Quality Water Service for Fire Protection

Fire prevention and mitigation technologies in high-rise buildings: A bibliometric analysis from 2010 to 2023

The fire detection system combines the simultaneous measurements of smoke, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The security of campus against intruders moving in laboratories, class rooms, staffrooms or washrooms. The fire alarm system consists of Fire detectors (with can be smoke detector, heat, or Infra-Red detectors), control unit and alarm system. A fire detection system is developed based on the simultaneous measurements of temperature and smoke. The fire detection system with the alarm algorithm detected fires that were not alarmed by smoke sensors, and alarmed in shorter times than smoke sensors operating alone. Previous fire detection algorithms used data from sensors for temperature, smoke, and combustion products. The smoke sensor alarms when the analog output signal exceeds or equal the threshold value. The node includes analog sensors to measure smoke, carbon monoxide (CO) and temperature. A fire alarm system should reliably and in a timely way notify building occupants about the presence of fire indicators, such as smoke or high temperatures.

The article presents issues related to the use of electronic security systems (ESB) on a vast railway area. These systems are operated in very different environmental conditions. Due to the fact that electrical and electronic systems coexist on the extensive railway area for various purposes - e.g. power supply systems for railway traction, rail traffic control systems (SRK), electronic security systems - fire alarm system (SSP), CCTV system (CCTV), access control system (SKD), a significant operational problem in addition to environmental changes in which the above-mentioned technical facilities are used, there is also the issue of electromagnetic compatibility. Depending on the area extent of the railway area, construction, technical configuration, way of alarming, safety classes of these systems may be different. In SSP there is another factor that affects the configuration of these systems, namely the so-called fire scenario and how to notify the State Fire Service (PSP) about an existing fire risk or damage. There are several different ESB structures - focused, distributed and mixed. The type of ESB used in a given railway facility - construction or open area is conditioned by its cubic capacity [m3], terrain extent [m2 or km2] and the number of supervised facilities. The use of a given type of ESB to ensure safety and fire protection in a given railway area also depends on the requirements of legal provisions for the object(s), the fire scenario that must be implemented by the system, legal requirements for the given protected area, the accepted scope of protection and the reliability and operational requirements to be met by these installations. The article presents basic issues related to ESB operation that are used in the selected railway area. The review of technical solutions of selected ESBs and the methodology of conducting the analysis for the purposes of developing, e.g. fire scenario or hazard analysis, presented in the article, will enable railway facility designers to properly develop design assumptions.

As the public pays more and more attention to fire, the importance of fire prevention is becoming increasingly prominent. This paper focuses on the realization of fire alarm software that can alarm in real time. Through in-depth research on sensor technology, cloud computing technology, mobile application development framework and real-time data processing algorithm, the accurate monitoring of smoke concentration and timely alarm function are realized. Through cloud server communication technology, the software can be stably connected with the supporting hardware equipment to complete the alarm notification in real time. At the same time, by continuously querying the server data at a frequency of once per second, it ensures that the alarm notification is issued to the user as soon as the server alarm data is updated. In addition, the software has a simple user interface, which is convenient for users to set up and view historical data, and fully considers the convenience of use. After rigorous testing, this software has excellent performance in accuracy, real-time and stability, providing a convenient and efficient solution for improving fire prevention capabilities, and has broad market prospects for its application in fire protection.

This report provides a summary of the fire protection and life safety features for UW Medicine Lake Union, a research and laboratory building, in accordance with Seattle Building Code (SBC), International Building Code (IBC), and Life Safety Code (NFPA 101). The objective of this report is to identify if UW Medicine Lake Union meets both the prescriptive and performance based code. The primary fire safety goal is to provide life safety system that reduced the risk of fire-related injuries and loss of life due to fire. The prescriptive analysis is used to identify the building integrity per code. This evaluates the egress capacity, fire detection, fire suppression and structural fire protection. The UW Medicine Lake Union includes numerous laboratories that regularly utilize various hazardous materials. According to the literature in the Architectural drawings, the design team worked with the university does that the chemical quantities in these areas would not exceed the limits set forth in the code. With these limits in place, portions of the facility did not need to be classified as hazardous occupancy, and the special provisions associated with a hazardous occupancy. Although its spaces are used in various ways, the building was able to be classified as business occupancy. Hazardous occupancy areas were not required because hazardous materials were limited to the code-defined exempt quantities. These details helped simplify the overall life safety and egress system, while providing appropriated levels of life safety. UW Medicine Lake Union Building is high rise building with seven story research and development laboratory and two levels of below grade parking garages. It includes testing and research laboratories, laboratory support, offices and conference room. It is approximately 317,382 square feet in gross area and a building height of 109 feet. It is classified as B occupancy classification. The facility is protected throughout by automatic sprinkler and fire alarm systems. The building was constructed in 2011 in accordance with the 2009 Seattle Building Code with a Type 1A construction. See 2.6 Type and Description of Construction. The total occupant load is 2797 occupants. See Table 4: Summary of Occupant Loads. The UW Medicine Lake Union building has six (6) exit discharge. The Main and Back Entrance exit door have 72” doors; P1 (Stair 1), Retail and South exit (stair 3) door have 36” doors, and the garage exit door (stair 4) have 44” door that leads to the public way. See Figure

The functioning fire protection system in the State Forests, which covers 76.9% of the forest area in the country, is constantly improved thanks to close cooperation with the Forest Research Institute. The results of the research conducted by the Institute are thus implemented in forestry practice, examples of which are presented in this article. The basis for planning and organizing rescue operations is the assessment of potential forest fire risk, which is carried out using the method of classifying forest areas to the forest fire risk category. It is determined for the forest district (average area 17500 ha) for 10 years on the basis of the frequency of fires, forest stand, climatic and anthropogenic conditions according to the formulas developed for each of the factors. The category determines the distribution of funds for fire protection and the method of forest preparation in the event of a fire, concerning fire detection, communication and alarm systems, the density of fire access roads and water supply points, and fire extinguishing equipment. The macroscopic method of forest fire risk categorization is complemented by the method of forest stand flammability classes, which determines their susceptibility to fire due to the presence of flammable material. It is based on the forest habitat type and soil cover type and is determined at the level of separation (average area 3 ha), with the possibility of generalization to the division (20 ha) and forestry (1300 ha). Both methods are used to map the potential fire risk of forests in Poland. The method of determining the degree of forest fire risk on the basis of air temperature and relative humidity, precipitation and direct measurements of moisture content of pine litter (Pinus sylvestris) is used to assess the dynamic forest fire risk, shaped by weather conditions. Determining the degree of risk is performed from the 1st of March to the 30th of September, daily at 9.00 and 13.00 in 60 forecast zones with the use of an automated network of 145 meteorological measuring points. Information on the degree of risk determines the operational readiness of ground and air forces. In the event of a fire and determination of its forest address, we can download from the Information System of the State Forests, data on the flammability class of the forest stand and the characteristics of the flammable material (type, fuel load), using the developed fuel models for 7 types of soil cover, the fires of which constitute nearly 90 % of all events. The possibility of a soil cover fire turning into a crown fire is determined based on the developed algorithms, taking into account the age of the forest stand, habitat and stand conditions, meteorological conditions and the duration of the fire. Organizing a firefighting action, including in particular having the right amount of forces and resources to extinguish a fire with the smallest possible area, can be supported by the application Model of a forest fire, which the forest service has at its disposal.

Fire Protection Provision of Structures from FHA Perspective

This dissertation is an examination of fire department response times in eight major cities of the United States including Houston, TX, Charlotte, NC, St. Paul, MN, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Louisville, KY, San Francisco, CA and Miami, FL. This study investigates and analyzes fire protection as an urban service as measured by response times, first through proportional access by looking at socio-economic status (SES), and secondly through spatial access by examining several different aspects of urban sprawl. Response times were regressed as the main dependent variable with SES and urban sprawl variables in the quantitative portion of the study. Results indicated that response times did vary by the SES nature of the fire district and that sprawl did affected response times. The quantitative results were followed by a qualitative study which examined the quantitative results from 3 local fire chiefs. This dissertation is divided into 5 chapters. Chapter one gives an overview of the dissertation along with stating the hypothesis, and significance of this dissertation. Chapter two is an overview of the literature which focuses on urban service provision, fire protection as an urban service, response times, the locations of fire stations, fire districts, urban sprawl, and the measurement of equity and sprawl. The literature is used as a guide in framing the study. Chapter 3 is the methodology section which discusses the data and how the variables were selected. In chapter 3 there is also a description of the statistical models and how the models were derived. Chapter 4 is the results section and provides an analysis of the descriptive statistics, regression results, and an spatial analysis of data for four cities. The results section also includes the qualitative section which has interview data from 3 fire chiefs in Louisville-Jefferson County. In chapter 5 I discuss the results, make recommendations, and list possible limitations to this study and areas for future research.

Performance characteristics and assessment of fire alarm system

Chapter 6 - Fire Alarm Systems

Purpose. Based on the generalization of the results of long-term studies, the possibilities of protecting wooden churches from fires; detecting and extinguishing fire sources; ensuring safety of churchgoers in case of fire in conditions of limited resources are shown. Typical issues of ensuring fire safety of wooden cultural monuments are considered on the example of a unique monument of wooden architecture in Russia – the Assumption Cathedral in the town of Kem, Republic of Karelia, a parish church available to visitors. Methods. The tasks have been solved on the basis of the comprehensive examination of the church by experts and the analysis of fire safety state of the facility by fire prevention and extinguishment specialists. The criterion for ensuring fire safety is the fulfillment of the requirement on ensuring the normative value of the individual fire risk. Measures on fire protection of the church have been proposed, taking into account the experience of national and foreign developments in the field of fire safety at cultural heritage sites. Findings. The causes of the increased fire hazard of the wooden church in the town of Kem have been established and recommendations have been made for ensuring fire safety of the church. The recommendations for ensuring fire safety of the Assumption Cathedral have been made. To minimize the cost of adapting the facility to the modern use, options for fire protection of the church are given. Options for building construction and fire prevention are compared with engineering means of fire extinguishment, taking into account the features of historical wooden buildings. Research application field. A set of fire prevention measures makes it possible to establish a rational fire protection system of the facility based on the variant design and taking into account certain criteria. Recommendations can be considered as typical providing the required level of fire safety of religious facilities of wooden architecture. Conclusions. Recommendations have been made on a system of firefighting measures for protecting cultural heritage facilities of federal significance of the Russian peoples.

Current coal mine fire risk assessments often rely on static models and isolated factors, failing to capture the complex, dynamic interactions that lead to fires. To address this gap, we propose a comprehensive framework—termed INK-FBSD—integrating Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), the NK model, fuzzy Bayesian network analysis, and System Dynamics (SD) simulation. Using ISM, we identified and hierarchically structured 31 risk factors across human, equipment, environment, management, and fire protection domains, revealing that a robust mine safety accountability system is a pivotal root factor. The NK model quantifies how accident likelihood escalates as more factors interact—for example, four-factor couplings (e.g., equipment–environment–management–fire protection) yield significantly higher risk indices (T ≈ 0.34) than two-factor scenarios. The fuzzy Bayesian analysis estimates an overall 46% probability of a fire accident under current conditions, and diagnostic inference pinpoints excessive coal dust accumulation and neglected fire prevention as top contributors when an incident occurs (posterior probabilities 83% and 78%, respectively). Finally, SD simulations show how key risk factors (such as equipment failure and maintenance delays) can rapidly elevate to severe risk levels within 9–15 months without intervention, underscoring the need for continuous monitoring and proactive control. In summary, the INK-FBSD approach provides a multidimensional understanding of coal mine fire mechanisms and delivers practical guidance for safety management by prioritizing critical risk factors, anticipating high-risk coupling pathways, and informing more effective fire prevention and emergency response strategies.

Readers are invited to submit letters for publication in this department. Submit letters online at http://joem.edmgr.com. Choose “Submit New Manuscript.” A signed copyright assignment and financial disclosure form must be submitted with the letter. Form available at http://www.joem.org under Author and Reviewer information. To the Editor: The US Navy developed aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) in the 1960s containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl subsances (PFAS) and synthetic foaming surfactants that allowed for improved firefighter safety, particularly for firefighters involved in liquid fuel and crash fire rescue operations and those using nozzles during structural firefighting.1 PFAS are also commonly used to water and stain-proof specific textiles such as the materials used to construct firefighter turnout gear.2,3 AFFFs have evolved to include a number of different formulations (including AFFFs that meet Military Specifications [MILSPEC], alcohol-resistant aqueous film-forming foam [AR-AFFF], etc.) that often, but not always, rely on PFAS compounds for proper foam performance. AFFFs used to fight class B petroleum fires have historically contained longer chain PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)4–6 that are associated with adverse health outcomes.7,8 PFOS use in new AFFFs and other products were banned in the European Union in 2011 and Canada in 2013, and major US manufacturers of AFFF indicated they would no longer produce PFOA-based fluorosurfactant foams after 2015.9,10 However, AFFFs typically have a long shelf life of up to 25 years.11 In addition, current fluorinated AFFFs contain shorter chain PFAS chemicals with less information on potential toxicity. Little is known about AFFF use and knowledge of legacy and current PFOA and PFOS chemicals among firefighters. Some PFAS are associated with cancer, such that in 2016 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified PFOA as Group 2B indicating they are possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on limited evidence in humans that it can cause testicular and kidney cancer, and limited evidence in laboratory animals.7,12,13 Since the IARC designation, some additional cancer studies have suggested an increased risk of testicular cancer with increased PFOA exposure, whereas others have suggested possible links to thyroid cancer and kidney cancer.14–16 Epidemiologic studies have associated firefighting with an increased risk for a variety of cancers, including testicular and kidney cancer, among others, but the exposures responsible for these increased rates have not been identified.17,18 To date there is limited knowledge about the use of PFOA/PFOS containing foams within the US fire service. This is of greater concern in airport facilities where AFFFs that meet the MILSPEC are required for use on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-regulated airports and military airports. Concerns about AFFF use and PFOA/PFOS chemical exposure center around the potential negative impact on firefighter health as well as on the environment from the discharge of foam solutions generated from the combination of water and foam concentrate. When PFOA/PFOS-containing AFFF are repeatedly used in one location over an extended period of time (such as in firefighter training facilities), the PFOA/PFOS can move from the foam substance into soil and then into groundwater.19–21 The amount of PFOA/PFOS that enter the groundwater depends on the type and amount of AFFF used, where it was used, and the type of soil and other factors. At firefighter training facilities, where AFFF is often repeated discharged onto concrete training areas, long-term release of PFAS into the surrounding soil and water from the concrete is anticipated to occur on the order of decades.22 As an initial first step to study the concern about AFFF use and PFOA/PFOS knowledge, we assess the awareness and knowledge of perfluorinated chemicals and AFFF use among Florida fire departments. MATERIALS AND METHODS Study Design and Participant Recruitment A cross-sectional study design was used to collect health and safety survey information from 142 firefighters attending the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association Health and Safety Conference held on December 10 to 12, 2018, in Orlando, FL. Our research team distributed paper surveys during the conference initially by placing a blank survey at each seat in the main conference ballroom, and through distribution at a dedicated exhibitor table located in the immediate entry/egress of the main conference meeting room. The annual Florida fire chiefs meeting is open to all Florida firefighters and is largely composed of attendees from senior-level positions within Florida fire services, including fire chiefs, assistant chiefs, fire prevention officers, shift officers, individual firefighters/paramedics, health and safety officers, and fire investigators. To encourage completion of the survey, conference organizers made an announcement to attendees on the main conference stage twice a day. A t-shirt with the research team's Firefighter Cancer Initiative logo was provided to each firefighter that completed the survey. A verbal consent process was used given the anonymous nature of the survey, where the first page of the survey contained the consent information; firefighters were provided a copy upon request. A total of 11 surveys were removed from the final analytic dataset used in this study given three surveys were from firefighters outside the State of Florida and eight survey respondents indicated they did not know if their department used AFFF, the main study outcome variable. Survey Instrument and Study Measures We designed a 97-item survey instrument, Firefighter Assessment of Strategies Trumping Cancer (FAST-C), with the goal of documenting fire department and individual firefighter-level decontamination practices among Florida firefighters. Survey measures were adapted from previously validated or administered surveys of occupational safety and health and worksite health promotion.23–25 New measures assessing awareness and knowledge of PFOA/PFOS and AFFF use were adapted from other occupational health and safety measures26,27 and assessed for content and face validity with Florida fighters before survey administration. AFFFs Use and Knowledge Measures We asked survey respondents “Does your fire service department use AFFFs?” with response options “Yes, No, or Don’t Know.” We assessed the frequency of AFFF use with the question “Approximately how many times each year does your fire department answer calls in which you need to use AFFFs?” with response options “0 to 1, 2 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, 16 to 20, 20+, or Don’t Know.” Measures assessing AFFF brand, formulation, PFOA/PFOS components, and decontamination post-AFFF fire suppression use were assessed with the following questions all with “Yes, No, or Don’t Know” response options: “Do you know the brand or manufacturer of the AFFF that your fire department currently uses?”; “If your department uses/stores AFFF, are you aware if it is the original formulation or the newest formulation?”; “Do you know if the AFFF, which you currently use, has PFOA or PFOS as a main component?”; and “After incidents where AFFFs are employed, do you and others in your fire department exchange or wash your gear?.” Lastly, we assessed the firefighter's interest in the following current trade profession discussion on AFFF and PFOA on turnout gear with the two questions: “Do you follow the current discussion about AFFF” and “Do you follow the current discussion about PFOA and turnout gear?” with response options “Yes, No, or Don’t Know.” Organizational Characteristics We evaluated four organizational characteristics of the fire department: workforce size, total health and safety officers, fire department geographic location, and employment type. Workforce size was defined as the number of active firefighters (nonadministrative positions) employed within the fire department. Total health and safety officers were defined as the total number of health and safety officers employed within the fire department, where the officer is a firefighter whose job function includes the health and safety of their fire department workforce. The geographic location where the fire department is located within Florida was operationalized as rural area only, urban area only, suburban area only, and mixed area (ie, urban, suburban, and rural). Employment type was a measure assessing if the fire department was composed of career firefighters only, volunteer only, or mixed career/volunteer. Data Analysis Descriptives, Bivariates, and Correlations We conducted exploratory statistical data analyses for continuous variables, expressed as mean with its standard error, and for categorical variables, represented as frequency and percent of the sample. We examined the main outcome of use of AFFF stratified by workforce size, total health and safety officers, fire department geographic location, and employment type. For categorical data, we conducted chi-square analyses to compare groups, and used t tests for continuous data. We used a Levene test of homogeneity of variance across groups for each variable.28 We used Spearman product-moment correlation to examine the relationship between workforce size, number of health and safety officers and frequency of AFFF use. The significance level was set at 5%. All statistical analyses were done on SPSS v21 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). This study research protocol was reviewed and approved by the University's Institutional Review Board. RESULTS A total of 131 Florida firefighters representing 67 Florida fire departments (13.7% of all Florida fire departments) completed the survey. Respondents were predominately in the 36 to 45 years old age group (36.7%), male (85.4%), career firefighters (96.9%), and current rank of chief/battalion chief/division chief (35.4%; Table 1). Over 80% of survey respondents indicated their fire departments use AFFF as part of their fire suppression activities. Fire departments using AFFF were predominantly an all career workforce (93.1% vs 76.9%, P = 0.015) and had no health and safety officers on staff (7.1% vs 0.0%, P = 0.050) compared with fire departments not using AFFF.TABLE 1: Florida Firefighter and Fire Department Characteristics Stratified by Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFFs) Use Among Attendees of the 2018 Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association Health and Safety ConferenceA third (33.3%) of fire departments using AFFF indicated that they used it on two to five calls per year and almost 17% of departments used it greater than 16 times per year (Fig. 1). Departments that used AFFF greater than 16 times per year were predominately medium-sized departments (101 to 500 firefighters, 50.0%), had one health and safety officer (60.0%), and were located in an urban area (43.8%). Among fire departments that use AFFF, there were more small- (1 to 100 firefighters, 48.0%) and medium-sized (101 to 500 firefighters, 43.1%) than large-sized fire departments (8.8%). Among all respondents, 24.5% knew the brand or manufacturer of the AFFF, 17.6% were aware of the original or newest formulation, 4.6% were aware that their AFFF brand had PFOA or PFOS as a main component, and 48.0% of firefighters indicated their department members wash their turnout gear after incidents where AFFF was employed. Survey respondents reported that 30.0% of them follow the current professional firefighter trade discussion about AFFF use, and 33.8% follow discussions on the presence of PFOA on turnout gear.FIGURE 1: Frequency of AFFF use and knowledge/awareness of AFFF/PFOS issues among Florida firefighters.Among firefighters who reported on the brand of AFFF used by their department, the types include Universal Gold 1%/3% AR-AFFF (37.5%), FireAde Class A foam (20.8%), Ansul-A Municipal Class Fire (12.5%), Ansulite 1 × 3 F-601A AR-AFFF (12.5%), CHEMGUARD C3B 3% AFFF (8.3%), Fire Aide/National Gold (4.2%), and FireAde 2000 AR-AFFF (4.2%). The annual frequency of using AFFF for fire suppression had a moderate, positive correlation to the number of active firefighters in the department (r = 0.405; P < 0.001). We also found that annual AFFF use has a small/moderate, positive correlation to the total number of health and safety officers employed in the fire department (r = 0.288; P = 0.003). A sensitivity analysis to assess agreement between firefighters responding for the same fire department (approximately two firefighters per department) yielded near-perfect agreement (κ = 0.98) in the responses to the AFFF use, knowledge, and organizational characteristics measures. DISCUSSION This is the first study to survey frequency and use of AFFF in fire departments. A large proportion of participating Florida fire departments currently use AFFF during fire suppression activities, with the most frequent use of AFFF occurring two to five calls per year for specific fire suppression calls. Fire departments with heavy AFFF use (16 or more times per years) were predominately medium-sized departments (101 to 500 firefighters) with at least one health and safety officer on staff, and located in an urban geographic area. The vast majority of firefighting foam that is currently in stock or in service in the United States is AFFF or AR-AFFF, with many AFFF products containing PFAS.10,27,29 We found among Florida firefighters, who recalled their department's brand of AFFF, approximately 46% used contemporary AFFF products. AFFF products and other fluorinated foams are of concern because they contain PFAS. This raises the need for further research in conducting national surveillance of the types and frequency of AFFF used by US fire departments, as well as to conduct continuous biomonitoring of PFAS chemical exposures in firefighters. Firefighter respondents in our study indicated low awareness of AFFF health effects and the relationship to perfluorinated chemicals. Some PFAS pose a risk to groundwater and surface water quality, but they are also highly persistent chemicals, that may be mobile within the work environment and bioaccumulate in organisms.29 Numerous animal and human studies have evaluated both noncancer and cancer health effects related to exposure to a limited number of PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS.30,31 Little to no health-effects data are available for many PFAS. For example, Rotander et al evaluated firefighter blood levels for 11 PFAS compounds and reported elevated concentrations for PFOS and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid and its salts (PFHxS) compared with the general population; however, they did not observe any association with studied health effects.32 One study examining PFOS and PFHxS levels in veteran firefighters working at different fire stations in San Francisco as part of a longitudinal biomonitoring program concluded that firefighters who used personal protective equipment (PPE) have lower levels of PFAS in the serum likely due to PPE use.3 Fire departments that used AFFF in this study were more likely to have no health and safety officers than departments that did not use AFFF. In addition, although it is currently not known if washing turnout gear removes PFAS compounds from gear, this study found that less than half of the departments that used AFFF in specific fire incident responses reported washing their turnout gear after using AFFF. It may be possible that health and safety officers play a unique role in educating and training their fire department's workforce on AFFF use and possible health effects. In a recent firefighter health promotion intervention, the use of an expert-led sleep program that included health and safety officers had the greatest reach and effectiveness in educating and screening firefighters.33 Health and safety officers can play a critical role as champions within their fire service to further document the use, exposures, and health effects of AFFF where there is currently limited understanding of AFFF use. Given the low knowledge and awareness of PFOA/PFOS, researchers should consider exploring how health and safety officers in a fire service could educate and train on AFFF use. Data collected from this study were self-reported and subject to recall bias from respondent firefighters. The sample size is relatively small but included survey respondents from 67 departments that captures close to 14% of the Florida fire departments. In addition, sensitivity analyses of Florida fire departments participating in this survey were similar in geographic location (ie, rural, suburban, urban) compared with those departments that did not participate in the survey. A similar sensitivity analysis of survey response data among firefighters from the same fire department found near-perfect agreement for survey items about AFFF use, knowledge, and organizational characteristics. Despite these limitations, this study sheds new light on the practice and type of AFFFs use in Florida fire departments. It is the first to document awareness of and knowledge in the types of AFFF and PFOA/PFOS chemicals associated with foam use using survey data collected largely from the leadership of various Florida fire departments. This pilot survey project also identifies a potential approach in using fire department health and safety officers as a vehicle to educate, train, and possibly surveil for AFFF use and exposures in fire departments. This study identified relatively low awareness and knowledge of AFFF use and PFOA/PFOS chemicals in Florida fire departments. There is an urgent need to conduct national surveillance for AFFF use across US fire departments. Surveillance should include point sources of AFFF exposure (ie, fire suppression, training activities, etc.) that may be impacting firefighter health and safety. Biomonitoring activities among fire departments that use AFFF and AR-AFFF could shed further light into any acute or chronic health effects experienced by AFFF exposure. As we found low levels of awareness and knowledge of PFOA/PFOS chemicals in our sample of Florida fighters, further education and training in the proper use of AFFF is needed. Lastly, the number of health and safety officers, regardless of fire department workforce sizes, seems to be associated with AFFF use, suggesting these officers may play a unique role in educating firefighters on AFFF and PFOA/PFOS exposures. Acknowledgments The authors thank Mrs. Debbie Pringle from the Coral Springs—Parkland Fire Department for her support in coordinating our research team's attendance at the Florida Fire Chiefs Health and Safety Conference, and also thank all the Florida firefighters who took the time to participate in the research study.

This project developed the traditional prescriptive-based design analysis of the fire protection features of an existing office high rise building in the city of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. The analysis was then complemented by performance-based analysis of the building. The building is a high rise office located in a metropolitan area, provided also with underground car parking garages and a small theater. The fire protection analysis was conducted based on the local Sao Paulo state fire codes, mainly the Sao Paulo State enactment (Decreto Nº56.819/2011) and Sao Paulo Fire Department Technical Instructions; and, in addition to the local codes, the analysis was also conducted in accordance with internationally recognized codes, primarily the International Building Code (IBC 2012) and NFPA standards. The local codes requirements were compared with the international codes requirements in each section, with the objective of providing an overview of the main differences and possible opportunities for improvement or further studies. The main differences between the codes were observed in the construction features to avoid vertical fire spread, egress design, standpipe design and overall reliability and maintenance requirements for fire protection systems. A detailed discussion is presented in Section 5 Conclusion. The design of the building has been evaluated based on prescriptive requirements for construction fire resistance and compartmentation, fire detection and alarms, automatic and manual fire suppression systems, smoke management systems and egress arrangement and capacity. A performance based design was developed for six selected fire scenarios, being three fire scenarios for existing office floors of different arrangements, one for existing theater building and two proposed improvement scenarios for a specific office floor with customized internal layout. Fire scenario simulations were developed in Pyrosim to evaluate the ASET (Available Safe Egress Time) calculations and Pathfinder was used to determine the RSET (Required Safe Egress Time). A successful scenario was determined by the ASET being greater than RSET with an appropriate margin of safety, so that all occupants will reach a safe area before the environment becomes untenable. The main conclusions and recommendations are presented in Section 5 Conclusion. The building is mostly compliant with the local regulations with a few recommendations being presented. In addition, comments were made for it to be safer and, where possible for an existing building, compliant with the reference international regulations. The most important recommendations refer to the egress features (remoteness and common paths of travel), considering that there is the possibility

The Korean government has announced the construction of more than 310 hydrogen refueling stations by 2022 to establish a hydrogen infrastructure, which is crucial for realizing hydrogen economy. According to the fire act in Korea, most hydrogen refueling stations are not included in the specific structure for fire protection. Therefore, in this study, the fire protection facilities in hydrogen refueling stations and the amendment methods for those facilities were investigated using the Delphi method. A total of six fire protection facilities, including an automatic fire alarm system and sprinkler, were drawn. It is the conclusion of the paper, however the current fire act does not classified the hydrogen refueling station as the specific structure for fire protection. I think the following is better: Furthermore, hydrogen refueling stations needed to be included in the specific structure for fire protection by modifying the hydrogen storage tank volume. High-pressure gas act and relevant technical codes were further required to connect with fire regulations. Quantitative analysis of fire protection facilities and design codes for hydrogen refueling stations could provide information for the hydrogen infrastructure development.