• KIEAE Journal
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.21-28
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• 2009

In apartment buildings, casualties, especially fatalities have occurred in balcony areas in fires if residents fail to escape to the main entrance. Potential consequences of a particular infrequent event should be considered. In attempting to design apartment buildings for fire safety, alternative escape methods such as vertical penetration could be considered. The purpose of this study is to investigate present building regulations regarding apartment buildings and examine pros and cons of the current escape method and alternative escape methods. Focus group interview was conducted to discuss problems of fire escape methods. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to field professionals working in architecture, construction and related industries. Among 500 questionnaires distributed, 192 questionnaires were collected. Usable 162 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 15. Regarding alternative fire escape methods, several concerns were mentioned. Safety, privacy, security, effectiveness of escape, water proof problems were raised. Based on the opinions, vertical penetration between apartment unit appeared more safe, secure, effective than horizontal penetration. However, both methods have its own pros and cons under specific contexts. Alternative escape methods need be considered for a selective options for residents in case of fire.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.83-92
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• 2024

In recent years, the number of cases caused by people such as forest fires has been increasing, so it is very important for the whole nation to prevent and practice forest fires. In addition, due to climate change around the world, many lives and disaster losses are increasing due to forest fire-related disasters, and in the last 10 years (2014-2023), there have been 5,668 forest fires and 40,037 hectares of damage, which is equivalent to 56,000 football fields, resulting in 19 casualties and 285.4 billion won in damages. Now, in order to improve the understanding and awareness of forest fires among all the people, the government should actively inform the people about how to act in the event of a forest fire by making the people's action tips related to forest fires easy to understand and practical through public relations activities. In addition, the public and the government should work together to prevent and prepare for forest fires before they occur.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.86-91
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• 2010

In event of a tunnel fire, all kinds of equipment can be destroyed in high temperature that can exceed $1300^{\circ}C$, fatal structural demage can be caused by spalling of concrete structural elements. To make matters worse, there is a high possibility of the secondary damage which can lead to the collapse of the shear resisting structure. Accordingly, it is time that we developed the technology to counter fires in connection with the fire-resistant design of a tunnel structure. To secure the reliability of the fire-resistance performance of a tunnel structure, it is necessary to assess the fire's behavior on every structural element exposed to the fire as well as to calculate the tunnel fire intensity and the quantity of heat released. In this study, we drew out the fire damage range of each structural element of a tunnel and the minimum thickness of concrete cover for each fire-resistant material through some actual experiments of fire behavior on the structural elements of a tunnel.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.137-145
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• 2023

This paper presents the effects of fire-resistant materials on the temperature and vertical deflection of a composite beam exposed to fire through nonlinear thermo-mechanical analysis. The fire was modeled using the standard fire curve proposed in American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) E119. Fire-resistant materials were modeled by reducing the heat transfer coefficient from the air layer to the beam. The temperature and vertical deflection of the uncoated composite beam were measured using a laboratory fire test, and the results of the structural fire analysis were verified through comparison with experimental results. By introducing the fire-resistance effect, the reduction in the temperature and deflection of the beam for the ASTM E119 standard fire can be reasonably estimated. Based on a case study of the heat transfer coefficient, the fire-resistant effect on the thermo-mechanical response of a composite beam in the event of a fire is presented.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.129-145
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims at preparing an external evacuation system by setting up situation that may occur outside buildings in case of large-scale fire at buildings such as multiuse facilities and presenting appropriate response procedures and action instructions for evacuees and facility managers. Method: Major matters are summarized based on various situations which may occur outside in case of fire and the contents of fire manual. Necessary factors including risk alert standards in the event of fire and the role of building occupants are classified and then important issues are summarized. In addition, the definition of fire-related outside shelters and external evacuation routes are showed, and then the applicability to the shelters and the routes are reviewed for old apartments in Jung-gu among multi-dense facilities. Result: Four stages (attention, caution, alert, serious) for standards of fire risk warning are established with the results of the investigation and analysis, and guidelines for behavior for evacuees, facility owners, residents, managers are summarized and presented. In addition, the concept and role of external shelters are divided into primary to the third shelters, and matters related to the definition of each shelter and the establishment of evacuation routes are presented, and then considered them carefully. Conclusion: This study has highlighted the importance of suggesting a systematic plan to secure the safety for evacuees outside space of buildings with disorder and difficulty to control in the event of fire. Therefore, we are confident that it will be useful in making an integrated manual for inside and outside buildings.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_3
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• pp.1389-1403
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• 2021

Disaster management using VHR (very high resolution) satellite images supports rapid damage assessment and also offers detailed information of the damages. However, the acquisition of pre-event VHR satellite images is usually limited due to the long revisit time of VHR satellites. The absence of the pre-event data can reduce the accuracy of damage assessment since it is difficult to distinguish the changed region from the unchanged region with only post-event data. To address this limitation, in this study, we conducted the wildfire-induced change detection on national wildfire cases using post-fire VHR satellite images and GIS (Geographic Information System) data. For GIS data, a national land cover map was selected to simulate the pre-fire NIR (near-infrared) images using the spatial information of the pre-fire land cover. Then, the simulated pre-fire NIR images were used to analyze bi-temporal NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) correlation for unsupervised change detection. The whole process of change detection was performed on a superpixel basis considering the advantages of superpixels being able to reduce the complexity of the image processing while preserving the details of the VHR images. The proposed method was validated on the 2019 Gangwon wildfire cases and showed a high overall accuracy over 98% and a high F1-score over 0.97 for both study sites.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.852-858
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• 2016

To safeguard the accommodation spaces on cargo ships from fire, structural fire protection provisions introduced by SOLAS and these measures retard the propagation of flames and smoke. SOLAS also specifies provisions for fire fighting drills. These provisions are a combination of regulations regarding structure and equipment and those dealing with the human element for the fire protection and effective responses in the event of fire. Requirements related to the human element play a supporting role to the requirements for structure and equipment because the present accommodation structure and equipment are insufficient for extinguishing a fire, therefore, fire-extinguishing activity performed by crew members is essential. To reduce human error and ensure effective fire fighting, it is necessary to install a fire-fighting system and improve the fire fighting process. The fundamental concept of fire fighting exercises is to commence fire fighting before the fire grows too big to extinguish. It is essential to relocate the storage place of fire fighting equipment to expedite the fire-fighting exercise. This study was carried out to reduce human risk for this purpose, the fire control station was relocated to a site that could be accessed from the open deck. Further, two sets of a fire fighter's outfit were stored at the same site. This relocation eliminated the risk of the crew reentering to operate the fire fighting system in the fire control station and allowed the crew to pick up the fire fighters' outfits quickly in the event of a fire. In addition, it was proposed that the IIC method be made mandatory. This method is combination of automatic fire detection system and sprinkler system which can reduce the risk of the fire fighting exercises for the crew and to suppress fire in the initial stage. This study was carried out to provide a foundation to the possible amendment of the relevant SOLAS regulations and national legislation.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.94-102
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• 2018

Recently, there is a growing need to review compliance with legal requirements to ensure fire safety as the number of fires caused by noncompliant fire safety facilities in high-rise buildings has increased. While there are a large number of apartment buildings in Korea, there is a lack of review on fire safety facilities' compliance with fire safety requirements. The reason for this lack of review despite apartment buildings causing deaths due to their structural features in the event of a fire, lies in the misinterpretation of legal provisions as the Building Act and the Fire Services Act are mixed up; a final inspection when fire safety facilities are unnecessarily installed or missing could result in significant losses in terms of finances and time. Therefore, this study developed a checklist that makes it possible to review mixed-up legal requirements for fire safety facilities simultaneously, and examined the importance and current level of each item through IPA (Importance Performance Analysis). Based on these results, this study intends to develop a manual that considers its applicability to construction practices and contribute to reducing construction companies' fire safety inspection risks.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.105-115
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• 2017

PURPOSES : The occurrence of unexpected disasters, including fire events, increases as the road network becomes complicated and traffic volume increases. When a fire event occurs on and under bridges, the damage extensively influences direct damage to structures, vehicles, and human life and secondary socioeconomic issues owing to traffic blockage. This study investigated potential fire-hazard risks on bridges of the Korean national route road. METHODS : The investigation was conducted using field investigation and analysis with satellite pictures and road views from commercial websites and the Bridge Management System (BMS). From the filed investigation, various potential fire resources were identified. The satellite pictures and road views were helpful in measuring and recognizing conditions underneath bridges, stowage areas, etc. RESULTS : There are various potential fire resources underneath bridges such as piled agricultural products, parked petroleum tanks, construction equipment, and attached high-voltage cables. A total of 94.6% of bridges have underneath clearances of less than 15 m. A bridge underneath volume that can stow a potential fire hazard resource was $7,332m^3$ on average, and most bridges have about $4,000m^3$ of space. Based on the BMS data, the amounts of PSC and steel girders were 29% and 25%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : It was found that the amount of stowed potential fire hazard resources was proportional to the underneath space of bridges. Most bridges have less than 15 m of vertical clearance that can be considered as a critical value for a bridge fire. The fire risk investigation results should be helpful for developing bridge fire-protection tools.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.79-85
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• 2016

Serious electrical problems, such as shorts, ground faults, or circuits, often cause fire events in the fire proof zone of nuclear power plants. These would be directed to the loss of safe shutdown capabilities performed by safety-related systems and equipment. The fire event can be treated with the basic design principle that safety systems should maintain their functions with redundancy and independency. In the case of a cable fire in the main control room, operators cannot perform their mission properly and can misjudge the situation because of spurious operation, incorrect indication or instrument. These would deteriorate the plant capabilities of safety shutdown and result in disastrous conditions. Therefore, during a main control room fire, 5 minutes of operator action time is very important to operate the safety shutdown components. This paper describes the cable functional failure temperature criteria and conducted a cable functional failure time evaluation using Fire Dynamic Simulator to obtain the operator action time for a main control room fire.