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Quantifying the environmental consequences of fire incidents in timber buildings: A Nordic case study
Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, 2450, Denmark; DBI - Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology, Hvidovre, Copenhagen, 2650, Denmark.
Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, 2450, Denmark.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Safety and Transport, Fire and Safety.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0380-9548
DBI - Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology, Hvidovre, Copenhagen, 2650, Denmark.
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2026 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 163Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This study extends conventional life cycle assessment (LCA), which typically assumes an incident-free service life, to explicitly incorporate fire events and fire protection systems, enabling systematic quantification of their environmental consequences and mitigation effects in timber buildings. A proof-of-concept application was conducted for a timber-based residential compartment under four representative fire scenarios, ranging from minor object ignition to a fully developed enclosure fire, with and without sprinkler protection. Fire-related consequences were decomposed into combustion emissions, emergency response activities, and post-fire material replacement and integrated within a building LCA framework. The results show that fire development is the dominant driver of environmental burdens, with fully developed, non-sprinklered fires increasing impacts by more than 80% compared to small, confined fires. Material replacement emerged as the primary contributor, typically accounting for over 80% of total fire-related impacts, while direct combustion emissions played a comparatively minor role. Automatic sprinkler activation reduced total fire-related impacts by more than 85% across all indicators, while adding only 1–2% to the building's embodied impacts. These findings demonstrate that integrating fire scenarios into LCA enables a more realistic assessment of the environmental performance of timber buildings and supports informed decisions on low-carbon fire safety strategies

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier BV , 2026. Vol. 163
Keywords [en]
Environmental consequences, Fire, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Sprinkler systems, Timber buildings
National Category
Building Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-81612DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2026.104871Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105037757709OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-81612DiVA, id: diva2:2060421
Note

QC 20260518

Available from: 2026-05-18 Created: 2026-05-18 Last updated: 2026-05-18Bibliographically approved

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McNamee, Robert

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