Risk Assessment of Industrial Fires for Surrounding Vulnerable Facilities Using a Multi-Criteria Decision Support Approach and GIS

Abstract

The fires encountered in the buildings and facilities of industrial areas make up quite a small proportion of all fire cases. However, in terms of the heat release rate, size of the burned area, damage, and impact zone, such fires have a large impact as compared to other fire cases. All fires have risk in terms of propagation. However, since fires in industrial structures and plants have rather high levels, qualitatively and quantitatively, compared to residential fires and other types of fires, it should be regarded as necessary to research them extensively. In this study, fires that have broken out in various places around Turkey, such as in factories, cold storage plants, and manufacturing facilities, were investigated. We aimed to determine the level of risk of the occurrence of these fires in the environment. A large amount of detailed information gathered about these fires was analyzed. This information includes data about the causes of the fires, deformation data of various materials, data on technical problems, data on financial damage levels, and data on fire patterns. We found 40 of these fire cases in total, and the case data were used to calculate the risk scores with the Geographic Information System (GIS), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) methods. For each fire case, places sensitive to damage and losses were assessed according to six main criteria. Buffer analysis maps were generated for the 40 fire cases, and the cases were ordered based on their overall risk scores. In this ordering, fire case number 21 was found in the riskiest region, and fire cases 32, 17, and 31 were found in the low-risk region. Fire case number 21 occurred in a factory used for manufacturing fabric. This factory works with high volumes of acrylic, polyester, and other raw materials. In addition, there are some structures in very close proximity. It was observed that fire cases could be well differentiated depending on the selected criteria in the model applied.

Analysis of the fire risks and mitigation approaches in the apparel manufacturing industry: Implications toward operational safety and sustainability

“…Wang et al [ 24 ] and Yilmaz et al [ 25 ] introduced the fuzzy AHP method for MCDM to determine the weights of selected fire risk factors. Alkış et al [ 26 ] used classic AHP to rank the most endangered facilities near a fire incident. However, BWM, used in this study, is easier to apply and more consistent than AHP or fuzzy AHP [ 31 ].…”

“… Proposed Stratified Mitigation Plan? Cvetković et al [ 47 ] Descriptive Statistics Residential buildings Determining occupant behavior during a fire emergency No No De la Hoz et al [ 48 ] Descriptive Statistics Industrial buildings Finding a relationship between regulations and fire risk impact No No Medved [ 49 ] Descriptive Buildings Suggesting fire safety measures No No Wang et al [ 24 ] FAHP Commercial Buildings Determining the weights of fire risk factors Indirect No Alkış et al [ 26 ] AHP Industrial Fire Presenting a ranking of the endangered infrastructures near an industrial fire No No Yilmaz et al [ 25 ] FAHP Commercial Buildings Determining the weights of fire risk factors Indirect No Omidvari et al [ 27 ] FMEA, BWM, CODAS Hospital Presenting a ranking of the endangered wards of a hospital during a fire Indirect No Rathnayake et al [ 51 ] Descriptive Buildings Reviewing critical fire risk factors No <...…”

“…Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process ( AHP) has been used to identify weights of fire risk factors for commercial buildings [ 24 , 25 ]. Likewise, Alkış et al [ 26 ] used AHP to rank risky, vulnerable facilities due to industrial fires. The failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and best-worst method (BWM) have been used to propose a fire risk-based ranking of hospital facilities [ 27 ].…”

A New Method for the Determination of Fire Risk Zones in High-Bay Warehouses

“…Fire represents a serious threat to the safety of people and property, regardless of whether it is about residential buildings, storage facilities, or industrial facilities; therefore, managing the risk of fire outbreaks is a big challenge in urban and rural environments [1]. Warehouses, as objects in which some activities and work processes are performed regarding the storage, transportation, and manipulation of goods and materials, are places where various accidents can often occur, which can result in the injury of employees, the occurrence of material damage, and the endangerment of the working environment, especially in cases of fire.…”

Structure of Causes of Fires at Industrial Facilities

“…В работах [2,3] отмечена специфика причин возникновения пожаров на объектах промышленности, а именно: перегрузки электрической сети; подбор и монтаж электрооборудования без учета категории производства; неправильная прокладка проводов и кабелей; оставление без присмотра включенных электрических установок, невнимательность и халатность персонала, несоблюдение правил пожарной безопасности и требований по соблюдению промышленной безопасности, отклонение от требований технологических регламентов и ряд других причин.…”