Variety Of Fires Research Articles

Accidents at Hazardous Installations in Japan

We review recent accidents at hazardous installations in Japan using reports from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency and National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster of Japan. The number of reported accidents (fires and hazardous material leakages as defined in Japan) has been increasing since 1994. Researchers have studied a variety of fires and explosions to identify their causes and improve the management of hazardous materials and installations. Attentions have been widely focused on the Refuse Derived Fuel silo explosion in August 2003 and Tomakomai tank fires in September 2003. Two accidents that were beyond the scope of fire prevention plan at that time.

The shock of battle’ 1914–1916

The British soldiers fought under difficult conditions during the First World War. The attackers pounded selected areas with a variety of fires while the defenders poured out shrapnel and high explosives, and this was not done in a cost effective way. It was rather chaotic and as a result soldiers were likely to be hit by friendly fire. This confusing, and no doubt frustrating manner of battle, together with wintery storms no doubt sapped the energy out of the soldiers and made the fighting even harder. In this situation some soldiers were tempted to desert and were consequently punished for their ‘crime’. General Sir Anthony Farrar‐Hockley here argues that it would not serve anyone if, as some have suggested, were to be pardoned eighty years after the event. While it is important that those who failed their duty in the trenches of the First World War are hot scorned, the opening of old wounds is not a price worth paying in the circumstances.

Movement toward the Familiar

A study is reported of the direction of people's escape from a fire in a large-scale room containing an entrance and emergency fire exit in opposite corners. The affiliative model tested predicts that in a situation of potential entrapment people would move toward familiar persons and places. This model of behavior is contrasted with physical science and complementary panic concepts underlying escape route design. These assume a deterministic relationship between the physical availability and proximity of an emergency exit and its subsequent use. Although proximity to an exit was important, support was also found for the affiliative model in the statistical interrelationships found. In general, staff left by the fire exit whereas individual members of the public separated from other group members located themselves toward the entrance end and left that way. Choice of location and exit used were mediated by person and place affiliations. Future research should examine the degree to which people's direction of movement is influenced by affiliative ties in a variety of fires. Place affiliation, it is argued, is not addressed sufficiently in escape route design.