment. In case of fire it would be hard for them to evacuate the building. Therefore, this study collects and organizes documents, regulations and cases. By applying risk management this study summarizes the key items of the fire safety risk assessment application are: Whether fire evacuation facilities have been blocked and major risk items must be examined daily.

Fire Risk Assessment of Adaptive Re-Use of Historic Shop Houses for Sleeping Accommodations in Malaysia

Heritage buildings were generally constructed without regard for fire risks or the requirements for fire protection, as are obligatory in new constructions. When a heritage building undergoes a change to its original function, improvements to the building's fire safety are necessary to meet the needs of possible increases in occupancy loads and to account for fire risks related to the new usage. This research focuses on fire safety risks, fire protection and safety systems as well as the rules and regulations that an adaptive reuse heritage shop house is bound to when transitioning to a sleeping accommodation, which, in this case, means becoming a hotel. In this research, six heritage shop houses were chosen as case studies. The objectives of this research were to evaluate current fire emergency plans as well as to identify and assess possible fire hazards created by adaptive reuse of heritage shop houses to sleeping accommodations in Penang through a series of observations and interviews. The results of the research show that most of the buildings were provided with inadequate fire safety systems.

The impact of smoke on walking speed

SUMMARYIn fire safety engineering, information about the expected walking speed of occupants through smoke is often one factor that is of interest to the designer. However, despite the fact that research already in the 1970s demonstrated that people tend to evacuate through smoke, little research has been performed on the topic since, and evidently, there is a lack of data on walking speed in smoke. This has created a situation where fire safety engineering assessments of the required safe escape time may be intimately associated with high uncertainties, especially for buildings in which people can be expected to evacuate long distances through smoke, for example, underground transportation systems. In order to address the lack of data on movement through smoke, 133 data points on individual walking speed in smoke are presented in this paper. The data lie within an extinction coefficient range of 1.2–7.5 m−1. In line with previous studies, it is demonstrated that the level of smoke density has a negative impact on the walking speed, whereas no significant effects of inclination, type of floor material, gender, age and height could be found in the data. In this paper, recommendations are also provided on how designers should treat the data in their fire safety risk assessments, depending on the type of risk analysis method, that is, if the designer is performing a deterministic analysis or a quantitative risk analysis. It is argued that this information can be used to reduce the uncertainty in future risk analyses involving egress calculations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.