- Author
- Takata, A.
- Title
- Mathematical Modeling of Fire Defenses. Final Technical Report. March 1967-December 1968.
- Coporate
- IIT Research Inst., Chicago, IL
- Sponsor
- Office of Civil Defense, Washington, DC
- Report
- NRDL-TRC-69-4; OCD Work Unit 2526A; Final Technical Report, March 1969, 55 p.
- Contract
- N0022867C2081
- Keywords
- fire protection | mathematical models | fire suppression | fire departments | building fires | urban fires | mass fires
- Identifiers
- self-help teams
- Abstract
- This study involves the development of techniques to evaluate the effect of fire defenses on building fires caused by a nuclear burst and the incorporation of the fire defense techniques in a fire spread model. The resultant computer program allows evaluation of the effectiveness of various numbers of self-help teams, brigades and fire department units in suppressing and containing building fires scattered throughout a tract of several thousand buildings. Preliminary computations indicate that 1/4 of the manpower available in a tract can suppress all fires created by the initial ignition of 1/2 or less of the buildings within a few hours. Most of the manpower, particularly those in the self-help teams, can be diverted to other activities after several minutes of effort. The preliminary results show that ordinary citizens with minimal instruction and training can bring about very pronounced reductions in the total fire damage.