A firefighter is a first responder trained in firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires that threaten life and property, as well as to rescue persons from confinement or dangerous situations. Male firefighters are sometimes referred to as firemen.
A smoke detector is a device that senses smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Smoke detectors/Alarms are usually housed in plastic enclosures, typically shaped like a disk about 125 millimetres (5 in) in diameter and 25 millimetres (1 in) thick, but shape and size vary. Smoke can be detected either optically (photoelectric) or by physical process (ionization). Detectors may use one or both sensing methods. Sensitive alarms can be used to detect and deter smoking in banned areas. Smoke detectors in large commercial and industrial buildings are usually connected to a central fire alarm system.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a U.S.-based international nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property, and economic loss due to fire, electrical, and related hazards. As of 2023, the NFPA claims to have 50,000 members and 9,000 volunteers working with the organization through its 250 technical committees.
A crowd is as a group of people that have gathered for a common purpose or intent. Examples are a demonstration, a sports event, or a looting. A crowd may also simply be made up of many people going about their business in a busy area.
A crash bar is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. While originally conceived as a way to prevent crowd crushing in an emergency, crash bars are now used as the primary door opening mechanism in many commercial buildings.
Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the spread and impact of a fire.
"NFPA 704: Standard System for the Identification of the Hazards of Materials for Emergency Response" is a standard maintained by the U.S.-based National Fire Protection Association. First "tentatively adopted as a guide" in 1960, and revised several times since then, it defines the "Safety Square" or "Fire Diamond" which is used to quickly and easily identify the risks posed by hazardous materials. This helps determine what, if any, special equipment should be used, procedures followed, or precautions taken during the initial stages of an emergency response. It is an internationally accepted safety standard, and is crucial while transporting chemicals.
Emergency evacuation is an immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property.
Evacuation simulation is a method to determine evacuation times for areas, buildings, or vessels. It is based on the simulation of crowd dynamics and pedestrian motion. The number of evacuation software have been increased dramatically in the last 25 years. A similar trend has been observed in term of the number of scientific papers published on this subject. One of the latest survey indicate the existence of over 70 pedestrian evacuation models. Today there are two conferences dedicated to this subject: "Pedestrian Evacuation Dynamics" and "Human Behavior in Fire".
Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public on the precautions that should be taken to prevent potentially harmful fires from occurring. It is a proactive method of preventing fire-based emergencies and reducing the damage caused by them. Fire prevention education can take the form of videos, pamphlets, and banners. Often, the messages and lessons are simple tips. Many fire departments will have one or more Fire Prevention Officers, which may also be a routine duty of firefighters.
A placard is a notice installed in a public place, like a small card, sign, or plaque. It can be attached to or hung from a vehicle or building to indicate information about the vehicle operator or contents of a vehicle or building. It can also refer to paperboard signs or notice carried by picketers or demonstrators.
The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) is a professional society for fire protection engineering established in 1950 and incorporated as an independent organization in 1971. It is the professional society representing those practicing the field of fire protection engineering. The Society has over 5,000 members and more than 120 chapters and over 20 student chapters worldwide. SFPE also includes the SFPE foundation with the following mission "Enhancing the scientific understanding of fire and its interaction with the social, natural and built environments".
The Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act (FSIA) is the name of a piece of legislation that has been introduced in both the House and the Senate since 2003. The legislation would amend the 1986 Internal Revenue Code by classifying fire sprinkler retrofits as either a Section 179 depreciation deduction or a fifteen-year property for purposes of depreciation. Currently the tax depreciation time for commercial property is 39 years and 27.5 for residential.
An exit sign is a pictogram or short text in a public facility marking the location of the closest emergency exit to be used in an emergency that necessitates rapid evacuation. Most fire, building, health, and safety codes require exit signs that are always lit.
On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, England, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. Seventy people died at the scene and two people died later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha oil-platform disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Blitz of World War II.
Erica Kuligowski is an American social research scientist investigating human behavior during emergencies and the performance of evacuation models in disasters. She currently works at RMIT university in Melbourne (Australia). Kuligowski used to work the Engineering Lab of the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducting research on several fire disasters including the NIST Hurricane Maria Project.
Crowd collapses and crowd crushes are catastrophic incidents that can occur when a body of people becomes dangerously overcrowded. When numbers are up to about five people per square meter, the environment may feel cramped but manageable; when numbers reach between eight and ten people per square meter, individuals become pressed against each other and may be swept along against their will by the motion of the crowd. Under these conditions, the crowd may undergo a progressive collapse where the pressure pushes people off their feet, resulting in people being trampled or crushed by the weight of other people falling on top of them. At even higher densities, the pressure on each individual can cause them to be crushed or asphyxiated while still upright.
Enrico Ronchi is an Italian Associate Professor at the Department of Fire Safety Engineering and the Department of Transport and Roads at Lund University, Sweden. He is known for his research in evacuation modeling, human behavior in fire, and fire safety engineering.
Daniel Nilsson is a Swedish fire safety engineer and academic, currently serving as a Professor in Fire Engineering at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Nilsson has been a member of the ISO TC 92/SC4, developing standards for fire safety engineering since 2014. Nilsson has made contributions to the field of fire safety through his research, teaching, and leadership in the industry, focusing on evacuation dynamics and debunking the myth of panic. His work focuses on human behaviour in fire, evacuation modelling, and the design of fire safety systems.
Evacuation models are simulation tools designed to predict the movement and behaviour of individuals during an emergency evacuation. These models are today used to simulate evacuations for several disasters, such as building fires, wildfires, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Thes models have been under development since the late 1970s and they are now widely to assess the time required to evacuate buildings, cities or wider regions.
