Fire Management: Some Notes

Several flights into Jersey airport were cancelled after explosions and a fire at a hotel caused a cloud of black smoke to drift over the island. The blaze destroyed the Broadlands Hotel, a staff accommodation block and outbuildings in Mont Fallu, St Peter. Gas canisters were stored on site, and they could be the cause of the blasts. Crews had to pull back due to fears of further blasts and a firefighter was treated for burns. It is thought flights will resume in the morning. About 60 people were evacuated from the area, a 200m cordon put in place and a nearby swimming pool drained to help tackle the blaze.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/7506421.stm

The recent blaze at the Broadlands Hotel had the fire fighting department "stretched to the limit", as the Chief Fire Officer put it on BBC Radio Jersey News this morning. There was one other smaller fire, as well, which meant some extra resources had to be found. All current staff, all staff on retainers were called in.

One of the worrying aspects is that phrase "stretched to the limit". As the population density increases, the chance of fires is likely to increase, and even the chance of simultaneous fires (as happened last night) increases. How many fires can the fire service cope with? How long before there is an emergency which is beyond their capacity?

A report from Wiltshire notes that there is a link between fire cover and population density in current thinking. "New risk based intervention standards [are] based on population density rather than property risks."

Obviously the presence of inflammable materials contributes to the fire, but this need not be the case. Chip pan fires and tumble drier fires are controllable in smaller buildings, but how controllable are they if they break out in high rise flats? Here are two examples contained in recent months:

Fire breaks out in hotel laundry: A fire in the laundry room at the Atlantic Hotel in Jersey led to staff evacuating the building. Three fire engines were called to the hotel at around 0500 BST. On arrival all staff and guests had been evacuated and accounted for. Fire crews discovered the fire in a tumble dryer in the laundry room and managed to extinguish it quickly. Station manager, Marc Le Cornu, said: "Hotel staff did a tremendous job evacuating the entire building".

Crews tackle tumble drier blaze: Emergency services were called to a house fire at a property in Jersey on Saturday after a smoke was seen coming from a tumble drier in the flat. Two fire appliances were sent to the flat in Lewis Street. When the emergency services arrived they saw flames coming from a first floor window. Four firefighters went into the flat and brought the fire under control. There was smoke damage to the lounge and some other nearby rooms. The Fire Service said the chance of further damage was reduced because the owners had closed doors.

Fortunately, help is at hand. The UK Pathfinder project led the way in producing a detailed computerised model, based in input statistics, and being continually refined. It started with simple probabilistic chains, for example:

If we begin by assuming that the probability that an appliance is available is 1 (i.e. it has no initial workload).As soon as the appliance attends an incident, then it is unavailable to attend another call in the area, and therefore the second call must be answered by the next nearest appliance. This obviously has a knock on effect on the availability of the next nearest appliance to answer call in its area. Similar workload consideration can affect all the appliances in the brigade area.

This probabilistic information was then factored into a mathematical software model, which became the basis of the FSEC toolkit, which also uses data about population density, statistics on call outs, water supply, ease of access, time to get to scene, etc to determine whether cover is adequate, and highlight any weaknesses.

A Quantitative planning tool which can be used to inform this process is the Fire Services Emergency Cover (FSEC) Toolkit. This is a computer-based model which has been loaned to fire & rescue authorities by the ODPM to assist them in the construction of local Integrated Risk Management Plans

Note that this is a quantitative planning tool, which while needing (and getting) continual refinement, does at least supply pretty a good mathematical assessment of how good the fire cover is, and whether it needs increasing. I have not seen any evidence so far that Jersey has used this model, and rather than rely on a more qualitative "rule of thumb", or the older methods of calculating fire cover (based mostly just on buildings).

It is about time Jersey looked seriously - as an example of joined-up thinking - on how to assess the adequacy of fire cover for the Island's population before it is stretched beyond the limit - and unlike the UK, we cannot call on neighbouring counties for help.


And finally, think of those holidaymakers who have been evacuated, and especially individuals, such as members of staff, who are now homeless, and have had their possessions destroyed as a result of the fire. If there is any fund set up to help them, I'd gladly contribute.


Links:
Good Fire Safety Advice:
http://www.gov.je/HomeAffairs/Fire/Fire+Safety+Advice+on+Renting+or+Sharing+Accommodation.htm

Fire Services Emergency Cover (FSEC) Toolkit.
http://www.allbusiness.com/public-administration/justice-public-order/174536-1.html

Pathfinder Model
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/144380.pdf