A Study on Strengthening Standards for Fire Prevention of Anti-freeze Electric Heating Cable

As per the fire statistics survey of 2019, 56.5% (152 cases) of the entire fire accidents (269 cases) caused by heating cables were due to electrical factors. Therefore, in the present work, the electrical factors responsible for heating cable fire have been analyzed, and fire prevention measures have been demonstrated through related reproduction experiments. According to heating cable fire statistics, the fire in anti-freezing appliances (heating cables), except for fires caused by electric cable arcing and other unknown factors, can be classified into four types based on installation configurations. These configurations have been classified and tested according to the Technical Regulations for Electrical and Telecommunications Products and Components (K 10013). The results of a comparative experiment on anti-freezing appliances (heating cable) revealed that the configuration “a type of water pipe with a heating cable wrapped around the water pipe and insulation on the outside” showed the highest temperature among the four installation arrangements. Additionally, the maximum difference between the test temperature (K 10013) and the actual temperature was 40 ℃.

A Prediction Model of Casualties Based on Machine Learning for Selection of Fire Scenario

This study has developed a model that predicts casualties (dead and injured people) using the Classification And Regression Tree (CART). Based on the fire statistics collected over a decade, this model aims to select the appropriate risk-assessment scenarios and fire prevention and safety methods applicable on individual buildings. Our evaluation indicates that this CART model can accurately predict 48 scenarios based on 5 variables related to the types of fire, fire growth rates, and evacuation situations, and calculate the corresponding probabilities for each occurrence. This model is expected to improve future quantitative fire risk assessments.

Towards Understanding Fire Causes in Informal Settlements Based on Inhabitant Risk Perception

Informal settlements (ISs) are a high-risk environment in which fires are often seen. In 2019 alone, 5544 IS fires were reported in South Africa. One of the main problems, when investigating an IS fire, is determining the fire cause. In the last 15 years, approximately 40% of the fire causes were classified as ‘undetermined’ in South Africa. Furthermore, the cases where the fire causes have been determined, do not provide the necessary information to comprehend why the fire started. This paper seeks to gain better insight with respect to fire causes by analysing the fire risk perception of IS inhabitants. To this end, a survey that was conducted in 2017, consisting of data from 2178 IS households, that were affected by a large-scale fire, was analysed. The survey consisted of questions relating to the fire risk perception with regards to the settlement in general, to the inhabitants’ own household, and about measures that could reduce fire risk. The analysis suggests that (a) the survey’s risk target had a strong influence on risk perception, (b) the inhabitants’ fire risk perception of their settlement is similar to that of firefighters in previous research, (c) the risk mitigation demands are more focused on decreasing the consequences of the fire than on the occurrence of a fire event, (d) the national fire statistics are not capturing the causes of real fire incidents, and (e) improvements to the documentation process after a fire event could provide critical information for the implementation of prevention measures.

Automatic Fire Extinguishing Agent Using Microcapsule for Early Fires

According to fire statistics analysis of the nation's fire department between 2015–2019, the most common cause of fire was electrical fire. As reported, 47,135 fires were caused by electricity, 22,852 were caused by mechanical causes, and 871 were caused by gas leakages. In this study, the fire adaptability of microcapsulated fire extinguishing agents was tested against small space electrical fires, such as electrical distribution boards. The tests showed that the fire extinguishing agent inside the capsule was released after initial fire contact and the fire of n-heptane was extinguished within 4.48 seconds (on average). Therefore, the KFI small space B-level fire extinguishing test by the Korea Institute of Fire and Industry met the criteria that the fire was extinguished and did not reoccur within 90 s after the end of the preliminary combustion. In addition, this fire extinguisher (agent) dramatically improved the volume of existing cylinder-type fire extinguishers for small spaces. However, there are no national fire safety codes (NFSCs) for this agent. Therefore, it is necessary to enact fire safety standards for this agent for smooth-field applications.

Current Issues of Assessment and Ensuring Fire Safety of Lighting Products at the Warehouse Storage Facilities

The relevance of the publication is related to the high fire hazard of lighting products. Based on the analysis of fire statistics in the Russian Federation, it is shown that the lamps occupy the fifth place among all the types of electrical installations in terms of the number of fires, direct material damage from them, as well as the number of people perished. At the same time, the number of fires at storage facilities from electrical equipment for the period 2010–2019 is about 39 %, of which the lamps account for a third of all fires. One of the significant objective reasons for such unfavorable statistics is the large number of luminaires in operation at the facilities, as well as their wide assortment and many types of design on the application area. The article summarizes the experience of recent work carried out in the field of fire hazard research of various types of lamps used for the warehouse lighting in particular, the lamps with fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps, LED lamps and high-pressure gas discharge lamps. The physical and technical causes and possible mechanisms of ignition of these electrical products are shown. As a result of the conducted research on the example of the two most common types of lamps used in the storage facilities (with incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps) a method for calculating the probability of fires from these products is proposed, which is fully consistent with the requirements of the current GOST 12.1.004—91 and becomes particularly relevant in the development of standards regulating fire-fighting requirements for lamps instead of GOST 17677—82, which became invalid in the Russian Federation in 2020.

A Study on the Analysis of Sprinkler Operating Probability Using Building Fire Statistics

In Korea, considering that the accuracy of fire scenario evaluation is reduced by performance-based design, it is assumed that the sprinkler does not operate. In other countries, the design continues to be researched considering the operation probability of the sprinkler. In particular, the operation probability that divides the effect after operation is analyzed. Therefore, the operation probability was analyzed by considering the effect of sprinkler operation using domestic fire statistics. As a result, it was found that the probability of successful operation for fire extinguishment was 44%, the success of suppression was 32%, and failure to operate was 24%. As a result of a comparison with data from other countries, the probability of operating, 76%, was lower than that of studies from other countries. When comparing the probability results for successful fire extinguishment, success of suppression, and failure to operate, it was confirmed that the probability of successful suppression was slightly different.