Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The problem of developing an expedient, yet credible approach to fire safety evaluation is addressed. Techniques of multi-attribute evaluation from the field of management science offer a promising solution to this difficulty. The use of multi-attribute evaluation in fire safety is described including techniques that are unique to this type of problem. Details are given on the identification of attributes, assigning attribute weights and values, and selecting an evaluation model. A five-step process for constructing a multiattribute model of fire safety evaluation is presented. The resulting robust structure can provide a means of coupling “hard” fire safety science with inclusive fire risk assessment.