An Engineering Approach to Fire Fighting Tactics

This report presents a quantified model as a guide for the Incident Commander to determine the most suitable fire-fighting tactics in advance for given conditions at specific objects. The model is applied to two chemical warehouses. The model proves that it is possible to introduce risk management procedures and fire safety engineering models into fire-fighting tactics. If the model and its different sub-models are improved and scientifically validated, fire brigades will gain a powerful tool for predicting their capacity. The model can be used before the fire, in a pre-planning situation, during the fire to analyse the situation, or after the fire for tactical evaluation

Demand for Extinguishing Media in Manual Fire Fighting

Risk analysis and intervention planning are important in fire prevention and risk management strategies. This study has shown that it is possible to use fire safety engineering models to estimate the development of fires on a realistic scale, and the corresponding requirement for extinguishing media. Data from the London Fire Brigade (UK) were used to investigate a possible correlation between the area of the fire and the fire-fighting measures employed. This data, together with data from two old investigations, published in the literature, were used to evaluate existing models for the dimensioning of manual fire suppression using water. The demand for water was also investigated theoretically and experimentally. Theoretical investigations were carried out using data from small-scale tests found in the literature, and data from real fires in London (UK). Experimental studies were carried out employing large-scale suppression tests in order to evaluate the difference in efficiency between a low-pressure and a high-pressure nozzle. The heat stress on the fire fighters was also studied. Apart from water, gaseous extinguishing media were also investigated with regard to the effect of external heat radiation on the required medium concentration

Combustion of Chemical Substances and the Impact on the Environment of the Fire Products: 1/3 Scale Room Furnace Experiments

This report describes the results obtained from fire tests in a 1/3-scale room. The aim of the study was to investigate how changes in external radiation and oxygen supply affect the production of smoke and toxic gases. The ventilation was varied to simulate under- and well-ventilated fires. The thermal exposure to the materials was varied to simulate fires of different sizes. Fifty-nine tests were performed, with polystyrene, FR polystyrene, polypropylene, nylon and PVC. Measurements were made of the contents of O2, CO2, CO, NOx, and HC in the exhaust gases. The impact of external radiation was mainly to increase the pyrolysis rate, and thus the rate of heat release, and to drive the fire into under-ventilation. The degree of ventilation proved to have the greatest impact on the combustion efficiency. The smoke production was almost constant for polypropylene and nylon. The CO production appeared to be the most complex of the parameters to describe, and the expected increase in CO yield at low yields of CO2 could not be seen. The generation of NOx was low for the two substances without chemically bound nitrogen, but for nylon, the generation was significant. The production of low molecular weight HC was essentially constant for all three materials. Almost all the carbon was recovered in wellventilated fires, but at under-ventilated conditions, only 30% of the carbon from the he1 was detected. The toxic potency of the exhaust gases was estimated using the N-gas model, and proved to be relatively low. Lack of oxygen and the production of carbon oxide had the greatest impact on the toxicity for polystyrene and polypropylene, while NO, represented the main part for nylon. The survival fraction and the decomposition products from the original materials are not considered in the model. It can therefore not be assumed that the model reflects all aspects of the toxicity problem

Naturgas Säkerhetsnivå Riskanalys

Denna rapport har tillkommit på uppdrag av NUTEK och avser att belysa riskerna med distribution och industriell användning av naturgas. Tidigare har en rapport avseende naturgasinstallationer i hemmen utgetts [1,2]. Rapporten inleds med en allmän diskussion om risker. Vidare tas frågan om lagstiftning, tillsyn, kontroll och utbildning för naturgasanvändning i olika lander upp. Dessutom har en retrospektiv sökning efter statistik om naturgasolyckor samt incidenter gjorts. En kort genomgång av hur man beräknar konsekvenser av naturgasutsläpp görs också

Djupanalys av tre storbränder

This report presents an analysis of three major fires in Sweden. Two of the fires concerns the industry and the third is a fire in a assembly hall. The study is based on available written material. The quality and reliability varies, and appears to depend on the aim, interest and competence of the investigator. In some cases, the information is sufficient to assess the performance of an automatic detection or sprinkler system, but none of the fires are described enough to make a quantitative assessment of the quality of the fire-fighting operation. The key events are clear in the material, so it is possible to draw an event tree describing the fire and alternative actions. To be able to use occurring fires to develop methods of predicting the outcome of future fires, there is a need for a better and more systematic base of data, than available in the three studied fires. The studied fires reveals also that it is not uncommon that the incident commander is unaware of the extent and location of the fire during the incident

Real fire data : Fires in non-residential premises in London 1994-1997

A detailed fire investigation of most fires occurring in the greater London area has been underway since 1994. The present study concerns 307 fires in non-residential buildings there between 1994 and 1997. The cause of the fire, the means of discovery, the times to detection, to arrival of the fire brigade and to extinguishing the fire, the size of fire and the process of extinguishing it are investigated

Manuell brandsläckning med vatten

To investigate how the relation between the control time and the total amount of water varies with the water application rate at manual fire fighting operations, six different experimental fire test series were studied. In spite of being quite different, the experiments prove to give similar results. Plotting the total volume of water required against the application rate, gives a diagram in the shape of a fish hook. The lowest total volume gives an optimum application rate of about 0.01 l/m²s. The fire brigade equipment is over-sized for the studied scenarios. To investigate the limitations of the equipment, there is a need for fire tests in a larger scale

Correlation Between Firefighting Operation and Fire Area: Analysis of Statistics

The aim of this study is to investigate whether current statistics can quantify the benefits of fire brigades. A detailed investigation by the London Fire Brigade of most fires in the greater London area has been underway since 1994. The present study concerns 307 fires in non-residential buildings between 1994 and 1997. Times to detection, to arrival of the fire brigade, and to extinguishment of the fire, as well as the process of extinguishing it, are compared to the final property damage caused by the fire. In half of the fires, the final fire area equals the area at detection, and in three-quarters of the fires, the final fire area equals the fire area when the fire brigade arrived. No support was obtained for the hypothesis that the period between ignition and the time the fire brigade intervened correlates with fire area. However, the hypothesis is supported for fires still spreading when the brigade arrives. Both water flow rate for extinguishing a fire and water application time are proportional to the square root of the fire area. Total water demand is proportional to the fire area

Planning for effective use of fire and rescue service resources

In this work, a model has been developed that can support and evaluate decisions on the location of rescue service resources. The main contributions are the possibilities to model multiple events and multiple resources, and foremost providing a method of quantifying the interaction between events and resources. In the model, it is possible to analyse different ways of organising the fire and rescue service, e.g. comparing the effect of small units in multiple locations with a traditional way of organising, where most resources comes from a single fire station. The model can also suggest advantageous locations for the resources

Influencing factors for starting a business in Latvia

Bakalaura darba mērķis ir izpētīt uzņēmējdarbības uzsākšanas iespējas Latvijā, atklājot ar to saistītos veicinošos un kavējošos apstākļus, un izstrādāt priekšlikumus uzņēmējdarbības uzsākšanas kavēkļu samazināšanai. Šajā darbā ir pētīti galvenie motivācijas faktori, kā arī iemesli, kas indivīdu attur no jauna uzņēmuma izveides. Lai arī uzņēmējdarbība ir gan iedzīvotāju, gan arī valsts intereses, taču tendences rāda, ka pēdējo gadu laikā tiek vairāk likvidēti, nekā reģistrēti jauni uzņēmumi. Neskatoties uz to, ka cilvēku vēlmes ar katru dienu aug, un mūsdienu digitālajā pasaulē piedāvāt produktus un aizsniegt savu mērķauditoriju ir vieglāk nekā agrāk, tomēr iedzīvotāji ar jaunu uzņēmumu izveidi nesteidzas. Bakalaura darbā secināts, ka uzņēmējdarbības uzsākšanā psiholoģiskie faktori ir līdzvērtīgi ekonomiskajiem faktoriem.The ambition of the bachelor's thesis is to explore the possibilities of starting a business in Latvia, revealing the related facilitating and hindering conditions, and to develop proposals for reducing obstacle for starting a business. There are studied motivational factors as well as the reasons that deter an individual from starting a new business. Although entrepreneurship is the interest of citizens and the state, trends have showed that in recent years more companies have been liquidated than new companies have been registered. Despite the fact that people's needs are growing every day, and in today's digital world it is easy to offer products and reach their target audience, however people are not in a hurry to start businesses. Results shows that psychological factors in starting a business are almost equal to economic factors