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Review of the Use of Fire Dynamics Theory in Fire Service Activities

Johansson, Nils LU orcid and Svensson, Stefan LU (2019) In Fire Technology 55(1). p.81-103
Abstract

The work of the fire service has changed during the last decades from being essentially operational to include a larger variety of activities to increase fire safety in society. Also, the theoretical understanding of fire development, fire dynamics in buildings and fire safety engineering have improved. There are several good examples of areas were fire dynamics theories have supported and improved the fire service activities associated with building fire safety during the last decades. Despite such examples the quality of knowledge transfer between theory and research, and the more practical arena, such as fire service activities is sometimes questionable. This paper includes a systematic literature review and an interview study that... (More)

The work of the fire service has changed during the last decades from being essentially operational to include a larger variety of activities to increase fire safety in society. Also, the theoretical understanding of fire development, fire dynamics in buildings and fire safety engineering have improved. There are several good examples of areas were fire dynamics theories have supported and improved the fire service activities associated with building fire safety during the last decades. Despite such examples the quality of knowledge transfer between theory and research, and the more practical arena, such as fire service activities is sometimes questionable. This paper includes a systematic literature review and an interview study that is used to discuss how fire dynamics is used to support fire service activities today and where the use of fire dynamics theory could or should be increased in the future. It is found in the paper that fire dynamics theories are currently used more in the preventative and investigative areas than in the operational area of fire service activities. The primary reasons for this is that the timeframe is much shorter in the latter and that there are established procedures and tactics that work well for the common operational situations. However, there is a potential to use fire dynamics theories more in the operational area when it comes to events that occurs less frequent and with a longer duration than for example the normal compartment fire. In general, there is room for improvement of the use of fire dynamics in the fire service and a way forward could be a stronger link between theory and practice in education and training.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Fire dynamics, Fire investigations, Fire prevention, Fire safety engineering, Fire service
in
Fire Technology
volume
55
issue
1
pages
81 - 103
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85053663786
ISSN
0015-2684
DOI
10.1007/s10694-018-0774-3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5bc05272-76a2-43c7-90b9-65b7a491e06a
date added to LUP
2018-10-23 07:44:40
date last changed
2022-04-17 23:33:51
@article{5bc05272-76a2-43c7-90b9-65b7a491e06a,
  abstract     = {{<p>The work of the fire service has changed during the last decades from being essentially operational to include a larger variety of activities to increase fire safety in society. Also, the theoretical understanding of fire development, fire dynamics in buildings and fire safety engineering have improved. There are several good examples of areas were fire dynamics theories have supported and improved the fire service activities associated with building fire safety during the last decades. Despite such examples the quality of knowledge transfer between theory and research, and the more practical arena, such as fire service activities is sometimes questionable. This paper includes a systematic literature review and an interview study that is used to discuss how fire dynamics is used to support fire service activities today and where the use of fire dynamics theory could or should be increased in the future. It is found in the paper that fire dynamics theories are currently used more in the preventative and investigative areas than in the operational area of fire service activities. The primary reasons for this is that the timeframe is much shorter in the latter and that there are established procedures and tactics that work well for the common operational situations. However, there is a potential to use fire dynamics theories more in the operational area when it comes to events that occurs less frequent and with a longer duration than for example the normal compartment fire. In general, there is room for improvement of the use of fire dynamics in the fire service and a way forward could be a stronger link between theory and practice in education and training.</p>}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Nils and Svensson, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{0015-2684}},
  keywords     = {{Fire dynamics; Fire investigations; Fire prevention; Fire safety engineering; Fire service}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{81--103}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Fire Technology}},
  title        = {{Review of the Use of Fire Dynamics Theory in Fire Service Activities}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10694-018-0774-3}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10694-018-0774-3}},
  volume       = {{55}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}