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Fire-related Research and
Developments Conference (Re11)
E-ProBuild
Project: E-ProBuild
Evaluation of Prevention and Protection
Activities on Commercial, Public and
Heritage Buildings
Jim Baker: Research Associate
17 November 2011
Outline of presentation
An overview of the project and who
our partners are;
Aim and scope of the research;
Research questions we identified;
How we are answering those research
questions;
A useful categorisation of Fire Safety
Management
The project
Title: E-ProBuild: An Evaluation of
Prevention and Protection Activities on
Commercial, Public and Heritage
Buildings
A collaboration between Loughborough
and Glasgow Universities
A partnership with Allianz, Buro Happold,
DCLG, English Heritage, Scottish
Government and BSI
The aim of the research?
To support decision-making in
Integrated Risk Management
Planning
To support resource allocation
processes in the fire and rescue
service through novel methods
To encourage evidence-based
methods of assessment and
evaluation in fire safety activities
Fire prevention and protection
measures in commercial, public and
heritage buildings
The scope of the research?
EXCEPTION:
Heritage
buildings include
residential
properties
The following
research questions
were identified
What is the relevance of fire safety
activity?
Can fire safety activity have an effect
on the reactive and proactive
resource balance in a fire and rescue
service?
What objective data exists that can
support fire safety management?
Can a combination of fire incident
data and insurance data be used to
establish evidence-based cost benefit
analysis models?
How we tackled the
research questions?
We are looking at:
Fire engineering
Investigation of current practice into
fire engineering and the fire
protection of buildings
Analysis of fire incident data and
insurance data from datasets (FDR1,
IRS and FPA)
Devising a methodology for a tool to
consider the cost benefits of fire
protection during the design of
buildings
We are looking at:
Heritage buildings
Aim: Support Heritage Protection
Activities of FRS as part of their
Integrated Risk Management Plans
Objective: Development of a unique,
national heritage property fire
database containing all I, II*, II
listed buildings to allow in-depth
analysis and to support evidence-
based methodologies for planning
We are looking at:
Heritage buildings
Analysis to be carried out:
Evaluating the characteristics of
heritage buildings with regard to
frequency and severity of fires
Evaluating heritage fire safety
activities and their effect on
frequency and severity in targeted
areas using case studies with
individual FRSs
We are looking at:
fire safety management
Hypothesis: ‘most fires in commercial,
public or heritage buildings are the result
of a failure of fire safety management‟
A robust, authoritative categorisation will
facilitate measurement of fire safety
management
Objective measurement will facilitate
profiling of building and business types
Troublesome building and business profiles
can be targeted
We have used the Delphi process
The benefits of the Delphi process?
Anonymity
Convenience
Remoteness
Independence of thought (no peer pressure)
Allows direct focus on the issue
Offers a broad range of views
Enables responses to be revised
Enables the internet to be utilised
It is inexpensive
What were the Delphi Panel given?
Credit: Howarth D: University of Bradford
Ten potential categories
of fire safety management
• Audit
• Budget
• Communication and information
• Compliance with legislation
• Emergency plans and procedures
• Fire training
• Maintenance of fire equipment and standards
• Organisational arrangements
• Reporting and investigation of fires
• Risk Assessment
Who participated?
56% of Members had been directly responsible for fire safety management in an organisation
All Members had been responsible for assessing and reporting on fire safety management
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Perc
en
tag
e
Categories of fire safety management
Importance rating given to fire safety management categories by the Delphi Panel
What were the Delphi Panel asked to do?
To conclude
We are aiming to replace subjectivity
with objectivity by providing
evidence-based tools and ideas
which can be adapted for use by fire
and rescue services
We are aiming to identify and
evaluate best practice to be
employed by other FRSs
More information
More information about the project
can be found at
http://irmp.lboro.ac.uk/
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/irmp/
Plus a forthcoming special issue of
the journal „Safety Science‟
contains papers on“Fire and Rescue
Risk Management”
