Center for Extreme Load Effects on Structures

Fire

Deaths and injuries from all natural disasters combined are a small fraction of the injuries from fire. According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes cause about 250 deaths nationwide each year, compared to 4,000 deaths from fire.

Fires can quickly become community disasters, particularly:

Wildfires that spread to neighborhoods
Fire caused by breaks in fuel pipelines
Fires that are secondary problems in earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters.

Big element in earthquake disasters

Most urban earthquakes have fire as a secondary effect, from ruptured gas mains, electrical fires, even poorly secured home water heaters.

Fire is also a big element in human-caused and terrorist explosions.

Wildfires

Large wildfires that destroy neighborhoods have been increasing as more homes are built in areas at risk.

Why increase fire resilience

Communities that increase resistance to fire disasters also reduce injury and loss from single-structure fires in homes and businesses. The United States has a fire-death that is more than double the rate of some European countries. The World Fire Statistics Centre ranks the United States 20th out of 25 industrialized countries.

What can communities do?

Determine the local risk of disastrous fire
Identify critical structures to upgrade or protect, such as pipelines.
Encourage fire-proofing of all buildings.
Consider building code and land-use restrictions
Consider fire in multihazard planning
Prepare backup water supplies and protect water supply system during disasters, so that fires can be extinguished before adding to disasters
Develop a community wildfire protection plan

How can CELES help?

Geospatial mapping of fire potential, vulnerable pipelines and structures.
Risk assessment and priority identification for individual communities and regions
Develop mitigation and prevention plans targeted to specific community needs
Sensors and early warning systems with automatic cutoffs for energy and water pipelines and connections
Community awareness and education
Testing and research on behavior of structures and materials in fires
Develop visualization of scenarios for community decision-making

Issues for further research and development:

Low-cost, wireless sensors and monitoring systems for water and energy supplies.

Identify regional relationships of fire to natural disasters.