Fires impact people, property and the environment in all countries around the world. In some cases, the resulting losses are extraordinary, causing hundreds of deaths, widespread damage to property and contents and significant impacts on the environment. More often, fires may cause a single casualty or affect a single home, though the effects are still highly significant to those affected and collectively are substantial. This course will provide an overview of the challenges posed by fire as well as the fire safety solutions that are available to meet those challenges.
Designing Safer Building [7:31]
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來自 University of Maryland, College Park 的課程
The Effect of Fires on People, Property and the Environment
109 個評分
University of Maryland, College Park
109 個評分
與講師見面
James Milke, PhDProfessor and Chair
Department of Fire Protection and Engineering
So how do fire protection engineers make us safe from fire?
We'll first of all, they design safer buildings.
When we design buildings, we have what we call a project team.
We have architects,
we have engineers, we have electrical engineers, mechanical engineers.
A fire protection engineer is just another person on that design team that works to
make sure that all the things in the building are safe so
that people can get out alive.
Additionally, fire protection engineers review design documents.
They work for governmental agencies.
Fire Marshall's office, Code Enforcement Office.
Where they review the design documents to make sure that they comply
with the codes and standards that exist in their jurisdiction.
Additionally, fire protection engineers evaluate structures to pinpoint risk.
Many large corporations have fire protection engineers on their staff.
And their job is to go out to their facilities like this oil rig right here
and make sure that if there is a fire hazard they find ways to correct it so
that fires like this don't happen.
Large hotel chains have fire protection engineers on their staff.
Can you imagine how bad that would be for business, if somebody died in their hotel?
They hire these fire protection engineers and the owners know that they can go to
sleep at night knowing that nobody's going to die in their hotel that night.
Additionally, fire protection engineers do fire research.
They get to burn things.
It sounds like a lot of fun, but we're burning things for a purpose.
We're burning things so we can have better, safer building materials.
We burn things so that we can find better systems that
will detect fires quicker or extinguish fires even faster.
Fire protection engineers also investigate fires.
As you see in this photo here, here are some fire protection engineers
from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
They are rooting through the rubble
after an explosion that occurred in the state of Texas.
In this capacity, fire protection engineers try to find out,
why did this fire start?
What happened?
Why was the damage so big?
What measures failed, and how do we make things better?
So the next time we build a building, or renovate a building, that these type
of emergencies, or these types of incidents will never happen again?
So, how do we make buildings safe from fire?
The next couple slides are gonna talk about how a fire protection engineer
thinks through the process of making a building safe from fire.
First of all, they analyze how a building is used.
What is inside that building?
What are people doing?
So, for example, this high-rise building here in Tokyo, we would definitely
design that differently than we would this museum that's in Ottawa, Canada.
Or, in the soccer stadium above, we have a lot of people in this building.
Well, when we have that many people and such a high population density,
there are different things a fire protection engineer will look at.
And finally, up here, this historic building in Ghent, Belgium.
When we look at these types of buildings,
we might design that a little differently than a new building.
Because we wanna make sure that we can preserve the historic fabric of
the building, but at the same time making sure that the building is safe.
After we know how the building is used, we analyze how fires start and grow,
how a fire will travel through the building if there is a fire.
Where will the smoke go?
In this picture here, we have some fire protection engineers working with
the New York City Fire Department.
And trying to find ways to better protect buildings that are subject to high winds.
Up here, you see that there is a fan here and this is really trying to show
the same situation that we would see with a high wind condition in a building.
So, once we know how a fire's gonna spread.
Smoke's gonna spread through the building.
We ask, how will that fire affect people?
When will conditions become so bad in that building no one will survive?
Or, we ask, how will people react to this fire?
If they smell smoke, will they eventually evacuate the building?
Will they go back to get their belongs?
Will the people in this building even have the capacity to evacuate on their own?
After that, they designed systems that control the fire.
These are systems like fire sprinkler systems.
Or there are situations where water cannot control a fire, where we use gasses and
design special hazard systems that will control and eventually extinguish a fire.
We also design systems that alert people to danger.
These are your fire alarm systems that provide an early warning that
a fire has occurred.
These systems also provide information that tell you what the problem is,
what you need to do to get out safely.
Fire protection engineers also design the means of escape or
the exits from the building.
In this picture here, you see a stairway.
And one thing fire protection engineers will look at is how wide is that stairway?
Is that stairway wide enough to get everybody out of the building safely?
And we're not only talking about people leaving the building.
What you'll see here.
But, do we also have enough width of this stair so that firefighters
can also go up the stairs and do their job of extinguishing the fire?
And finally, fire protection engineers protect the structure.
They make sure that fireproofing is available and measures are available so
that when the critical building components are exposed to fire.
That these building components will hold up the building, and
we will not have a building collapse.
Fire protection engineers.
Where do they work?
About 53% of them work in consulting firms
where they design buildings to make them safe from fire.
About 25% work for local governments where they're reviewing drawings,
making sure government buildings in their jurisdictions are safe.
They also work for education, insurance and contractors.
So, to sum up things.
Fire protection engineering.
Well, first of all, fire is a noteworthy problem.
Each year in the United States 3000 people die as a result of fire.
It's the fire protection engineer that uses science and
technology to make our world safe from fire.
And fire protection engineers design ways to protect people,
property, and the environment from fire.
