Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Due to advances in building regulations, many timber frame multi-storey apartment buildings have been constructed in the Nordic countries. However, until now, no comprehensive method to estimate fire risks in such buildings has been available to designers. This paper briefly outlines a methodology for developing risk index methods for this purpose and describes the development and testing of such a method, FRIMMAB. It shows how the method has been evaluated against a more complex quantitative risk analysis technique. It describes how a maximum allowable risk index value can be determined when using building codes in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark). The paper shows how the method has been tested on 20 different multistorey apartment buildings. Finally, the paper describes how 5 different engineers used the same documentation to evaluate four different buildings, thus allowing a check of the repeatability of the method.