Toward safer chemical plants via optimal fire protection and firefighting

化学工业是加拿大的主要产业之一，为该国的GDP贡献了数十亿美元。化工厂作为化学工业的主要基础设施，储存着大量的易燃易爆化学品，容易引发灾难性的火灾和爆炸事故。化学工业区和住宅社区（例如安大略省萨尼亚市的化学谷）之间不断扩大的界面可能会影响附近的社区，从而使此类火灾和爆炸的后果变得更加灾难性。化工厂的消防安全旨在“预防”火灾的发生和“减轻”火灾发生的后果。预防火灾通常通过消除和控制火源、安全储存易燃化学品等来实现。另一方面，缓解火灾则依赖于消防系统（例如喷水灭火系统）、消防和疏散。并非所有火灾都可以预防。因此，防火措施在降低潜在火灾风险方面发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，由于资源有限，化工厂的有效消防需要决策支持方法，以便在考虑资源和风险的同时，能够经济高效地集成消防系统、消防策略和疏散计划。所开发的方法应该足够动态和灵活，以适应不同操作和环境条件下火灾场景的空间和时间演变。目前的研究是整体研究计划的一部分，旨在促进化学工业的安全。该研究将包括开发用于建模和评估重大火灾场景风险的方法。此外，还将开发决策支持方法，以优化消防系统的分配和管理，以及重大火灾事件期间的有效消防和疏散。该研究不仅会考虑意外火灾场景，还会考虑自然灾害（例如野火）和恶意事件（例如恐怖袭击）引发的火灾场景。将特别关注化学工业区，邻近的化工厂可以投资制定协调和协作计划（例如联合消防），以便在发生单起和多起火灾时最佳地共享集体资源。 研究结果预计将增加我们对化工厂火灾风险评估和管理的了解，并帮助安全管理人员、应急响应计划人员和消防部门更有效地应对重大火灾。所开发的方法如果集成到化工厂的设计和开发中，预计将产生更多的固有防火工厂，从而提高人员、消防员和公众的安全。

Chemical industry is one of the main industries in Canada, contributing billions to the country's GDP. Chemical and process plants, as the main infrastructure of the chemical industry, are attributed with large quantities of flammable and explosive chemicals which could result in catastrophic fires and explosions. The ever-growing interface between the chemical industrial areas and residential communities (e.g., Chemical Valley, Sarnia, Ontario) can make the consequences of such fires and explosions even more catastrophic by impacting the nearby communities. Fire safety in chemical plants is aimed at "preventing" the occurrence of fires and "mitigating" the consequences should fires occur. Fire prevention is usually accomplished via elimination and control of ignition sources, safe storage of flammable chemicals, etc. Fire mitigation, on the other hand, relies on fire protection systems (e.g., sprinklers), firefighting and evacuation. Not all fires can be prevented. Thus, fire protection measures play a crucial role in reducing the risk of potential fires. Due to the limited resources, however, effective fire protection of chemical plants demands for decision support methodologies to enable cost-effective integration of fire protection systems, firefighting strategies, and evacuation plans while considering the resources and the risks. The developed methodologies should be dynamic and flexible enough to catch up with the spatial and temporal evolution of fire scenarios under varying operational and environmental conditions. The present research is part of a holistic research program with the aim of promoting safety in the chemical industry. The research will include the development of methodologies for modeling and assessing the risk of major fire scenarios. Further, decision support methodologies will be developed for optimal allocation and management of fire protection systems as well as effective firefighting and evacuation during major fire events. The research will consider not only the accidental fire scenarios but also the ones triggered by natural disasters (e.g., wildfire) and malicious events (e.g., terrorist attacks). A particular attention will be devoted to chemical industrial areas where neighbor chemical plants can invest in coordinated and collaborative plans (e.g., joint firefighting) to optimally share their collective resources in the event of single and multiple fires. The outcomes of the research are expected to increase our knowledge of fire risk assessment and management in the chemical plants and help safety managers, emergency response planners, and fire services to cope more effectively with major fires. The developed methodologies, if integrated in the design and development of chemical plants, are expected to result in more inherently fire-protected plants, enhancing the safety of personnel, firefighters, and the public.