Citation

Sarreshtehdari A, Elhami Khorasani N. Fire Safety J. 2021; 124: e103397.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.firesaf.2021.103397

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper improves the existing frameworks on simulating fire following earthquake (FFE) by explicitly modeling the suppression process and the fire department response. The paper focuses on the impacts of FFE on urban areas and quantifies induced economic losses based on resources and efficiency of the fire department during post-earthquake fires. Layers of infrastructure systems, including transportation, water, and electric networks, and the building inventory are modeled and the earthquake damage to the community is characterized. The behavior of fire spread inside and between buildings is simulated based on major fire spread mechanisms. In parallel, the suppression activities are explicitly modeled and a decision-making algorithm for fire engine assignments to locations of ignition is implemented. The proposed methodology is applied to a case study. The performance of fire department response is characterized using the probability of exceedance of unsuccessful suppression scenarios, presented in the form of fragility functions. The expected direct economic losses are also presented as a function of earthquake intensity. The proposed framework can be used for planning and response applications, and to identify the tipping point of a community, above which the rate of fire spread exceeds that of suppression and the fires burn out of control.

Language: en

Keywords

Decision-making; Fire department; Fire following earthquake; Losses; Suppression