A Comparison of Methods Used for Fire Safety Evaluation

Abstract

The paper considers the problem of fire safety assurance by means of fire risk indexing and fire risk assessment. Attention is focused on the comparison of these two principal approaches and the possibilities of applying them in a combined set. The paper is aimed at defining, comparing and analyzing fire safety assessment by applying the aforementioned approaches. The practicability of both approaches is compared by means of an example considering fire safety of an existing office building. It is stated that fire risk indexing is more practicable than formal risk assessment despite all shortcomings of the former approach. It is highly probable that comprehensive decision-making concerning fire safety assurance will be based on fire risk indexing rather than on formal risk assessment.

Determining Factors Affecting Fire Risk in a Hospital in Qazvin, Iran

“…In the evaluation of a part of Hartford Nursing Center, the highest levels of risk for occupants were reported, whose main reasons were the high density of people and the high level of infrastructure without internal sub-division with cavity barriers [27]. In the Šakėnaitė study, the fire risk of the building and its contents in the office building understudy was 0.61, which was within an acceptable range due to low traffic and adequate infrastructure of the building [28]. In Sarsangi et al and Mahdinia et al studies, the level of building fire risk was within an unacceptable range for the pediatric ward of the study hospitals due to the impossibility of movement of children in the pediatric ward, non-consideration of building safety principles (including exit routes), lack of fire alarm and extinguishing system, and location of some wards in the upper floors [7,21].…”

Integración de métodos escalares y vectoriales en la evaluación del riesgo de incendio en el ciclo de vida de una construcción

“…El objetivo de evaluar el riesgo de incendio del edificio o instalación productiva es comprender y caracterizar los riesgos relacionados con estos eventos, para mejorar la información de cara a la amplia gama de decisiones que deben ser tomadas como parte del diseño del edificio, su construcción y operación (5). Actualmente los métodos de evaluación se pueden clasificar en cualitativos (los cuales identifican los riesgos en su origen, su estructura y la secuencia con que se manifiestan cuando se convierten en accidente), semi-cuantitativos (orientados a establecer el riesgo y la severidad) y cuantitativos (que aunque más extensos y complejos de aplicar, aportan información detallada del evento ya sea a partir de un análisis determinista centrado en la descripción de los riesgos en términos de consecuencia, o con un enfoque probabilístico que ofrece el riesgo cuantificado en base a la frecuencia y consecuencias).…”

“…Existen cuatro propiedades básicas necesarias para su desarrollo (presión-masa-volumen-temperatura) y las mismas se relacionan para cada zona a través de las cuatro ecuaciones de conservación [5] …”