Fire Risk Assessment

Fatma Lestari, PhD

Outline
Introduction
Fire Risk Assessment Methodology

Introduction
A fire risk assessment should begin early
in the design process.
A fire risk assessment includes conducting
a thorough hazard identification.
Fire risk assessments should be revised as
new information becomes available and
the design evolves.
Fire risk assessments should be used in
the identification of prevention, control,
and mitigation measures.
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Fire Risk
Assessment
Methodology

1Process Information
Operating and maintenance philosophies
Plot plans and layout drawings
Piping and instrumentation diagrams
(P&IDs)
Process flow diagrams (PFDs)
Hazardous materials data
Equipment lists
Process data sheets
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2 Fire Hazard Identification

The hazard identification should be
structured, systematic, auditable, and
address all fire hazards, including
nonprocess fires
The result of the hazard identification
is a list of potential fire hazards that
may occur at the facility, for example,
jet, pool, flash, BLEVE, electrical, or
Class A fires
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Hazard Identification
Methods

3 Fire Hazard Analysis

What is the severity of the initiating
event?
Can the event escalate?
What is the impact of the event on
personnel, property, the supply
chain, customers, and the public?

4 Likelihood
The frequency of the initiating event
(loss of containment)
Probability of ignition
Postrelease events (escalation), their
different consequences, and their
related frequencies that can occur
after the flammable material is
released
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The frequency
examine the sequence of events that
may lead to the initiating event
Techniques such as fault tree
analysis or event trees may be used
to estimate the frequency of these
events.
Guidelines for Hazard Evaluation (CCPS,
1992)
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Probability of Ignition
Major flammable releases may be ignited at
varying distances from the release source
identify ignition sources that may be reached
by any cloud of flammable concentration.
Ignition can occur:
immediately (due to the energy of the failure
event, immediate contact with a hot surface or a
release above a materials autoignition
temperature)
delayed until the cloud, or pool encounters an
ignition source.
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Outcome of gas leak

Gas leak
No ignition

Ignition
Delayed

Immediate

Turbulent
EVENT Vapour cloud

HAZARD Toxic cloud

Jet Fire

Flash fire

Radiation
Flame emersion

Vapor cloud
explosion

Pressure missiles
radiation 12

Outcome of liquid leak

Liquid leak
No ignition

Ignition
Immediate

Delayed
Turbulent

EVENT Vapor cloud

Liquid Pool

Toxic cloud
HAZARD Toxic pool

Jet Fire
Pool Fire

Flash fire

Radiation
Flame emersion
Fire spread by flowing liquid

Vapor cloud
explosion

Pressure missiles
radiation13

Ignition Sources - Example

Flares
Boilers
Fired heaters
Static electricity
Vehicle traffic
Electrical motors
Hot workwelding and cutting
Hot surfaces
Lighting
Overhead high voltage lines
Mechanicalsparks, friction, impact, vibration, etc.
Chemical reactions

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Weather Condition

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5 Risk
Risk is defined as a measure of human
injury, economic loss, or environmental
damage in terms of both the likelihood
and severity of the consequences
It is important to recognize that risk is
an estimate
There are three commonly used ways of
calculating risk estimates:
Risk indices
Individual risk
Societal risk
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Individual Risk
individual risk considers the risk to an
individual who may be in the effected zone
of an incident
The risk includes the nature of the injury or
damage, likelihood of the injury or damage
occurring, and the time period over which
the injury or damage might occur
Example: a fatality from a fire can be
expressed as 1.0 104 fatalities per year
from a fire in the facility
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Different ways to calculate

Individual Risk
Individual risk contours illustrate the
geographical distribution of individual risk
Maximum individual risk is the individual
risk to the person(s) exposed to the highest
risk in an exposed population
Average individual risk (exposed
population) is the individual risk averaged
over the population that is exposed to risk
from the facility (e.g., all of the operators in
a building, or those people within the
largest incident effect zone).
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Societal Risk
Societal risks are single number
measures, tabular sets of numbers, or
graphical summaries that estimate
risk to a group of people located in
the effected zone of an incident.
most often expressed in terms of the
frequency distribution of multiple
casualty events, such as the F-N
curve
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