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Fire Impact Tool- Measuring the impact of fire suppression operations on the environment

Amon, Francine ; Gehandler, Jonatan LU ; McNamee, Robert ; McNamee, Margaret LU and Vilic, Azra (2021) In Fire Safety Journal 120.
Abstract

In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in... (More)

In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in which responders arrive at the incident and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the vehicle or enclosure but do not suppress the fire. The Fire Impact Tool is not intended for use during an actual fire incident. This work does not answer every question for every possible fire scenario, but it does provide a framework for deeper, broader, more comprehensive training and pre-planning. This is a necessary step toward a future in which responders are prepared to make informed decisions about firefighting strategies and tactics that include environmental consequences.

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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
Compartment fires, Decision support tool, Environment, Environmental risk assessment, Lifecycle assessment, Modelling, Pre-planning, Suppression, Training, Vehicle fires
in
Fire Safety Journal
volume
120
article number
103071
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85084384175
ISSN
0379-7112
DOI
10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103071
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
912b7a70-de26-49d3-b688-54e6154a9964
date added to LUP
2020-06-10 13:35:13
date last changed
2022-04-18 22:43:44
@article{912b7a70-de26-49d3-b688-54e6154a9964,
  abstract     = {{<p>In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in which responders arrive at the incident and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the vehicle or enclosure but do not suppress the fire. The Fire Impact Tool is not intended for use during an actual fire incident. This work does not answer every question for every possible fire scenario, but it does provide a framework for deeper, broader, more comprehensive training and pre-planning. This is a necessary step toward a future in which responders are prepared to make informed decisions about firefighting strategies and tactics that include environmental consequences.</p>}},
  author       = {{Amon, Francine and Gehandler, Jonatan and McNamee, Robert and McNamee, Margaret and Vilic, Azra}},
  issn         = {{0379-7112}},
  keywords     = {{Compartment fires; Decision support tool; Environment; Environmental risk assessment; Lifecycle assessment; Modelling; Pre-planning; Suppression; Training; Vehicle fires}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Fire Safety Journal}},
  title        = {{Fire Impact Tool- Measuring the impact of fire suppression operations on the environment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103071}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103071}},
  volume       = {{120}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}