Technical and Code Aspects of Investigation of Fire Impact on Buildings and Their Occupants

This paper focuses on the technical and code aspects of fire impact on buildings and their occupants. The paper discusses different elements of protection of buildings and their occupants in fire such as fire protection of structural elements, compartmentation of fire, and egress, as per current code requirements. It aims to develop a framework that allows project stakeholders to understand current code requirements and ask the right questions regarding how these codes can impact a fire investigation. Then forensic investigation issues prior to a fire incident, such as construction issues or code interpretation for non-standard materials and constructions will be discussed. Finally, the paper includes a review of investigation issues after a fire incident. The use of different analytical approaches such as fire dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, thermal analysis, finite element analysis, and agent-based modeling of movement of people is discussed. Combining analytical tools with non-destructive and destructive testing allows for identifying different types of damage (visible and hidden, structural, architectural, MEP, smoke, and toxic residue), as well as the extent of damage and which building elements can be kept, repaired, or replaced after a fire event. These tools can also be helpful to investigate any injuries or casualties from a fire. The discussion also covers implications of repair for code upgrades. Throughout, examples from fire investigations will be used to further illustrate the points.