Need Recommendation to be done. Urgent.
FSE 200 Final Project
Spring 2017
Introduction
Our research topic concerns civilian fatalities in fires from 1970 to 2016. Specifically, we are concerned with how fire suppression systems have helped to reduce deaths in fires in this time frame. How have Fire Suppressions helped to reduce civilian fire fatalities in the United States? We selected these years because they encompass the introduction of fire suppression sensors such as smoke alarms and brings us to present day where sprinklers are found in most buildings even in some residential homes, though these are not necessarily popular, but are certainly becoming more and more popular with time. This should give us an approximate understanding of how suppression systems have assisted in egress and allowing for a few extra minutes for occupants to escape a fire situation.
We plan to use our data to show how fire suppression systems help to prevent casualties in fire situations. In most fire situations, the suppression system will not stop the fire, but it can give people enough time to get out. We hope that our research will show that as fire suppression systems continue to evolve and become better, the amount of deaths in fire situations will decrease. Hopefully, the data will reflect a decrease in fire deaths since their introduction and increase in popularity. In the end, we hope to recommend, with support of our data, the continued use of fire suppression systems and the use of them in homes and other occupancies that do not already require them.
Background
How have Fire Suppressions helped to reduce civilian fire fatalities in the United States since the time they were introduced? This is the research question or the main theme of the work. The author’s main argument is concerned with how fire suppression systems have helped to reduce deaths in fires in the United States. Much of the data is captured from the National Fire Protection Agency and the Measures of Central Tendency (Statistical Approach) is used for the analysis of data and comparison. The implications/conclusions being made by the work is to provide an explanation through research that fire suppression systems helps to reduce deaths in fire situations. The Author’s main argument is convincing as the reasoning with data evidences is provided to support the main argument. The U.S. Fire accident and death trends are captured from the NFPA website. The main strength of the implications is that, the argument is supported with lot of data/evidences including charts, bar graphs to provide a better picture supporting the conclusions. My research was about U.S. Fire Administration - Home Fire Protection - Residential Fire Sprinkler Systems Save Lives. It helps me justify Sprinklers being a Good Investment for the Homebuyer. The sprinkler system limits a fire’s growth severely and we need to promote the usage of this system so that it adopted by all members of the society. The main idea is to reduce civilian fire fatalities in the United States. This research of mine is a part of one of the Fire safety systems and would be of great help reduce the fire accidents and deaths due to fire. We do have safety systems like fire alarms installed in some homes and most commercial buildings but a smoke alarm can only alert the occupants to a fire in the house or building but it cannot help in fire extinguishing and would have to wait for external help. The Fire Sprinklers do help to a great extent and does not keep a dependency of the external help because the immediate action is already taken. Though the system has good number of advantages, there are some pressure points as well when it comes to installation at home. Many people raise point like Home sprinkler systems being expensive, water damage from a sprinkler system will be more extensive than fire damage, a sprinkler could accidentally go off, causing severe water damage to a home. With the new technologies, the cost of installation is not very high and these implications are false.
The biggest of our sources for this project is the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook Volumes 1 and 2. From the first handbook we are utilizing section 3, which deals with analyzing information for fire protection. The theme for this section of the book deals with fire research that has been gathered in fire situations, primarily that civilian deaths that have occurred in a fire situation. The author of the book offers several data points, raw data and several, tables, graphs, and charts to inform the reader about the issue. This book is an informative document; therefore, the author comes at the topic from a very scientific stand point. The author simply presents his research and his findings, and interprets the data as best he can for the reader. The objective of this piece of work is to raise awareness for fire behavior and the damage that it can do. The book seeks to help readers become informed on the matter and teach them ways to better themselves in a fire situation. As this book is published and written by the NFPA their goal is always to prevent fire anyway they can. The goal of all their research is to reduce civilian casualties due to a fire. They offer research for a variety of scenarios, like fire situations with fire suppression systems and without. Along with data for firefighter casualties in the line of duty which can work as an excellent comparison. This document fits perfectly with our research, because the research that is conducted in it deals directly with our research question.
We also utilized the second volume of the Fire Protection Handbook, specifically section 16. This section focuses on water based fire suppression equipment, mainly water based sprinkler systems. The theme of this work is to offer information on how water-based fire suppression works and what it is. This book offers much research to back up the work and to support the ideas it puts forth. The author is trying to raise awareness of water-based fire suppression and the dangers of not having the suppression ability. The NFPA is trying to show the benefit of having a fire suppression system. The focus of a suppression system is not necessarily to put fire out, but merely to allow the civilians inside of the burning structure enough time to escape the premises. The author takes a very scientific approach on the matter. He presents data and figures and interprets them. The work tries to raise awareness of water-based fire suppression and how is can be used to save lives. The work is more informational than persuasive, the facts and figures speak for themselves and do not require a persuasive writing piece to prove how necessary and valid they are. This information is so important, because all the work and research that has been done helps raise awareness and to save lives. Without this research, not much would be known about how these systems work and how effective they are at suppressing fires and saving lives. The research comes from a variety of fire situations and has a variety of types of information. The research includes information on civilian fire deaths which is the basis of our research question.
We also given permission to use another article from NFPA entitled “U.S. Experience with Sprinklers.” This article is mostly concerned with the same topic that we are. The main theme is how sprinkler systems affect fire behavior and how they affect damages to a building, when a fire takes place. The article, as with most NFPA writings, come from a very scientific stand point, and take a scientific approach to the problem. Talking specifically about the part of the article and data we will be using the author compares damage from fires when sprinklers are in use and when they aren’t. From the data you can see that it is clear that when sprinklers are implemented, there is far less damage done. From this we can infer that the less damage done, the less in danger people are of perishing in the fire. The evidence is clear and convincing, and coming from the NFPA you can be sure that it is accurate. This is very helpful to us, because it helps to further our argument that fire suppression systems do a great deal to reduce the amount of deaths in a fire situation. This fits perfectly with the rest of our data as it is from the NFPA and also is basically making the same argument and is looking at the same information we are. With all the research that has been done on the topic, it does raise one significant question, and that is, how can we further improve upon these systems to continue to decrease deaths in these situations?
We also received permission to use the Second Edition of the Fire Dynamics Handbook, authored by Gregory Gorbett, James Pharr, and Scott Rockwell. The main theme of the book is on how fire behavior and combustion. This is critical to understand, because if you do not know how a fire works, then you cannot figure out how to stop it; or for the sake of our research question, how to suppress it. The authors show how to understand and fight, or suppress, a fire in different situations where a fire could occur and how to possibly protect yourself in a fire situation. The most important part of this for our topic is, how to escape the fire situation or prevent it all together. The author uses mathematics and physics along with chemistry to show how to solve for the different situations on could face. These are essential to understanding how fire works. The book has a little bit data on fire deaths and it also shows a rate of fire growth comparison between a 40 year gap. Rate of growth is very important, because you must understand how fast a fire is going to grow and how it is going to burn to produce a suppression system that will actually have an effect on the fire. It offers data points and graphs for growth rate and temperature, this greatly improves our understanding on whether or not the suppressions systems are going to have an effect on the flames, and if they can truly help to save lives.
An article titled the “Costs and Risks of Residential Sprinklers.” This article is very useful as it offers facts and figures about how much it would cost to use a fire suppression system in your own home. Most sprinkler systems are found in public buildings, such as schools, hospitals, museums, or any other type of government owned building as it is required of them by law. Many civilians, however, are opting to have these systems placed in their homes. This can serve as an excellent investment to protect one’s home and possessions, but the cost is a big issue for some people. These systems do not come cheap as they are installed all throughout the home. While this is not seem directly related to our research question, it is very important to note this information, because if more people could afford a suppression system in their home, it should greatly reduce the loss of human life in a fire situation. The prices of these systems are very important to our research; if we can show that suppression systems decrease the number of casualties due to a fire, and the cost of these systems decrease, then we should also see a huge drop in civilian fire deaths. These systems are not all that popular now, because the cost makes them less realistic and not as desirable for the general population. This, hopefully will change as more awareness in the matter is raised.
