Louis Cleef, a seasoned fire safety manager at Rockwool and guest researcher at the University of Delft, shares his extensive experience and insights into the evolving landscape of fire safety.
Fire risk assessments are fundamental for identifying potential hazards, evaluating associated risks, and implementing effective mitigation measures. Despite their importance, the construction industry often prioritizes compliance over risk-based approaches, leading to outdated fire safety regulations. Louis advocates for a shift towards focusing on hypothetical benefits to enhance sustainability and compliance.
In this expert insight, Louis highlights several gaps in the current fire safety field, particularly the need to address new fire risks associated with sustainable building practices, notably by using the Bowtie methodology.
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Expert Insights: Fire Safety, Risk Assessment, and Bowties
Investments in fire safety are limited because of the inability to calculate the value of avoided risks: we think in terms of costs and not values!
Current fire risk assessments often prioritize compliance over identifying the most effective safety solutions. There is an overemphasis on ensuring the safe escape of occupants and preventing fire propagation to adjacent buildings, based on minimum building code requirements. However, a more comprehensive approach to fire safety is more efficient.
Using the bowtie framework, in combination with LOPA, (Layer of Protection Analysis) allows for a comprehensive evaluation of preventive and repressive barriers, facilitating informed decision-making to optimize safety measures.
By comparing two different scenarios—one with the barrier and one without—you can determine the hypothetical benefit of that specific fire safety measure. By integrating the Bowtie and LOPA models, fire incident scenarios can be effectively visualized and assessed.
Don't take our word for it! Deep dive into Louis Cleef's expert insights and the innovative approaches to fire safety by reading the full article. His perspectives offer valuable lessons for enhancing fire safety in the built environment, ensuring business continuity, and minimizing financial impact.
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