Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Several incidents in the last decade have shown the potential severity of a fire that causes interruption of a telecommunications network. Conformance with fire safety code requirements does not adequately address the susceptibility of critical equipment or service continuity. Initial evaluation of the problem revealed that significant conflicts existed among demands for technical accuracy, ease of use, and implementation cost. This led to development of a fire risk ranking method for the assessment of telecommunications network integrity. The approach uses a multiattribute evaluation model to determine the potential contributions to fire risk from individual fire safety parameters of a facility space. Weights for the identified parameters were developed systematically from fire safety policy, objectives, and strategies. Methods were constructed to grade the parameters from on-site survey information. Principles of Delphi, decision tables, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and other techniques of decision analysis were used in the development of parameter weights and grading methods. The scalar product of the parameter weights and grades produces a relative measure of the fire risk to integrity of a communications network.