A Decision Support system for fighting multiple fires in urban areas caused by large earthquakes

Abstract

Extinguishing multiple fires resulting from large earthquakes is particularly difficult because such fires break out simultaneously in numerous locations. Therefore, effective disaster mitigation requires immediate identification of those fires that are most likely to spread widely. In this chapter, a Fire-Spread Potential (FSP) index, which defines the number of other buildings that could be expected to be destroyed by fire-spread from particular buildings, is calculated and applied to an aftermath simulation of a hypothetical scenario. We then constructed an agent-based simulation model to describe firefighter activities and used the FSP values to evaluate the decision-making support needed to fight multiple fires simultaneously. The chapter demonstrates that FSP values could be effectively used for firefighter decision-making support in order to identify high-risk buildings, thereby mitigating the disaster.