Fire Risk Management
Principles and Strategies for Buildings and Industrial Assets

Practical methodologies to develop holistic and comprehensive fire safety strategies for buildings and industrial assets

In Fire Risk Management: Principles and Strategies for Buildings and Industrial Assets, a team of distinguished authors delivers an incisive combination of risk management principles and fire safety assessment methods that offers practical strategies and workflows to prevent and mitigate today?s complex fire scenarios. The book summarizes modern, risk-based approaches to fire safety, discussing fire safety objectives in terms of functional statements, performance requirements, and detailed protection measures for buildings and industrial assets towards the development of a fire safety case to timely manage risk with a systematic and structured approach throughout the life cycle of the asset.

The authors introduce the fundamentals of fire safety and design principles before moving on to discuss topics like fire risk assessment methods, risk profiles, risk mitigation, safety management and performance, and protective layers and controls. Fire Risk Management presents practical methods, often borrowed from those successfully used in other domains, that can be defined, shared, and communicated with multiple stakeholders from different backgrounds and with different needs and perspectives. Readers will also find:

• A code-neutral examination of fire safety principles that is independent of local regulations
• Discussions of key principle standards, including NFPA 550 and ISO 45001, and guidelines on fire risk assessment
• Practical explorations that connect theory with practice in the real world
• In-depth case studies that walk readers through fire risk management strategies for railway stations, warehouse storage facilities, heritage buildings, renewable energy installations, and process industry plants

Perfect for fire safety practitioners, engineers, and other stakeholders involved in the design and operation of buildings and industrial assets, Fire Risk Management: Principles and Strategies for Buildings and Industrial Assets will also earn a place in the libraries of facility owners and operators, safety systems managers, occupational health and safety professionals, and code officials.

Foreword xiii

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxi

List of Acronyms xxiii

About the Companion Website xxvii

1 Introduction 1

2 Recent Fires and Failed Strategies 3

2.1 Torre dei Moro 4

2.1.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 4

2.2 Norman Atlantic 6

2.2.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 7

2.3 Storage Building on Fire 8

2.3.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 8

2.4 ThyssenKrupp Fire 9

2.4.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 9

2.5 Refinery’s Pipeway Fire 12

2.5.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 13

2.6 Refinery Process Unit Fire 16

2.6.1 How It Happened (Incident Dynamics) 17

3 Fundamentals of Risk Management 21

3.1 Introduction to Risk and Risk Management 22

3.2 ISO 31000 Standard 26

3.2.1 The Principles of RM 28

3.3 ISO 31000 Risk Management Workflow 28

3.3.1 Leadership and Commitment 28

3.3.2 Understanding the Organisation and Its Contexts 30

3.3.3 Implementation of the RM Framework 31

3.3.4 The Risk Management Process 32

3.4 The Risk Assessment Phase 32

3.5 Risk Identification 33

3.6 Risk Analysis 34

3.6.1 Analysis of Controls and Barriers 35

3.6.2 Consequence Analysis 35

3.6.3 Frequency Analysis and Probability Estimation 36

3.7 Risk Evaluation 36

3.7.1 Acceptability and Tolerability Criteria of the Risk 37

3.8 The ALARP Study 40

3.9 Risk Management over Time 43

3.10 Risk Treatment 44

3.11 Monitoring and Review 46

3.12 Audit Activities 47

3.13 The System Performance Review 47

3.14 Proactive and Reactive Culture of Organisations Dealing with Risk Management 50

3.15 Systemic Approach to Fire Risk Management 64

4 Fire as an Accident 65

4.1 Industrial Accidents 65

4.2 Fires 67

4.2.1 Flash Fire 67

4.2.2 Pool Fire 71

4.2.3 Fireball 72

4.2.4 Jet Fire 75

4.3 Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE) 76

4.4 Explosion 76

4.5 Deflagrations and Detonations 78

4.5.1 Vapour Cloud Explosion 79

4.5.2 Threshold Values 79

4.5.3 Physical Effect Modelling 81

4.6 Fire in Compartments 82

5 Integrate Fire Safety into Asset Design 93

6 Fire Safety Principles 103

6.1 Fire Safety Concepts Tree 103

6.2 NFPA Standard 550 104

6.3 NFPA Standard 551 111

6.3.1 The Risk Matrix Method Applied to Fire Risk 121

7 Fire-Safety Design Resources 123

7.1 International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 123

7.1.1 Iso 16732 125

7.1.2 Iso 16733 133

7.1.3 Iso 23932 139

7.1.3.1 Scope and Principles of the Standard 139

7.1.4 Iso 17776 143

7.1.5 Iso 13702 143

7.2 British Standards (BS) – UK 146

7.2.1 Pas 911 147

7.2.1.1 Risk and Hazard Assessment 152

7.2.2 Bs 9999 156

7.3 Society of Fire Protection Engineers – USA (SFPE-USA) 159

7.3.1 Engineering Guide to Fire Risk Assessment 160

7.3.2 Engineering Guide to Performance-Based Fire Protection 163

7.4 Italian Fire Code 167

7.4.1 IFC Fire-Safety Design Method 168

8 Performance-Based Fire Engineering 175

9 Fire Risk Assessment Methods 189

9.1 Risk Assessment Method Selection 191

9.2 Risk Identification 192

9.2.1 Brainstorming 193

9.2.2 Checklist 194

9.2.3 What–If 194

9.2.4 Hazop 196

9.2.5 Hazid 199

9.2.6 Fmea/fmeda/fmeca 201

9.3 Risk Analysis 215

9.3.1 Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) 215

9.3.2 Event Tree Analysis (ETA) 219

9.3.3 Bow-Tie and LOPA 224

9.3.3.1 Description of the Method 226

9.3.3.2 Building a Bow-Tie 229

9.3.3.3 Barriers 232

9.3.3.4 LOPA Analysis in Bow-Tie 238

9.3.4 FERA and Explosion Risk Assessment and Quantitative Risk Assessment 243

9.3.5 Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) 243

9.3.6 Fire and Explosion Risk Assessment (FERA) 254

9.4 Risk Evaluation 258

9.4.1 FN Curves 258

9.4.2 Risk Indices 259

9.4.3 Risk Matrices 260

9.4.4 Index Methods 264

9.4.4.1 An Example from a “Seveso” Plant 266

9.4.5 SWeHI Method 267

9.4.6 Application 268

9.5 Simplified Fire Risk Assessment Using a Weighted Checklist 272

9.5.1 Risk Levels 273

10 Risk Profiles 281

10.1 People 282

10.2 Property 283

10.3 Business Continuity 285

10.4 Environment 287

11 Fire Strategies 289

11.1 Risk Mitigation 289

11.2 Fire Reaction 295

11.3 Fire Resistance 296

11.4 Fire Compartments 300

11.5 Evacuation and Escape Routes 303

11.6 Emergency Management 312

11.7 Active Fire Protection Measures 317

11.8 Fire Detection 323

11.9 Smoke Control 330

11.10 Firefighting and Rescue Operations 332

11.11 Technological Systems 334

12 Fire-Safety Management and Performance 339

12.1 Preliminary Remarks 339

12.2 Safety Management in the Design Phase 341

12.3 Safety Management in the Implementation and Commissioning Phase 344

12.4 Safety Management in the Operation Phase 345

13 Learning from Real Fires (Forensic Highlights) 349

13.1 Torre dei Moro 349

13.1.1 Why It Happened 349

13.1.2 Findings 350

13.1.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 350

13.2 Norman Atlantic 352

13.2.1 Why It Happened 352

13.2.2 Findings 355

13.2.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 357

13.3 Storage Building on Fire 357

13.3.1 Why It Happened 357

13.3.2 Findings 358

13.3.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 359

13.4 ThyssenKrupp Fire 360

13.4.1 Why It Happened 360

13.4.2 Findings 363

13.4.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 364

13.5 Refinery’s Pipeway Fire 366

13.5.1 Why It Happened 366

13.5.2 Findings 367

13.5.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 367

13.6 Refinery Process Unit Fire 367

13.6.1 Why It Happened 367

13.6.2 Findings 370

13.6.3 Lessons Learned and Recommendations 373

13.7 Fire in Historical Buildings 374

13.7.1 Introduction 374

13.7.1.1 Description of the Building and Works 376

13.7.2 The Fire 379

13.7.2.1 The Fire Damage 379

13.7.3 Fire-Safety Lessons Learned 379

13.8 Fire Safety Concepts Tree Applied to Real Events 380

14 Case Studies (Risk Assessment Examples) 387

14.1 Introduction 396

14.2 Facility Description 396

14.3 Assessment 397

14.3.1 Selected Approach and Workflow 397

14.3.2 Methods 398

14.3.3 Fire Risk Assessment 404

14.3.4 Specific Insights 406

14.4 Results 410

15 Conclusions 421

Bibliography 425

Index 435

Luca Fiorentini is an internationally recognized expert in the field of industrial process safety and fire engineering. He is a special expert on fire engineering and fire risk assessment and a recognized forensic engineer and investigator for fires, explosions, and industrial and marine accidents. He is the author of several scientific books that have been published internationally.

Fabio Dattilo is General Commander of Italy’s National Fire Corp in the Ministry of the Interior. He is the promoter and first author of the Italian Fire Code, published in 2015, that provides a risk- and performance-based alternative replacement to previous prescriptive codes. He served for more than 40 years in the National Fire Corp and is now a contract professor of fire engineering. He developed a specific expertise in dealing with fire safety strategies for heritage buildings, starting with those in Venice.