Fire in shopping center “Zimnyaya vishnya” on the 25th March 2018 claimed the lives of 64 people, including 41 children. The fire began at children play zone and spread very quickly because of cavities in ceilings and out-dated ventilation system. Fire protection systems didn’t work, and many egress exits were blocked. Short-circuit failure was considered as one of the reason of this fire. Analysis of fires with mass mortality in Russian Federation has shown that this reason is the most common. It’s necessary to develop actual evaluation guidelines for evacuation training with variously-aged children. Russian developments in this field include evaluation guidelines for personal evacuation in case of fire and other emergencies (only adult evacuation) and materials developed in different educational institutions. There is no uniform evaluation guideline for variously-aged children evacuation and requirements for them. Evaluation guideline development should take into account appropriate international experience. Fire safety inspections in schools of Boston (USA) are based on documents developed by school personnel and fire safety inspectors. Actual fire safety check-list is developed. Egress means and exits are inspected. Fire drill must be conducted quarterly (September, December, March and June). All fire scenario and evacuation routes are considered. Plans include information on evacuation for disable students and staff. Authors suggest to develop evacuation guidelines for variously-aged children and implement it.

Introduction. Polymeric thermal-insulation materials (EPS, XPS, polyurethane foam etc.) is widely used in buildings, including high-rise buildings. The fires in such buildings may lead to the mass death of peoples. Purpose and objectives. The aim of this work is studying the thermal behavior of the thermal insulation from expandable polystyrene (EPS 10, EPS 14) and the new foamed composite “Penocom”. For this purpose, effective kinetic parameters (activation energy, pre-exponential factor) of thermal and thermo-oxidative degradation of the chosen polymeric materials were determined. Also, physical mechanisms of degradation in the air and inert environment were determined. Also, linear thermal shrinkage for a broader list of organic and mineral thermal insulation materials was determined. Methods. Processes of thermal degradation were investigated with thermogravimetric analyzer Mettler Toledo TGA/DSC. Linear thermal shrinkage was determined with muffle furnace at heating rate 12 °C/min. Results. Degradation of the EPS in the air and inert environment occurs in the liquid state. Reaction order n = 1, nucleation mechanism R (1). The complex nature of thermal decomposition and pyrolysis is observed when heating foamed composite “Penocom” with a bulk density r = 140 kg/m³. In the air environment, the degradation process is carried out by diffusion mechanism D3, in the inert environment - by nucleation mechanism R (1). The linear thermal shrinkage of EPS 14 was 100 % at 170 °C, Penocom - 60 % at 650 °C. Conclusions. Analysis of experimental results has allowed determining thermal behavior of chosen polymeric thermal insulation materials. This results can be used, for instance, in fire modeling.

Introduction. Currently, wood-based construction materials are in high demand in the field of construction around the globe. The study of the original wood composite in order to improve its characteristics through various methods is scientific pre-requisity for such development. When wood burns, it forms a surface coke layer, which can differ in mechanical and thermal stability. These parameters produce a significant effect on the fire resistance rating of building structures due to a change in the reduction rate of the structure useful cross section. Materials and methods. The studies carried out during the work are related to the evaluation of the characteristics of coke layer formed during thermal decomposition of wood. Thermal analysis methods, the scanning electron microscopy method and the water adsorption method were used. The original sapwood of pine, as well as the wood modified with effective fire-retardant agents were used in the course of work. Results. Based on conducted experiments process graphic dependences of thermal decomposition have been obtained, as well as images, obtained by an electronic microscope. In addition, the dependence of adsorptive capacity of wood after thermal decomposition has been obtained. Discussions. As a result of the study, it was found that with the use of modifiers based on organophosphorous compounds, entering into effective reaction with wood, structuring of the surface layer occurs after thermal decomposition while reducing the size of specific surface area of wood. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of experimental data, we can conclude that because of the use of efficient wood surface layer modifiers, thermal decomposition takes place under “mild” conditions that is the shift of the first stage of thermal decomposition to the area of lower temperatures with non-severe exothermic effects. The loss of weight of samples during combustion is significantly reduced. This causes high fire-retardant efficiency and low smoke-generating capacity.

There are two known methods of determining gas concentration in a container: the first one is based on IR and mass-spectrographic measurements with sample collection in several points; the second one is based on measuring the gas volume in an air-filled non-tight container with a flowmeter and concentration calculation. It is believed that the second option provides lower accuracy than the first one which is conditioned by gas leaking into the atmosphere from a non-tight container. We are showing the way of increasing the accuracy of determining gas concentration by the second method by way of calculating the leaked gas volume. It is maintained that the accuracy of the suggested method involving gas concentration determination with a flowmeter followed by calculation of its readings is not lower than the methods involving direct measurements, and that the cost of its implementation is one order less which provides evident competitive advantage.

Space-planning decision and structural design of egress paths must provide save evacuation for people in case of fire. Some deviations from fire safety normative document requirements can be justified by fire risk assessment. But approved technique use is not always correct for cultural heritage objects: application is restricted by architectural elements which should be conserved as cultural heritage elements. These restrictions are demonstrated in the paper with the results of fire safety surveying in monastery. This object consists of premises with different classes of fire danger functionality; it’s object with large people assembly (piligrims, tourists) and object with round-the-clock presence. Conserved elements of the building don’t allow to fulfill reconstruction works, which could provide normative level of fire safety. Check-list use is analyzed in the work as the method of international normative documentation on fire safety. In general these lists include fire compartmentation, resources for restriction of fire and smoke spread in the building, safe evacuation confirmation, fire safety systems inspection. In NFPA standards scenario of fire safety evaluation for cultural heritage objects are presented. Different characteristics of the object are ranked, and objects form some groups on basis of this expert evaluation. Then recommendations and additional safety measures are developed for each group. Authors suggest cultural heritage objects classification by significance and historic structure preservation. Individual deterministic characteristic is defined for each object from the group by its marks. These values form distribution histogram for the number of objects evaluated, and required fire safety level for museums from one group is defined. Suggested method of fire safety evaluation for cultural heritage objects allows to arrange museums by fire safety level and then to develop the most effective fire safety measures based on evaluation results.

Introduction. The aim of the work is to create a methodology for automated monitoring of linear objects in the oil and gas complex based on the developed mathematical model of flame recognition from a video protocol obtained from a free aircraft. Materials and methods. In a typical solution for recognizing a flame from a free aircraft, an infrared camera is used which effectively solves the detection problem, but has a high cost and is an additional attachments, which increases the weight of the apparatus and reduces its flight capabilities. In existing systems with video camera, the operator makes a decision about the presence of combustion, receiving information from the monitor of the control panel in real time. Theoretical basis. To improve this principle, the algorithm for recognizing the flame in automatic mode, implemented in the program “Video detector flame 2.0 FD”, its difference in the analysis of the video protocol on-board. To implement the algorithm developed, the device of the Russian production Supercam S350 was selected. The flight conditions for the implementation of the methodology were chosen on the basis of the limitations of the underlying mathematical model, while the altitude was 40 m. The condition of sufficiency of the study of one point from two different angles with an overlap of 10 % is accepted in the work. The operational speed of the aircraft during monitoring is 50 km/h. Results and its discussion. To ensure the uniformity of capture of the frames of the underlying surface, polynomial regression of the third degree is determined depending on the true speed in the range from 20 to 70 km/h. The operational characteristics of the selected aircraft and the boundary conditions of the developed mathematical model are generalized and summarized in the methodology of automated monitoring of linear objects of the oil and gas complex. Conclusions. The proposed algorithm uses a digital video camera of standard resolution, performing the detection task without specialized equipment. This significantly reduces the cost of the device and opens the possibility of broad integration into existing free aircraft due to cross-platform software.

Introduction. The innovative technology of heat flux reduction implemented using the heat-shielding water-film barrier “SOGDA” (model 1), according to the results of previous experimental studies, allows to reduce the radiant heat flux by more than 50 times. However, the thermal and physical mechanisms of this process are not sufficiently studied, which does not allow to justify the technical characteristics of heat shields under given conditions for their operation. Purposes and objectives. The purpose of the article is to evaluate experimentally and theoretically the coefficient of the reduction of radiant heat flux by a heat-shielded water-film fire barrier under the “standard” fire mode. To achieve this, a mathematical model was developed for calculating the coefficient of reduction of radiant heat flux by the fire barrier, an assessment was made of the physical mechanisms of the reduction of radiant heat flux by a fire barrier, and an experimental time dependence of the density of radiant heat flux passing from a small oven through the barrier installed in one of its walls to the outside was obtained. Methods. There are used a theoretical method for calculating radiant heat transfer based on the Stefan-Boltzmann equation and an experimental method for studying the reduction of radiant heat transfer in a small-sized furnace for testing building structures for fire resistance in the “standard” fire mode. Results. The physical mechanisms of the reduction of radiant heat flux by the fire barrier are substantiated. It is shown that the fire barrier with a size of 1.5´1.5 m at a temperature inside the furnace 1030 °C absorbs, reflects and disperses 99 % of the radiant heat flux incident on it. Experimental time dependence of the density of the radiant heat flux at a distance of 0.5 m from the geometric center of the unheated surface of the barrier is obtained. It is found that in the case of the “standard” fire, the coefficient of reduction of radiant heat flux by the fire barrier “SOGDA” (model 1) varies depending on the time from the onset of natural gas combustion in the range from 380 to 80. The conclusion. Further experimental studies will be aimed at a more detailed study of the thermal and physical mechanisms for the reduction of a radiant heat flux through the barrier, which will allow us to justify the technical characteristics of heat shields under given conditions for their operation without additional experimental studies.

Normative documents on the organization and carrying out firefighting at the existing electrical networks and installations are considered. The analysis of new requirements of the combat regulations of the fire brigade units is performed. The urgency of the issue of grounding firefighting equipment and fire equipment is noted. The order of actions of fire extinguishing participants in the presence of electrical installations under voltage is presented.