Overview of fire following earthquake: historical events and community responses

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to present a literature review on the problem of fire following earthquake (FFE) as a potential hazard to communities in seismically active regions. The paper is important to work toward resilient communities that are subject to extreme hazards. Design/methodology/approach The paper lists and reviews the historical FFE events (20 earthquakes from 7 countries), studies the available analytical tools to evaluate fire ignition and spread in communities after an earthquake, discusses the available studies on performance of individual buildings under post-earthquake fires and summarizes the current literature on mitigation techniques for post-earthquake fires. Findings FFE can be considered a potential hazard for urban communities that are especially not prepared for such conditions. The available analytical models are not yet fully up to the standards that can be used by city authorities for decision-making, and therefore, should be further validated. Limited structural analyses of individual buildings under FFE scenarios have been completed. Results show that the drift demand on the building frame increases during post-earthquake fires. Despite the mitigation actions, there are still urban cities that are not prepared for such an event, such as certain areas of California in the USA. Originality/value The paper is a complete and an exhaustive collection of literature on different aspects of FFE. Research in earthquake engineering is well advanced, while structural analyses under fire load and performance of communities under FFE can be further advanced.

Reliability Assessment Model of Water Distribution Networks against Fire Following Earthquake (FFE)

“…After the total number of each node is determined, the time of each fire should be considered. From the analysis of historical FFE data [26,31,32], it can be concluded that most of the FFEs occurred within the initial hours after the earthquake, and the number of FFEs decreased monotonically as a function of time during the three-day period. Zhao et al [26] modeled this phenomenon with the Weibull distribution equation:…”

“…The developed earthquake damage model was based on the historical data from ALA [16], and the spatial-temporal FFE model was based on historical data from main earthquakes in Japan [31], China [31], and the United States [15,32]. In order to ensure the accuracy of the model, the MZ city pipe network and users' data were as detailed as possible for more accurate modeling results.…”

“…(1) Evaluating the system's functionality to supply adequate firefighting flows with a large number of components damaged by an earthquake. According to earthquake statistics in Japan [30], China [31], and the United States [15,32], most fire outbreaks occurred immediately after earthquake happened, leading to a large and concentrated demand of firefighting flow in a short time, which may be a heavy burden to the pipeline network. (2) Evaluating the system's performance to satisfy original demand (e.g., residential demand, industrial demand, etc.)…”

Probabilistic Evaluation Framework for Fire and Fire Following Earthquake

“…In a recent study on historical FFE events, 20 cases from seven different countries were collected, 15 of which occurred between 1971and 2014(Elhami Khorasani and Garlock 2015. Fire that followed the earthquake in a majority of these cases caused considerable damage.…”

Performance of steel moment-resisting frames in post-earthquake horizontally traveling fire

“…Past fire following earthquake catastrophes (Scawthorn et al, 2005;Elhami Khorasani and Garlock, 2017) have raised concerns regarding the level of robustness in steel buildings in such multi-hazards scenarios and hence received much needed research impetus in the last two decades. Some of the most critical challenges in the post-earthquake fires (PEFs) than in typical fire situations are the impaired active and passive fire detection and protection systems, loss of compartmentalization due to structural and nonstructural damages and a delayed response by already strained first responders.…”