Fire Hazard And Fire Risk Assessment

Fire Safety in Educational Premises

Significant loss to business occurs through fires in the workplace. Whether large or small, fire causes personal suffering, damage to plant, equipment and buildings, and loss of business. Fire legislation has changed over the past few years, especially with the introduction of European Directives. New regulations mean that employers have to carry out fire risk assessment and then, as a result of their findings, put in place control measures to prevent loss of life. Fire Hazards in Industry has been designed to cover, in general terms, exactly what is required of employers. It is written in simple language and considers the basics of good fire safety management. After reading Fire Hazards in Industry, any employer, safety professional or fire safety officer should be able to install a system for carrying out fire risk assessment. In addition to sections relating to the legal aspects of fire prevention, the book explains the concepts of fire modelling, explosions and combustion reactions. There is also a section relating to common industry fire hazards and hazards associated with electrical equipment. Knowledge of all these topics would be required if a person were to attempt to carry out fire risk assessment. Throughout the book, past case histories are used to illustrate certain aspects of fire and the causes of fire. The cases used have all been published by the Health and Safety Executive as a result of their investigations. These include; Abbeystead, Frodingham steelworks, HMS Glasgow, BP Grangemouth and many more. This book will be equally relevant to motor manufacturing as it is to the chemical industry. There are many case studies included that deal with fire hazards that are found in general industry.Fire Hazards in Industry is suitable for those who have relatively limited experience in fire safety and therefore use it as part of their career and educational development, but also can be used as reference material for those experienced professionals who have fire safety included in their day to day responsibility.

This book arrives at just the right time to facilitate understanding of performance-based fire risk assessment in buildings – an integral part of the global shift in policy away from traditional prescriptive codes. Yung, an internationally recognised expert on the subject of fire risk assessment, introduces the basic principles and techniques that help the reader to understand the various methodologies that are currently in place or being proposed by different organisations. Through his illustration of basic principles and techniques he enables the reader to conduct their own fire risk assessments. He demonstrates how the probabilities of fire scenarios are assessed based on the probabilities of success and failure of fire protection measures that are in place. He also shows how the consequences of fire scenarios are assessed based on the intensity and speed of fire and smoke spread, the probability and speed of occupant response and evacuation, and the effectiveness and speed of fire department response and rescue efforts. Yung’s clear and practical approach to this highly topical subject enables the reader to integrate the various tools available into a quantitative framework that can be used for decision making. He brings an invaluable resource to all those involved in fire engineering and risk assessment, including students, academics, building designers, fire protection engineers, structural engineers, regulators and risk analysts.

Fire safety regulations in many countries require Fire Risk Assessment to be carried out for buildings such as workplaces and houses in multiple occupation. This duty is imposed on a "Responsible Person" and also on any other persons having control of buildings in compliance with the requirements specified in the regulations. Although regulations only require a qualitative assessment of fire risk, a quantitative assessment is an essential first step for performing cost-benefit analysis of alternative fire strategies to comply with the regulations and selecting the most cost-effective strategy. To facilitate this assessment, various qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative techniques of fire risk assessment, already developed, are critically reviewed in this book and some improvements are suggested. This book is intended to be an expanded version of Part 7: Probabilistic risk assessment, 2003, a Published Document (PD) to British Standard BS 7974: 2001 on the Application of Fire Safety Engineering Principles to the Design of Buildings. Ganapathy Ramachandran and David Charters were co-authors of PD 7974 Part 7. Quantitative Risk Assessment in Fire Safety is essential reading for consultants, academics, fire safety engineers, fire officers, building control officers and students in fire safety engineering. It also provides useful tools for fire protection economists and risk management professionals, including those involved in fire insurance underwriting.

Fire safety is a major concern in many industries, particularly as there have been significant increases in recent years in the quantities of hazardous materials in process, storage or transport. Plants are becoming larger and are often situated in or close to densely populated areas, and the hazards are continually highlighted with incidents such as the fires and explosions at the Piper Alpha oil and gas platform, and the Enschede firework factory. As a result, greater attention than ever before is now being given to the evaluation and control of these hazards. In a comprehensive treatment of the subject unavailable elsewhere, this book describes in detail the applications of hazard and risk analysis to fire safety, going on to develop and apply quantification methods. It also gives an explanation in quantitative terms of improvements in fire safety in association with the costs that are expended in their achievement. Furthermore, a quantitative approach is applied to major fire and explosion disasters to demonstrate crucial faults and events. Featuring: Full international coverage and a review of several major fires and explosion disasters. Presentation of the properties and science of fire including the latest research. Detailed coverage of the performance of fire safety measures. This is an essential book for practitioners in fire safety engineering, loss prevention professionals, technical personnel in insurance companies as well as academics involved in fire science and postgraduate students. This book is also a useful reference for fire safety officers, building designers, engineers in the process industries, safety practitioners and risk assessment consultants.

This guide does not set prescriptive standards, but provides recommendations and guidance for use when assessing the adequacy of fire precautions in small and medium places of assembly. Other fire risk assessment methods may be equally valid to comply with fire safety law. The guide also provides recommendations for the fire safety management of the premises. It applies to Northern Ireland only