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This case study concerns research in the fields of fire prevention and community safety. A novel causal factor model of accidental dwelling fire risk was developed and incorporated into a geographical information system for fire prevention management, which has been used by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MF&RS) to support delivery of fire prevention activities within the region since 2010.
In addition, a novel customer segmentation approach was developed to provide an enhanced understanding of at-risk social groups in terms of combined fire risk, health risk, social care risk, and crime risk. This formed the basis for further analysis of causal factors within the same geographical area, enabling the deployment of yet more accurate targeting of fire prevention resources.
The impact of the research has been the adoption of the approach as a form of best practice to improve targeting of fire prevention activities, which is a contributing factor to the observed reduction in fire incidence. This was associated with a reduction in accidental dwelling fires by approximately 12% (163 incidents) observed across Merseyside between 2009/10 and 2012/13.
Research at the University of Manchester on the risk and cost of wildfire has altered government policy, changed firefighting practice and help conserve a National Park. Aylen's advice to the Resilience & Emergencies Division of the Department for Communities & Local Government in 2012 ahead of a submission to the Cabinet Office helped build the case for inclusion of wildfire in the Government's National Risk Assessment. His confidential briefings drew extensively on his published research on the novel topic of forecasting and costing wildfire incidents in the UK and his unpublished work on the costs of the Swinley wildfire in 2011.
The Steady State Tube Furnace (ISO/FDIS 19700) allows fire toxicity to be quantified in real fire conditions. This has led to the introduction of "acidity classification" for cables in the European Construction Products Directive/Regulation (2008/2013) (as a surrogate for fire toxicity) to promote the use of safer, low smoke, zero halogen (LSZH) alternatives to PVC cables. Additionally, architects and building specifiers can use our data to avoid the most toxic foam insulation materials in low energy buildings. The biggest impact of our work, the global reduction in loss of life in fire is probably the most difficult to quantify, as too many other factors influence the fire statistics.
Our research provided the evidence to persuade companies to develop fire retardant formulations based on naturally occurring mixtures of hydromagnesite and huntite (HMH) that were more effective, cheaper, and greener than the market leader, aluminium hydroxide (ATH). Before the research started, in 2005, annual global sales of HMH as a fire retardant were less than [TEXT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION] 000 tonnes. By 2012, sales had already doubled to [TEXT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION] 000 tonnes (£[TEXT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION] M) and continue to grow. LKAB minerals supply over 90% of the global market in HMH, and as a result of UCLan's fire retardant research, expect HMH to replace at least 25% of fine grade ATH within 5 years (increasing HMH sales to £[TEXT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION] M). Not only is HMH a more effective fire retardant, it does not have the environmental problems associated with ATH.
Enhanced public safety and transformation of structural design for fire has resulted from improved building design through ERPE researchers' development of new and unique design methodologies, frameworks and tools for analysing fire spread. Fire safety engineering research within ERPE has created an improved scientific understanding of the effect of fire on structures and materials. Structural and fire safety engineers across UK, EU, USA, Canada as well as those who are members of international fire safety bodies have subsequently implemented significant advances for the design of safer, more economical, sustainable, and architecturally innovative buildings.
ERPE research has thus assisted the design and construction of increasingly optimised, sustainable, and economical buildings globally with significant changes in building design and regulation, particularly during 2009-2013.
The use of fire retardants is a requirement to reduce fire severity and deaths but is also controversial due to environmental (leaching) and health consequences of commonly used halogenated fire retardants. A novel methodology has been developed and validated in the Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology centre (FireSERT), Built Environment Research Institute, for the prediction of large-scale burning behaviour of fire retarded polymers by combining small-scale (mg size) experiments with computer simulations of fire growth and toxicity. The research has been instrumental for companies in redesigning their products (fire doors and intumescent coatings) and is informing the development of EU regulations regarding the use and replacement of halogenated fire retardants. The research output has been published in leading journals, cited widely internationally and referenced by key organisations.
Research undertaken in the Unit by Murphy et al. highlighted the benefits of a new people-centred approach to risk assessment supported by evidence-led performance management data for Fire and Rescue Services (FRS). The new Fire and Rescue National Framework for England published in July 2012 was subsequently based around these twin principles.
New frameworks for Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and Eire published in 2012-13, followed England's lead and adopted this new approach. Similarly at the local level research by the same team has helped to shape the re-configuration of emergency cover provided by Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Services (NFRS) based on the new approach.
Wildfires can reduce the wettability of soil (i.e. increase their water repellency), accelerating runoff and erosion that in turn can cause flooding, landslides and aquifer contamination. Our research has revealed a link between fire severity and soil wettability that has led to substantial changes in the policy for mandatory post-fire assessments by the United States Forest Service (USFS). Implemented in 2011, these changes have resulted in improved land-rehabilitation practice in the USA. Moreover, this practice is being increasingly applied elsewhere, including Canada, Australia and parts of Europe, all of which now include specific consideration of soil wettability following severe fires and are underpinned by the methodology we developed. Based on these assessments, landscape-rehabilitation is applied at high-risk areas following wildfires, to limit the threats to life, property, infrastructure and ecosystem quality arising from excessive runoff and erosion. In the USA, for example, ~1.3 million hectares of burned land have been assessed in 2012 using the new post-fire assessment guidelines.
Researchers at Brunel developed a new algorithm for the computation of residual risk in industrial explosion protection (IEP) installations in collaboration with Kidde Plc, which later became a part of UTC Fire and Security (UTCFS), a 57.7 billion USD company. This was the first algorithm clearly quantifying the safety integrity level versus cost trade-off in buying an IEP for the process plant owners. As the cost of such an installation varies from £40,000 to £700,000, quantifying this trade-off was a real unmet user need. A commercial implementation of this algorithm by a UK-based software vendor Optirisk Systems is now being used by the 31 strong sales force of UTCFS worldwide, as their main tool for negotiating the sales of IEP installations.
Every week, criminal firesetting in the UK causes 65 casualties or deaths (3,380 per year) and costs £42 million (£2.2 billion per year; Arson Prevention Bureau, 2009). Remarkably, no standardised offender treatment programmes have been developed for this common, costly and tragic offence. Responding to this need, psychologists from the School of Psychology at the University of Kent have recently developed the first empirically informed comprehensive theory of firesetting, and from their theory, they have derived the first standardised treatment programmes for firesetters. Already, the research is being used across the UK and Australia in the training, assessment, and treatment practices of clinical professionals who work with adult firesetters. Clinicians in the USA have also been trained in a treatment programme derived from the research. As a result, enhanced, specialised treatment of firesetters is being provided in secure establishments and community settings for the first time. Further, the assessment and treatment programmes developed by our researchers now play a central role in the care, sentence planning and parole decisions for firesetters in the UK.