Quantitative Risk Assessment in Fire Safety

Quantitative Risk Assessment in Fire Safety
Author: Ganapathy Ramachandran
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2011-02-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 113581838X

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.

Risk Exposure and Risk Attitude of Home Owners in Fire Protection Investment Decisions

Risk Exposure and Risk Attitude of Home Owners in Fire Protection Investment Decisions
Author: Sieglinde K. Fuller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 86
Release: 1989
Genre: Decision making
ISBN:

The report demonstrates that the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a promising decision tool for evaluating fire protection systems for homeowners. It lays the ground for development of specialized computer software for applying the AHP to decisions of individual homeowners. Unlike conventional methods of economic analysis, the AHP integrates quantifiable and qualitative variables. The study explores how to include in the decision-making process information on an individual's risk exposure and risk attitude, information which is generally difficult or impossible to quantify. By differentiating between risk exposure and risk attitude, this application goes beyond the AHP's conventional treatment of risk. The AHP is applied to the choice of purchasing smoke detectors, a sprinkler system, or a combination of the two. Two hypothetical cases are assumed, one in which the homeowner is risk-taking and has lower-than-average risk exposure, and one in which the homeowner is risk-averse and has higher-than-average risk exposure. Subjective probabilities of fire, death, injury, and property loss are merged with more easily quantifiable benefit and cost criteria. A method of pairwise comparisons provides the data to calculate priority vectors for the fire protection alternatives.