Collapse of the 16-Story Plasco Building in Tehran due to Fire

Ahmadi, Morteza; Aghakouchak, Ali Akbar; Mirghaderi, Rasoul; Tahouni, S.; Garivani, Sadegh; Shahmari, Ali; Epackachi, Siamak

doi:10.1007/s10694-019-00903-y

Cited by 23 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The stairway had a single ramp in each floor, and there was no other emergency exit stairway in the building. [ 1 ] The building had steel structure facades in northern and southern sides and a cement cover on the same structural system in western and eastern sides. The southern facade is shown in Figure 3.…”

Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, combination of significant fire load, lack of sprinkler system, malfunctioning of the firefighting water supply, and non‐compartmentation of different parts of the building were the main causes of spreading of fire to other sections and stories. [ 1,23 ] The building collapsed in three stages. In the first stage, only a part of the flooring system, where the fire had started, collapsed.…”

Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the third stage, global collapse of the building occurred. The detailed description of the incident and collapse scenario is presented by Ahmadi et al [ 1 ]…”

Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results have a good agreement with collapse observations of the building reported in previous studies. [ 1,23 ]…”

Section: Heat‐displacement Analysis Of the Internal Frame Of The Builmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its total height above the foundation was approximately 60 m. It was known as the tallest steel building in Tehran, when its construction finished in 1962. [ 1 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structural investigation of the collapse of the 16‐story Plasco building due to fire

Aghakouchak

Garivani

Shahmari

et al. 2020

Structural Design Tall Build

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Summary On January 19, 2017, the 16‐story Plasco tower located in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, collapsed in several stages, due to a fire lasting 3.5 h. This paper presents the results of numerical investigations on how the structure behaved during that incident. In this regard, initially, a part of floor system including main truss girders, secondary truss beams, tie beams, and reinforced concrete slab is simulated to study its deformed shape and collapse modes. Then 2D and 3D models of the building are developed to evaluate the global behavior of the structure under fire. The results show that at elevated temperatures, deflection of the floor system, main trusses, and out‐of‐plane bending of the beam‐to‐column gusset plates become excessive, leading to partial collapse of floor, in the location of fire initiation. Also, 2D models show that thermal expansion and catenary action of heated truss induce large lateral displacement and bending moment in perimeter column that cause failure of this column at about 650°C. Finally, 3D models indicate that general collapse of the building is initiated by buckling of the external columns located in the southern perimeter of the building. This result is in good agreement with videos and photos showing actual collapse of the structure.

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Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the third stage, global collapse of the building occurred. The detailed description of the incident and collapse scenario is presented by Ahmadi et al [ 1 ]…”

Section: Description Of the Building And Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results have a good agreement with collapse observations of the building reported in previous studies. [ 1,23 ]…”

Section: Heat‐displacement Analysis Of the Internal Frame Of The Builmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its total height above the foundation was approximately 60 m. It was known as the tallest steel building in Tehran, when its construction finished in 1962. [ 1 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Structural investigation of the collapse of the 16‐story Plasco building due to fire

Aghakouchak

Garivani

Shahmari

et al. 2020

Structural Design Tall Build

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Can fire cause the collapse of Plasco Building: A numerical investigation

Khan

Usmani

et al. 2021

Fire and Materials

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SUMMARY Since the tragic event of the World Trade Centre (WTC), efforts to understand realistic fire behaviour in tall buildings are accelerated. It is critical to understand the fire dynamics involved in a compartment fire before performing a forensic investigation of a fire accident. In this paper, various fire scenarios are considered to simulate the behaviour of fire in a high‐rise building and demonstrated the case of the Plasco Building using computationally fluid dynamics (CFD). Two fuel distribution patterns are assumed with different packing densities as clothes placed throughout the compartment in a scattered form (similar as in racks) and densely packed as stacked (stored in cartons). It is observed that the distribution of the fuel highly influences the duration of the fire, peak temperatures, and the severity of the fire. The fuel distribution also affects the spread of the fire in both horizontal and vertical directions, which helps in understanding probable fire scenario responsible for the collapse of a building. A case of subsequent heat transfer analysis in an OpenSEES FE model is conducted to represent the extent of temperature reaching the structural elements where temperature data from FDS are used as thermal boundary conditions. Large variations in the temperature of the structural members have been observed between two fuel distributions, which can be a governing factor while analysing structural behaviour in fire conditions. This paper provides insight into performing a forensic investigation of fire collapsed high‐rise buildings based on visual evidence.

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Emergency medical services preparedness in mass casualty incidents: A qualitative study

Saadatmand,

Ahmadi Marzaleh,

Abbasi

et al. 2023

Health Science Reports

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Background and AimsThe effective response of emergency medical services in mass casualty incidents (MCIs) calls for sufficient preparation. The components of preparation must be determined first to achieve this goal. This study aimed to describe the elements of preparedness of emergency medical services for MCIs.MethodsA qualitative study was carried out on emergency medical service systems in Iran (from April 2022 to mid‐March 2023), using in‐depth semistructured interviews with participants who were managers and members of the incident command team, experts, technicians, paramedics, and telecommunicators of emergency medical services. Interviews were carried out face‐to‐face and via telephone. The data were collected using voice recorder and transcript and analyzed by content analysis method. This study was conducted using the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research.ResultsThirty‐six participants were included in the study. A total of 834 codes were analyzed. Thirteen components were extracted from the study and classified as five categories including “Strengthening management and organization,” “individual and group empowerment,” “capacity expansion,” “technology and infrastructure development,” and “operational response measures.”ConclusionEmergency medical service preparedness in response to MCIs is a critical issue. For improving preparedness, the main components must be identified. The study results described the elements of emergency medical service preparedness, which could be used as a framework for developing the national model of emergency medical service preparedness in MCIs.

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Collapse of the 16-Story Plasco Building in Tehran due to Fire

Cited by 23 publications

References 8 publications

Structural investigation of the collapse of the 16‐story Plasco building due to fire

Structural investigation of the collapse of the 16‐story Plasco building due to fire

Can fire cause the collapse of Plasco Building: A numerical investigation

Emergency medical services preparedness in mass casualty incidents: A qualitative study

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