Cold Climate Wooden Structure Fire Risk

Project summary

The fire in Lærdalsøyri January 18 to 19, 2014, showed that the understanding of the high risk situation prior to the fire was not properly understood and/or managed. The goal of this project is to evaluate whether such risk can be predicted by recording and integrating knowledge of relevant changes in outdoor and indoor air conditions and/or weather forecasts. If possible, a long term goal is the development of a risk prediction warning system for the fire brigades, the officials, other relevant stake holders as well as the public. When the risk is known, it is much easier to manage it, thereby preventing such devastating fires as experienced in Lærdal January 2014.

Method

Methods from the field of transport phenomena (diffusion of humidity in wood), air hygrometers, mass recordings, fire dynamics, meteorology, computer science, numerical modeling and building sciences, learning i civil sector, emergency training, and leadership/change, etc. will be integrated to solve this extremely interdisciplinary challenge.