OBJECTIVES Firefighters are exposed to hazardous conditions as a result of their occupation and often understand the dangers of these toxic exposures; yet, it remains unclear why some refrain from wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in dangerous situations. We were intrigued by the gap between demonstrated safety knowledge and lack of connection to observed or self-reported safety behav...

Two important tunnel safety technologies are addressed. The majority of long road tunnels have ventilation systems. In the event of a fire in a tunnel, such systems will influence fire development in a number of different ways. Recent research and observations on these influences are presented. The effects discussed are critical ventilation velocity for smoke control and the influence of ventil...

Computational tools have been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for modeling fire spread and smoke transport in order that various professionals such as fire protection engineers, fire researchers, fire investigators, fire fighters, AHJ’s (authorities having jurisdiction) etc. may study the dynamics of fire with the ultimate aim of improving fire safety. The...

A review concerning road tunnel fire safety and risk is presented. In particular different perspectives and methods on safety and risk are discussed. Road tunnel fire safety usually involves high uncertainty and high-stakes decisions. Thus, a wider group of stakeholders and different types of knowledge should be included in the fire safety analysis and evaluation, than what is required by techn...

Introduction: One of the major concerns in laryngeal laser surgery is the risk of airway fire. The introduction ofwrapped tubes and metal tubes has reduced the fire hazards. However, these tubes are expensive and do not provide convenient access to the surgical field. There are few laboratory studies addressing the resistance of polyvinylchloride tubes against ignition in the given circum...

There are a broad range of infrastructure sensing applications in transportation that are not being met. Many of these vital assets are aging or not adequately monitored with the potential for catastrophic failure. As examples, the bridge failure in Minneapolis, Minnesota was due to a structural failure. Fire safety problems, with recent life-loss fires, in road tunnels are challenging due to s...

Open kitchens have been designed for many small residential units in tall buildings in Southeast Asia. This open design, without enclosing the kitchen with fire resisting walls has failed to comply with building fire safety codes in places like Hong Kong. Performance-based design was adopted to determine fire safety provisions. Gas cookers with flames are not allowed. Additional fire protection...

Automatic fire detection is important for early detection and promptly extinguishing fire. There are ample studies investigating the best sensor combinations and appropriate techniques for early fire detection. In the previous studies fire detection has either been considered as an application of a certain field (e.g., event detection for wireless sensor networks) or the main concern for which ...

An enclosed human occupancy chamber is commonly known as hyperbaric chamber system (HCS). The medical treatment to divers suffering from decompression sickness is administered inside a hyperbaric chamber. The hazards inherent inside the chamber include sudden loss of pressure, fire and rapid loss of life-supporting gases. Fire can be catastrophic inside the oxygenenriched confined space of a hy...