Hierarchical siting of macro fire station and micro fire station

Author(s):  
Wenhao Yu ◽  
Yujie Chen ◽  
Menglin Guan

With the rapid increase of city building density, public emergency service system for providing fire services faces increasing challenge in reducing the loss of lives and property, especially for the reduction of massive casualties in fire accidents. For obtaining a higher benefit from public service facilities, GIS-based techniques such as location optimization are commonly used. However, as a special facility, fire emergency facilities are quite particular in siting and providing services, and they have their unique demands including specific response time, benefit maximization, workload balancing and cost minimization; traditional optimization methods for fire facility siting are difficult to account for all of these objectives. Furthermore, the public emergency services agencies in China are implementing a plan to establish a hierarchical fire service system by siting fire stations with different capacities, and under this context, the general covering models with the same level of facilities are limited in their effectiveness. Therefore, this paper proposes a hierarchical covering model which takes into account the different characteristics of different levels of fire facilities (i.e. macro fire station and micro fire station). The case study of Nanjing city proves that our model is effective in practical applications of emergency services optimization.

Author(s):  
Ayoosu M. I ◽  
Lim Y. W

The fire has contributed positively to man development from time immemorial till today. But it also has its own negative aspect; people had lost virtually all they had in a single fire incidence including their life. It is in light of this negative side of fire that the fire service was established to prevent and extinguish fire and other emergencies that threaten the lives and properties of the people. These fire stations in Nigeria have challenges which result in late response to fire incidence and it is on this backdrop the research evolved. The research adopts an analytic approach; Systematic sampling was employed in choosing appropriate case study facilities. 36 questionnaires administered, 4 were not returned which forms about 11.1% of the total administered questionnaires. A total of 32 questionnaires were filled and returned forming 88.9% of the total administered questionnaires. A checklist was used to investigate the availability of essential activity spaces in the fire stations. Four stations were case studied. The data obtained were analysed using simple statistical method and results were presented in a simple descriptive tool (tables and figures). The research revealed that each Nigeria fire station lack one activity space or the other which is essential for a timely response like, dormitory, kitchen/dining space, day room, watchtower, etc. Beside activity spaces, adjacency of spaces is a lacking essential factor, time is lost in travelling from the gates of these fire stations to the watch room/dispatch during run-in calls, and time is also lost when firemen have to travel from different part of the station to the apparatus bay to respond to a fire call. The research then recommends the remodelling of the existing stations and a template for the design of sustainable on time fire station.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s143-s144
Author(s):  
Christine McGuire-Wolfe

Background: Multiple studies have demonstrated that pathogens are present in both apparatus and stations within the fire service. Pasco County Fire Rescue’s (PCFR’s) 500+ firefighters routinely wear boots to trauma scenes and into patient’s residences and then into the dormitory and living areas of the fire stations. Pasco County Fire Rescue (PCFR) recently participated in a larger effort to identify the bacteria, yeast, and mold that firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics are exposed to on apparatuses and the station living environment during a typical shift. During these efforts to swab multiple touch points within apparatus (ambulances and engines) and common areas of the stations, firefighters’ boots were identified as a significant source of bacterial contamination. Methods: Swabs of 191 surfaces in 23 vehicles and 5 fire stations were collected, including 3 swabs from the bottom of firefighter boots. Results: Firefighter boots had the highest bacterial CFUs of all locations swabbed, with >900,000 and 378,000 CFUs per boot. Disinfection with a quaternary ammonium product sprayed through an electrostatic sprayer system effectively reduced the bacterial contamination on boots. Conclusions: PCFR recognizes firefighter boots as a critical vector of contamination between the environment encountered on emergency medical calls and the fire station environment and, as a result, has started a preliminary education campaign for agency firefighters regarding the need for regular boot disinfection. These efforts include regular submissions to the biweekly employee newsletter, as well as reminders on interoffice mailing envelopes (see example below) in hopes of increasing informal, self-directed boot cleaning and disinfection efforts. The next steps include verifying the effectiveness of specific disinfectant cleaners on boots; addressing logistical and practical barriers to routine cleaning and disinfection of boots; and developing, implementing, and evaluating a protocol for regular boot cleaning and disinfection.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


Author(s):  
S. K. Tomar ◽  
A. Kaur ◽  
H. K. Dangi ◽  
T. Ghawana ◽  
K. Sarma

One of the major challenge from unplanned growth in the cities is the fire incidents posing a serious threat to life and property. Delhi, the capital city of India, has seen unplanned growth of colonies resulting in a serious concern for the relevant agencies. This paper investigates the relation between potential causes of fire incidents during 2013-2016 in South-West Delhi Division of Delhi Fire Services as part of risk analysis using the data about fire stations & their jurisdictions, incidents of fire, water reservoirs available, landuse and population data along with the divisional & sub-divisional boundaries of South-West Delhi division under Delhi Fire Service. Statistical and Geospatial tools have been used together to perform the risk analysis. The analysis reveals that difference in actual occupancy and defined landuse as a part of unplanned growth of settlements is found to be the main reason behind the major fire incidents. The suggested mitigation measures focus on legal, policy, physical & technological aspects and highlight the need to bring the systemic changes with changing scenario of demographics and infrastructure to accommodate more aspects of ground reality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Podolskaia ◽  
Dmitriy Ershov ◽  
Konstantin Kovganko

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Geospatial approaches are widely used to organize access and to manage the extinguishing of forest fires globally. Term “transport accessibility” is used in a variety of geographical and economic researches. Assessment of transport accessibility is directly related to the feasibility study to locate the fire stations in a particular region. Location analysis of objects relative to other objects, while taking into account various quantitative and qualitative parameters, is a classical problem solved by geoinformation systems.</p><p>Present research work is aimed to be used to improve the situation with forest fires in Russia where one of the main asset of operational regional firefighting in the forests is a fire-and-chemical (fire) station. Traditionally station placement is under the responsibility of Russian region to which stations are administratively subordinate. The location of fire station is determined taking into account the species structure of forests, natural fire danger, road infrastructure and some other factors. Irkutsk region, one of the territories with the constant perennial fire danger in the forests, was chosen as a test area.</p><p>Using this area as a typical example of regional extent, an analysis of fire stations placement then planning the ground movement of fire brigades from a station to the forest fire locations has been carried out. Previously obtained results to create the shortest routes within three-hour accessibility for the fire hazardous seasons 2002&amp;ndash;2017 are used. Russian regulatory documents of the forest industry are applied. Thus, topic of GIS analysis serves as a continuation of the study (http://cepl.rssi.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Podolskaya-E.S.-et.-al..pdf, in Russian) and various aspects of transportation problem are considered on the example of Irkutsk region.</p><p>We used the following input data: point layer of fire stations, road network (including roads of different classes and forest glades), and archive of forest fires detected using the spectroradiometer MODIS from the Aqua and Terra spacecraft. Additional data were collected from the open regional Internet sources. GIS analysis used ArcGIS ArcMap Desktop extensions such as Network Analyst, Spatial Analyst, and ArcGIS tools like ET GeoWizards (https://www.ian-ko.com/).</p><p>We have developed and have used a <i>forest fire transport model of ground access</i> by trucks for the Irkutsk region with the spatial arrangement of fire stations, two protection zones and road network. Speed of the forest fire trucks is classified into 5 groups, taking into account the official permissions and road class. Also every segment of road has its attributive data of speed “adjusted” by the elevation value of the ETopo2, an open-access model (https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/etopo2.html). Taking into consideration these relief data allows to decrease the vehicle’s speed in the mountainous conditions.</p><p>Based on the regional specifics and available data for a fire hazardous season, the following set of evaluation parameters was proposed, namely:</p><ul><li>Road network: roads existence, length, density, and configuration;</li><li>Spatial distribution of detected forest fires;</li><li>Territory of fire stations servicing.</li></ul><p>All the listed parameters are interconnected to each other and, in combination, jointly impact the stations ground transport accessibility assessment at the regional level. We have used GIS-analysis methods such as buffering, allocation, and density, as well as geographic and directional distribution. Time frame of analysis is the full fire hazardous season. Undertaken analysis for the forest fires detected within the ground protection zone (archive of 2002&amp;ndash;2017) has shown that the fire stations’ distribution was appropriate. The analysis was based on the assumption that stations had the same weight, geographical and transport location of the stations was reviewed in conjunction to the thematical forestry recommendations. To go further in the GIS analysis some characteristics (work force and technical resources) of the weighted stations could be added.</p><p>Additional factors of influence can be the location of protected areas with their specific access regime, seasonality of road use, forest fire zoning, forestry boundaries, economic criteria, placement of fire stations in the populated area, etc. It is advisable to conduct a fire stations placement analysis as a preparation event before and after the end of the fire-hazardous season to summarize the effectiveness of actions to extinguish forest fires in the region. Practical results of the study can be used as well to prepare the regional forestry development programs and plans.</p>


1981 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 467-471
Author(s):  
Reese Kaufman ◽  
James A. Wise

This paper describes a Post-Occupancy Evaluation project that assessed habitability and other human performance aspects of three rural fire stations. This was a commercial project undertaken for the architectural firm responsible for the design and construction management of the facilities. The ‘fast-track’ methodology and exceptionally informative results demonstrate that such projects are effective and cost-beneficial in competitive professional practice.


2013 ◽  
Vol 853 ◽  
pp. 652-660
Author(s):  
Fu Yu Yan ◽  
Fan Wu ◽  
Fei Peng ◽  
Zhi Jie Zhu

Randomized sampling-based motion planners could efficiently generate collision-free motion paths. However, these paths have some quality problems (with respect to quality measures, such as path length, clearance and smoothness), especially in high dimensional configuration spaces. Thus, researchers studied some path optimization methods to improve path quality and to make paths suitable for practical applications. This paper reviews some of the most influential path optimization methods and gives an overall perspective on the most widely used ideas in the field.


Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ao Zhang ◽  
Xiaomin Zhu ◽  
Qian Lu ◽  
Runtong Zhang

The emergency department has an irreplaceable role in the hospital service system because of the characteristics of its emergency services. In this paper, a new patient queuing model with priority weight is proposed to optimize the management of emergency department services. Compared with classical queuing rules, the proposed model takes into consideration the key factors of service and the first-come-first-served queuing rule in emergency services. According to some related queuing indicators, the optimization of emergency services is discussed. Finally, a case study and some compared analysis are conducted to illustrate the practicability of the proposed model.


2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia Maleta

This article considers the roles, identities and experiences of female emergency services volunteers, most of whom are active fire fighters, within a regional brigade of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS). It is based on interviews and explores how women both adapt to and resist the culture and in the process are transforming it. RFS women were motivated by values of camaraderie, skill and community participation. Their experiences were informed by inclusion and exclusion, and the complex association of gender and competence with physical strength and leadership. Drawing upon the Foucauldian insight that power is never simply repressive but productive and relational, the findings demonstrate how women actively negotiate their position as a collective and as individuals within a mixed gender environment. This article concludes that the demonstrated prowess and agency of women within a non-traditional work context is changing and transforming the cultures and practices of rural fire fighting.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamika Perrott

Despite the increasing percentage of women entering masculinized workplaces, certain organizations consistently see little change in the gender makeup of their staff. Contemporary scholarship suggests that women in rigidly gendered organizations are often assigned a token status and are victimized due to their gender. This study relocates the conversations of women as tokens towards a fresh conversation of women's agency in masculinized workplaces. This paper uses ten qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to discuss how female firefighters navigate their gender at work. This article draws on reflexive accounts of everyday gendered negotiations to look at how the female firefighters ‘do gender’ within a specific fire service in Australia. I argue that emergency services, such as firefighting, create a contradictory field where women are located in (1) a paradoxical environment where the ‘female body’ is problematized (2) a work environment where they have to repeatedly prove their cultural competence in order to confirm their professional identity. The findings suggest that while female firefighters do have agency, tokenism locates many of them in a ‘never quite there’ bind that challenges their ability to progress into leadership roles within the service. This article concludes that the nuanced difference between, and at times, within the women's narratives problematizes the bounds of personal agency and cultural change. This consequently results in resistance to policies by some women that may benefit like-situated women, such as affirmative action.


Author(s):  
Alade E. Ilori ◽  
Rabiu A. Magaji

Fire disaster is accident that occur most frequently with different causes. It requires strong intervention for a sustainable fire-free environment. This study assessed causes and people’s behaviour in fire disasters towards a sustainable fire-free environment in Kebbi State, Nigeria. The study focused at identifying remote causes of fire disasters in Kebbi State, the people’s behaviour in/to fire situations using the state capital (Birnin Kebbi) as well as equipment available in the state fire service head-office towards a fire-free environment. Descriptive research approach was used. A sample size of 204 respondents (30 market traders, 144 occupants and 30 fire service personnel) obtained through Cochran 1963 sample size formula were randomly selected. Questionnaire and observation were used to collect data which were analyzed through descriptive statistics (frequency tables and percentages) and results were presented in charts. Results revealed that electrical fault/wiring, political reasons, negligence among others are the causes of fire disaster in the area with electrical fault/wiring as the remote cause. The behaviour of people towards building a sustainable fire-free environment shows people of the area do help one another in extinguishing fire whenever it strikes. Results also shows that lack of manpower and standard fire stations were the prominent challenges faced by the state fire service head-office in the state capital prompting incessant burning and resulting lives and property loss. Occupants of the area should always read and comply with safety guides of electrical appliances bought before use to avoid and prevent them from substandard gadgets that have ability of endangering their lives.


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