THE EFFECT OF NEW DETAILED REGULATIONS ON FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING AND SOCIETAL RISK ACCEPTANCE

摘要

The implementation of new regulations and guidelines regarding fire safety engineering in Sweden is studied to find out whether they introduce changes in fire risk and societal risk acceptance. The study focuses on the possibility to evacuate in case of a fire. In a comparative analysis a representative fire used for analytical designs prior to the new regulations was determined based on a Delphi study and then compared to the design fires recommended in the new guidelines. Furthermore, real life fires are analyzed to investigate the level of fire risk with the proposed fire scenarios and the resulting design fires. Finally, the impact on societal risk acceptance is discussed. The study indicates that since the new guidelines recommend less conservative design fires than previously used, they might ultimately impact on the societal level of risk and the risk acceptance. However, it is impossible to say if such change would indeed be a result of a change in the societal risk acceptance, or a change towards harmonizing fire risk in sprinklered and unsprinklered buildings, respectively, or merely a result of an inadequate consequence study prior to implementing the new guidelines.