Delémont, O.

Ribaux, O.

Waser, A.

Serveur académique lausannois

Situational classification of fire risks>> Fire risk and situationMany energy sources are used everyday and each utilisation isnot likely to create a fire. However many studies found in theliterature use energy source to classify fire cases, that’s notadequate. Energy source only influences fire incidenceprobability in a given situation (a burning cigarette leftunattended on a sofa will probably lead to a fire, whereas thesame cigarette in an ashtray won’t).Thus, we consider fire to be the consequence of a process thatbegins with a causal chain of proximal and distal causes(organisation of society, human habits, human needs, etc.).Theses causes will lead the three physical elements of the firetriangle to meet. They meet in a social environment where aguardian (a human, a technical system or a standard) isnormally present. The guardian’s task is to avoid the meetingof the three fire triangle physical elements or to keep controlof a fire. Once the control of the energy source is lost, only areaction (fire brigade intervention) can stop the fire.Practice of fire investigations as also detailed examination offire cases tell us that specific situations are likely to generatespecific fire risks. The physical and social environment (thesituation) surrounding the incidence of each fire can bedescribed. Consequently these specific situations could beidentified, described and used to classify fire incidence data inseparated categories. The main purpose of this situationalclassification is to contribute to detect problematic situationsand to make analysis easier.Alain WASER, Olivier RIBAUX, Olivier DELEMONT / Institut de Police Scientifique, University of Lausanne , Switzerland>> Short StudyMany institutions (police, fire brigade, home insurance) interactwith fires and each one collects data of its interest. TheNeuchâtel state (Switzerland) police and home insurancedatabases had been gathered and organised in a uniquedatabase, then classified according to our situationalclassification.The fires caused by using of a cooking appliance (150 of the1632 available cases in the database) between 01.01.2001 and31.12.2009 are presented hereunder. Without a surprise, themajority of the fires (107 cases upon 150) occurs when the“guardian” had left the room where the cooking appliance islocated, 12 fires occurs when people are asleep, 9 byclumsiness, 6 with drunk people, 16 fires in others socialsituations.Usually fires are described as independent events, however theresult of this short study indicates that the distribution of thefires is not linear through the day, most of the fires occurbetween 10am and 2pm (with a major decrease at 12am) andaround 8pm. This kind of fire is linked with human activities. Anexplanation of the 12am ditch could be that fires happens whenthere is no guardian to look after an energy source, which is notthe case at midday.>> ConclusionFire is considered to be the consequence of a situation where the control of an energy source is lost. Consequently, specific situationsare likely to generate specific fire risks. Detecting and identifying these specific situations is the first step to build a situationalclassification of fire risks. This classification could be used to make the analysis of fire cases easier. A future aim, we will be to use thesituational classification to detect specific risks and to suggest measures to reduce risks.This research is supported by the “Police Neuchâteloise” (Neuchâtel State Police) and the “Etablissement d’Assurance et de Prévention”(Neuchâtel State Home Insurance).>> Contact : alain.waser@unil.ch

Situational classification of fire risks

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Situational classification of fire risks

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Serveur académique lausannois