Use Of Fire And Evacuation Models In Practice Of Fire And Rescue Service Of The Czech Republic

The Fire and Rescue service of the Czech Republic provides a wide variety of services for Czech citizens. It is not responsible only for rescue operations, but is also one of the authorities having jurisdiction in terms of building safety, is responsible for fire investigations and conducts research in the fields of fire protection. There are two main areas where fire models are used. Authorities having jurisdiction are responsible for checking the building designs made by fire engineers. The second area is fire investigations, where models are used as a support for fire and police investigations. The majority of these simulations are done at the Technical Institute of Fire Protection in Prague, which is also responsible for fire research within the Fire and Rescue service.

The outcome of this presentation is to show how fire models are used for fire investigations, what are the main challenges during the cooperation of researchers preparing the models and fire and police investigators asking for definite answers. An example of this cooperation is an investigation of a recent fire in a nursing home which led to significant life losses. During the investigation, both the CFD fire model and evacuation model were done as well as an animation of events before the fire. Thanks to the work of the investigation team this event led to a significant change in the Czech building safety code in terms of fire safety of such buildings.