Development of an Environmental and Economic Assessment Tool (Enveco Tool) for Fire Events (SpringerBriefs in Fire)

This book investigates the feasibility of developing a tool that enables fire departments to estimate the value of their services to a community in terms of environmental and financial impact. This book provides a summary of this effort, which resulted in development of a prototype tool for fire department use. The impact of fire on a community is usually measured in terms of the number of fires, human casualties, and property damage. There are, however, more subtle impacts of fire that are not so easily estimated but contribute to the measure of overall performance of the fire service in protecting a community. While environmental and economic impact assessment methodologies exist as separate systems, they generally require a high level of knowledge that is outside the scope of most fire departments. A relatively simple methodology for estimating the environmental and economic impact of fires helps communities understand the degree to which fire department activities can benefit a community's environmental and economic well-being. The scope and approach for this prototype tool is explained, including risk assessment, cost benefit analysis, life cycle assessment, integration and implementation, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. It includes multiple case studies and offers statistical support for future expansion of the tool. Fire service professionals will find this a useful new approach to presenting value in a community, as well as a method for examining their own financial and environmental plans.;Introduction and Background -- Scope -- Approach -- Integration and Implementation -- Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analyses -- Case Studies -- Conclusions -- Future Work. Foreword 6 About the Fire Protection Research Foundation 8 About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 8 Acknowledgments 9 Project Technical Panel 9 Project Sponsor 9 Contents 10 1 Introduction and Background 12 1.1 Selection Criteria for Enveco Tool Components 13 1.1.1 Environmental Assessment 14 1.1.2 Economic Assessment 15 1.1.3 Risk Assessment 15 1.1.4 Combined Fire Impact Assessments 16 2 Scope 17 3 Approach 19 3.1 Quantitative Risk Assessment 21 3.1.1 Radiation and Ignition 21 3.1.2 Spread of Fire from Warehouse Fires 23 3.2 Cost Benefit Analysis 27 3.2.1 Economic Indicators 27 3.2.1.1 Firefighter Fatalities 27 3.2.1.2 Firefighter Injuries 27 3.2.1.3 Replace Damaged Property 28 3.2.1.4 Fire Service Response 28 3.2.1.5 Job Disruption 28 3.2.1.6 Direct Business Interruption 28 3.2.1.7 Indirect Business Interruption 29 3.2.1.8 Rent Reduction 29 3.3 Life Cycle Assessment 29 3.3.1 Goal and Scope 30 3.3.2 Inventory Analysis 31 3.3.2.1 Warehouse Structure Replacement 32 3.3.2.2 Contents Replacement 32 3.3.2.3 Fire Effluents 33 3.3.2.4 Fire Department Response 34 3.3.3 Impact Assessment 34 3.3.4 Interpretation 36 3.3.4.1 LCA Model Strengths 36 3.3.4.2 LCA Model Weaknesses 36 4 Integration and Implementation 38 4.1 Risk of Fire Spread 38 4.2 Warehouse Description 39 4.3 Contents Description 39 4.4 Fire Service Response 40 5 Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analyses 41 5.1 QRA 41 5.2 CBA 46 5.3 LCA 47 5.3.1 Sensitivity of LCA Model Input 47 5.3.2 Uncertainty of LCA Model Results 50 5.4 Overall Enveco Tool Sensitivity 51 6 Case Studies 53 6.1 Case Study 1 53 6.1.1 Quantitative Risk Assessment 55 6.1.1.1 Fire Spread—Deterministic Example Calculations 55 6.1.1.2 Risk Simulations 58 6.1.2 Cost Benefit Analysis 59 6.1.3 Life Cycle Assessment 62 6.2 Case Study 2 63 6.2.1 Quantitative Risk Assessment 63 6.2.2 Risk Simulations 65 6.2.3 Cost Benefit Analysis 66 6.2.4 Life Cycle Assessment 69 7 Conclusions 70 8 Future Work 72 Appendix A: Existing Risk, Environmental, and Economic Assessment Models 74 A.1 Life Cycle Assessment 74 Outline placeholder 0 A.1.1 Fire-LCA 75 A.2 Risk Assessment (RA) 76 Outline placeholder 0 A.2.1 Economic Assessment (EA) 78 A.2.1.1 Cost Benefit Analysis 78 A.3 Related Regulatory Frameworks 80 A.4 Important Parameters 80 A.5 Statistics 81 A.6 Recommendations 85 References 86 Appendix B: Historic Warehouse Fires as Potential Case Studies 88 B.1 Methodology 88 B.2 Warehouse Fires Literature Review 89 Outline placeholder 0 B.2.1 Cold Storage Warehouse Fire (Madison, WI) 89 B.2.2 Food Processing Plant Fire (Yuma, AZ) 90 B.2.3 Furniture Manufacturing Facility Dust Explosion (Lenoir, NC) 91 B.2.4 Storage Warehouse Fire (Phoenix, AZ) 91 B.2.5 Warehouse Fire (New Orleans, LI) 92 B.2.6 Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-firefighter Fatality Fire (Worcester, MA) 93 B.2.7 Sherwin-Williams Paint Warehouse Fire (Dayton, OH) 93 B.2.8 Sandoz Chemical Plant Fire (Basel, Switzerland) 94 B.3 Recommendation 95 References 95 Appendix C: Statistical Decision Support for Possible Future Expansion of the Enveco Tool 97 C.1 NFPA 97 Outline placeholder 0 C.1.1 CStructure Fires by Occupancy (April 2013) 97 C.1.2 Fire Loss in the U.S. During 2014 (September 2015) 98 C.1.3 Trends and Patterns of U.S. Fire Losses in 2013 (March 2015) 99 C.2 USFA 103 C.3 USEIA 103 Outline placeholder 0 C.3.1 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 103 C.3.2 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) 104 C.3.3 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) 104 C.4 Recommendation 104 References 105 Appendix D: Full Enveco Tool Output for Both Case Studies 106 References 113 This book investigates the feasibility of developing a tool that enables fire departments to estimate the value of their services to a community in terms of environmental and financial impact. This book provides a summary of this effort, which resulted in development of a prototype tool for fire department use. The impact of fire on a community is usually measured in terms of the number of fires, human casualties, and property damage. There are, however, more subtle impacts of fire that are not so easily estimated but contribute to the measure of overall performance of the fire service in protecting a community. While environmental and economic impact assessment methodologies exist as separate systems, they generally require a high level of knowledge that is outside the scope of most fire departments. A relatively simple methodology for estimating the environmental and economic impact of fires helps communities understand the degree to which fire department activities can benefit a communityĺls environmental and economic well-being. The scope and approach for this prototype tool is explained, including risk assessment, cost benefit analysis, life cycle assessment, integration and implementation, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. It includes multiple case studies and offers statistical support for future expansion of the tool. Fire service professionals will find this a useful new approach to presenting value in a community, as well as a method for examining their own financial and environmental plans