A study on use of quantitative risk analysis on life safety performance for the effect of fixed fire fighting system at road tunnel fires

This paper tried to verify whether the fixed fire fighting system (FFFS) that is installed in road tunnel improves evacuation performance or not. Verification was performed according to the Disaster Prevention Facilities Installation and Management Guide at Road Tunnel. Twenty seven different fire scenarios were set up for the verification and the cases that FFFS was installed were compared with the cases that FFFS was not installed. The result of the comparison showed that the average equivalent death was reduced in 26 cases out of 27 cases when water spray extinguishing system was installed. It was confirmed that the risk when was not installed was unacceptable in Hong Kong and the Netherlands. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the risk was reduced to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) when was installed. The cumulative frequency of average death in case with FFFS was compared against the frequency of death without FFFS: death of one or more is about 50 times less; 10 or more is about 100 times less; and the death of more than 100 is four times less. It was verified that FFFS makes improved conditions to escape from the fires in road tunnel.