Citation

Cicione A, Walls RS, Kahanji C. Fire Safety J. 2019; 105: 19-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.02.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Internationally, informal settlements (also known as slums, favelas, shantytowns, ghettos, etc.) are expanding rapidly which have been associated with numerous large fires (where more than 10,000 people can be left homeless in a single disaster [1]), and an increase in fire related injuries and deaths. As a result of an increase in fire related incidences, various proposed interventions have been funded from governmental or private sources. However, many interventions have been unsuccessful because of technical, political, economic, social or practical issues. It is with the above mentioned in mind that this paper seeks to provide an understanding of fire behavior between multiple informal settlement dwellings (ISDs) as a baseline for future research and experiments. The paper starts by defining informal settlements in terms of construction and continues to look at the potential causes and hazards associated with informal settlement fires. The following two full-scale informal settlement dwelling burn experiments were conducted; (a) three ISDs clad with steel sheeting and (b) three ISDs clad with timber. The heat fluxes and temperatures of both experiments are shown and compared to understand the effect of cladding materials (i.e. timber cladding versus steel cladding, which are mostly used in informal settlements) on fire spread. Some general behavioral observations made during the full-scale experiments are given and discussed (i.e. how fire spreads, collapse mechanisms, etc.). Fire spread times are reported for both experiments, and range between 4 and 9 min (i.e. from the start of flashover in the first dwelling to the end of flashover in the last dwelling). These experiments are one of the bigger ISD experiments conducted to date and are the first experiments that measured heat fluxes for ISDs, which is crucial to understand fire spread. An important finding in this paper is that there is a critical separation distance of 3.8 m needed to prevent fire spread between dwellings.

Language: en

Keywords

Fire dynamics; Fire spread; Full-scale experiments; Informal settlements