Fire Impact Tool- Measuring the impact of fire suppression operations on the environmentShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 120, article id 103071Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in which responders arrive at the incident and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the vehicle or enclosure but do not suppress the fire. The Fire Impact Tool is not intended for use during an actual fire incident. This work does not answer every question for every possible fire scenario, but it does provide a framework for deeper, broader, more comprehensive training and pre-planning. This is a necessary step toward a future in which responders are prepared to make informed decisions about firefighting strategies and tactics that include environmental consequences.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Ltd , 2021. Vol. 120, article id 103071
Keywords [en]
Compartment fires, Decision support tool, Environment, Environmental risk assessment, Lifecycle assessment, Modelling, Pre-planning, Suppression, Training, Vehicle fires, Artificial life, Enclosures, Environmental impact, Forestry, Life cycle, Personnel training, Risk assessment, Emergency responders, Environmental consequences, Environmental damage, Fire suppression, Incident response, Informed decision, Life cycle assessment model, Fires
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-45005DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103071Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85084384175OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-45005DiVA, id: diva2:1432160
Note
Article; CODEN: FSJOD; Funding details: Fire Protection Research Foundation; Funding text 1: The project team would like to thank Brandforsk and the National Fire Protection Association/ Fire Protection Research Foundation for their financial support for this work.
2020-05-262020-05-262023-06-07Bibliographically approved