Abstract
Aim: Excogitation of new scientific and methodological approaches to determine forces and means (firefighters and equipment) of fire service departments needed to provide fire safety in industrial enterprises. New measures should take into account high fire hazard substances and materials used in the enterprises as well as their technical and economic parameters.
Project and methods: The total number of firefighters involved in the fire protection of an enterprise is determined by summing the number of firefighters required for the performance of fire-prevention work in the enterprise, the number of firefighters necessary to extinguish fires enterprise premises as well as the number of people which supervise and secure these activities. The aim of this method is to determine the number of fire brigade workers necessary to perform fire-prevention work in the enterprise which is based based on the principle of working time normalization necessary to perform specific types of fire-preventive works. The formulas for calculating adjustment factors take into account the complexity of the following works: - supervision of compliance with fire safety requirements in buildings, premises, warehouses and plants, - measures to control fire-hazardous works including works with the use of open flames in the enterprise, - control of premises where the nodes of the control automatic system of fire protection (ASPZ) are stored, - supervision of compliance with fire safety requirements in the territory of the enterprise. The total number of firefighters required for the performance of fire-prevention work in the enterprise is based on the number of shifts and the presence of workers at each shift. The number of officers in the fire brigade necessary for organization of firefighting action in the enterprise is determined by summing the number of firefighters employed in the different types of firefighting and rescue actions in relation to the chosen scheme of fire development model. What is more, the number depends on the reserve coefficient based on the assumption that there is a necessity of personnel changes in the period of leaves, business travels and sick-leaves and is related to the number of working shifts of the fire service operational division. The following types of extinguishing agents are discussed: water, aqueous foam, powder composition. Technical equipment of the operational fire service divisions protecting the enterprise are determined depending on the required flow rate of the extinguishing agent to extinguish the modelled fire.
Results: For determination of forces and means needed to provide fire protection in industrial enterprises the authors developed the following methodology: - determination of the number of firefighters necessary for organization and implementation of fire prevention activities; - determination of the number of firefighters and amount of technical equipment for fire protection of the enterprise for organization and implementation of firefighting actions; - determination of the total number of employees of the fire service.
Conclusions: Scientific and methodological approaches proposed by the authors allowed to formulate a draft set of rules “Fire protection of enterprises. General requirements” which after appropriate procedures of endorsement and approval will constitute a normative document on fire safety. The document will be an act of voluntary application and will set fire safety requirements. Moreover, the document will specify the number of firefighters in fire service unit and amount technical equipment needed to protect a company from fires and ensure organization and implementation of fire prevention and / or suppression.
Keywords: fire danger, supervising and preventive structure, company’s fire protection unit, scheme of fire development, extinguishing agent, forces and means, fire protection of companies;