• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.23-29
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to reduce the probability of occurrence of electric fires as a preemptive preventive measure, and to strengthen the capability of preventing electric fires by strengthening the cooperative function between electric fire-related departments and establishing a cooperative system. In this study, the general aspects of electric fires were identified by reviewing the literature such as ignition mechanisms of electric fires. And the major electrical fires that occurred in the last 10 years were classified into ignition factors (short circuit, overload/overcurrent, and earth leakage/ground fault) and ignition sources (wiring/wiring appliances, electrical equipment/household appliances). And the 4M technique was used to analyze the potential causes of ignition at the fire site and to suggest preventive measures. In the case In this study, out of 48 electrical fires in the past 10 years, 16 short-circuit fires, 3 overload/overcurrent fires, 3 short-circuit and earth fault fires, 16 fires in wiring/wiring appliances, and 10 fires in electrical equipment/home appliances classified as cases. And prevention measures were presented in terms of human, machine, media, and management by using the 4M technique. For the preemptive prevention of electric fires, strengthening the compulsory electrical safety inspection and making it mandatory to report when new or expanding electric facilities, charging a fee for electric safety inspection for detached houses and granting benefits subject to inspection completion, improvement of the electric safety voluntary inspection table and safety indications; It was suggested as a policy to organize and operate electrical safety inspection personnel in a two-person team (mixed), establish a close work cooperation system with related organizations, and strengthen electrical safety education and publicity.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.47-59
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• 2011

The actual state of motor vehicle fires was analyzed based on Annual Report on Fire Statistics and National Fire Data System and as a result, the followings were obtained. Motor vehicle fires occur over 16 cases every day with over 0.5 casualties and direct property loss of 50 million won. Most motor vehicle fires are caused by mechanical reasons, followed by electrical factors and arson. Arson accounts for 7.39% of all fires but 13.79% of all motor vehicle fires. Yearly fatalities and casualties per 100 motor vehicle fires were 0.9 and 2.4 on the average, respectively. Although fires which occur in the expressway account for 12.55% of all motor vehicle fires, fatalities, casualties, and property loss caused by motor vehicle fires in the expressway were 16.12%, 21.05%, and 20.65%, respectively.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.17-21
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• 2007

This paper aims at the statistical analysis of electrical fire and classification of electrical fire causes to collect electrical fires data efficiently. Electrical fire statistics are produced to monitor the number and characteristics of fires attended by fire fighters, including the causes and effects of fire so that action can be taken to reduce the human and financial cost of fire. Electrical fires make up the majority of fires in Korea(including nearly 30% of total fires according to recent figures), The incorrect and biased knowledge for electrical fires changed the classification of certain types of fires, from non-electrical to electrical. It is convenient and required to develop the standardized form that makes, in the assessment of the cause of electrical fires, the fire fighters directly ticking the appropriate box on the fire report form or making an assessment of a text description. Therefore, it is highly recommended to develop electrical fire cause classification and electrical fire assessment on the fire statistics in order to categorize and assess electrical fires exactly. In this paper newly developed electrical fire cause classification structure, which is well-defined hierarchical structure so that there are not any relationship or overlap between cause categories, is suggested. Also fire statistics systems of foreign countries are introduced and compared.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.471-483
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• 1994

A sodium fire facility with a test chamber of 1.7㎥ volume was constructed and operated to carry out experiments of sodium fires such as pool, spray, and columnar fires which might take place in sodium-related facilities. The experimental results of pool fires showed that the increase of temperature and pressure in the test chamber was much smaller than that of spray and columnar fires even though their amount of sodium injection in the chamber was much larger compared to other types of fires. And it was found in pool fires that the temperatures of sodium pool and the gas temperature in the test chamber had been maintained much longer than other types of fires, and that the chamber pressure had come to vacuum due to depletion of the oxygen for a large amount of sodium injection in the chamber. The experimental results of spray fires showed that sprayed sodium of small particles instantly reacted with oxygen, and that its reaction heat increased gas temperature and pressure of the test chamber rapidly and decreased them shortly. And the maximum gas temperature and pressure of the test chamber in spray fires ore greatly changed according to the inlet sodium temperature in the test chamber. The characteristics of the columnar fires were almost similar to those of spray fires, but the maximum temperature and pressure of the test chamber were much smaller even for a large amount of sodium injection. And it was shown in spray and columnar fires that the temperatures at each measurement position in the test chamber were quite different due to the instantaneous sodium oxidation in comparision with pool fires. Finally, the graphex powder was proved to be a very effective extinguisher against sodium pool fires.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.219-228
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• 2022

This study examined the relationship between the number of forest fires and days with no rainfall based on the national forest fire statistics data of the Korea Forest Service and meteorological data from the Open MET Data Portal of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA; data.kma.go.kr) for the last 30 years (1991-2021). As for the trend in precipitation amount and non-rainfall days, the rainfall and the days with rainfall decreased in 2010 compared to those in 1990s. In terms of the number of forest fires that occurred in February-May accounted for 75% of the total number of forest fires, followed by 29% in April and 25% in March. In 2000s, the total number of forest fires was 5,226, indicating the highest forest fire activity. To analyze the relationship between regional distribution of non-rainfall periods (days) and number of forest fires, the non-rainfall period was categorized into five groups (0 days, 1-10 days, 11-20 days, 21-30 days, and 31 days or longer). During the spring fire danger season, the number of forest fires was the largest when the non-rainfall period was 11-20 days; during the autumn fire precaution period, the number of forest fires was the largest when the non-rainfall period was 1-10 days, 11-20 days, and 21-30 days, showing differences in the duration of forest fire occurrence by region. The 30-year trend indicated that large forest fires occurred only between February and May, and in terms of the relationship with the non-rainfall period groups, large fires occurred when the non-rainfall period was 1-10 days. This signifies that in spring season, the dry period continued throughout the country, indicating that even a short duration of consecutive non-rainfall days poses a high risk of large forest fires.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.89-98
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• 1992

In this study, the methods to identify the causes of electrical fires are suggested. Among several causes of electrocal fires, it is focused upon a short-circuit and an over-current accidents, which take the highest ratio compare with any other causes. To propose the exact method of identification, electric wires(HIV, IV), fuses and plug-receptacls are tested under the conditions of electrical accidents and external fires, respectively. By analyzing the microphotographs, the differences between the results from electrical fires and the others are found out.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2016

Active fire products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observation during the 16 years from 2000-2015 were analyzed to estimate spatial and temporal variations of wildland fires over East Asia (region of interest: $20^{\circ}N-55^{\circ}N$, $100^{\circ}E-150^{\circ}E$). GLOBCOVER 2009 land cover data were also used to investigate the trend in wildfire occurrence with respect to each land cover type. Statistical analysis showed that the highest number of wildland fires occurred in the evergreen and vegetation covered areas, and strong seasonal variations were found in these areas. Total numbers of fires were 283,683 and 202,543, respectively. In particular, the wildland fires in croplands occurred mainly during summer season and distinguishable increasing trends were found. The correlations between number of wildland fires and air pollutants, such as black carbon, organic matter, and carbon monoxide, were also calculated in order to investigate the intensity of the air pollution caused by the wildland fires. Positive correlation between total column carbon monoxide contents and the occurrence of wildland fire was found. In addition, this correlation was higher than the correlation between fire occurrence and black carbon or organic matter. These results indicate that a significant amount of carbon monoxide originated from the wildland fires and influenced the regional atmospheric environment in East Asia.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 2013

Many previous tall building fires demonstrate that despite code compliant construction fires often spread vertically and burn over multiple floors at the same time. The collapses of the WTC complex buildings in 9/11 as well as other partial collapses like the ones of the Windsor Tower in Madrid and of the Technical University of Delft building posed new questions on the stability of tall buildings in fire. These accidents have shown that local or global collapse is possible in multi-floor fires. In most of the previous work involving multi-floor fires all floors were assumed to be heated simultaneously although in reality fires travel from one floor to another. This paper extends previous research by focusing on the collapse mechanisms of tall buildings in fire and performs a parametric study using various travelling rates. The results of the study demonstrate that vertically travelling fires have beneficial impact in terms of the global structural response of tall buildings in comparison to simultaneous fires. Contrary to the beneficial effect of the travelling fires in terms of the global structural response, it was noticed that higher tensile forces were also present in the floors compared to simultaneous multi-floor case. Designers are therefore advised to consider simultaneous multi-floor fire as an upper bound scenario. However, a scenario where a travelling fire is used is also suggested to be examined, as the tensile capacity of connections may be underestimated.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.265-283
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• 2021

To ensure that fire induced collapse of a building is prevented it is important to understand the sequence of events that can lead to this event. In this paper, the initiation of collapse mechanisms of generic a multi-storey steel frame subjected to vertical and horizontal travelling fires are analysed computationally by tracking the formation of plastic hinges in the frame and generation of fire induced loads. Both uniform and travelling fires are considered. In total 58 different cases are analysed using finite element software LS-DYNA. For the frame examined with a simple and generic structural arrangement and higher applied fire protection to the columns, the results indicate that collapse mechanisms for singe floor and multiple floor fires can be each split into two main groups. For single floor fires (taking place in the upper floors of the frame (Group S1)), collapse is initiated by the pull-in of external columns when heated beams in end bays go into catenary action. For single floor fires occurring on the lower floors(Group S2), failure is initiated (i.e. ultimate strain of the material is exceeded) after the local beam collapse. Failure in both groups for single floor fires is governed by the generation of high loads due to restrained thermal expansion and the loss of material strength. For multiple floor fires with a low number of fire floors (1 to 3) - Group M1, failure is dominated by the loss of material strength and collapse is mainly initiated by the pull-in of external columns. For the cases with a larger number of fire floors (5 to 10) - Group M2, failure is dominated by thermal expansion and collapse is mainly initiated by swaying of the frame to the side of fire origin. The results show that for the investigated frame initiation of collapse mechanisms are affected by the fire type, the number of fire floors, and the location of the fire floor. The findings of this study could be of use to designers of buildings when developing fire protection strategies for steel framed buildings where the potential for a multifloor fire exists.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.9-16
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• 2012

It is often thought that when a fire is found in parked motor vehicles, the fire may occur after an engine stops. Also, it is easy to judge that when motor vehicle fires occur during engine stopping, it may be caused by arson or electrical causes irrespective of a fuel system. This study analyzed motor vehicle fires which occurred in operation but were found after parking and revealed that these fires were caused by the defect of a fuel system and the same motor vehicle types had fires by the same causes. Moreover, this study provided judgement process of major fire causes and periods for fire investigators to apply when investigating fires of parked motor vehicles. And this fire is related to automotive products liability.