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Wildfires have been known to mankind since its inception. Formerly attributed to supernatural powers, today increasingly caused by the human factor, they represent a crisis situation that everyone fears. Great material losses, fear, inability to function normally and human casualties are an integral part of any major wildfire outbreak. Proactive action cannot entirely prevent wildfires, and actions are increasingly focused on reactive action. Aerial firefighting is crucial in many situations so that the fire is thoroughly extinguished or managed in such way that ground forces can successfully suppress the fire. Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is striving to form its own aerial firefighting unit, a complex process that ultimately offers great benefits. The formation of such unit and the selection of the optimal aircraft are described in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper conducts research to determine and justify the total time of rescuing people in a fire in case of threat to their lives. It is established that the total time of rescuing people in a fire consists of the time before the report of the fire, the time of collection and departure of the unit, the time of departure and the time of operational deployment. Which in turn are determined depending on such indicators as the number of fire and rescue units and their location, their tactical capabilities and equipment of fire and rescue vehicles and fire equipment, population density, road coverage, terrain and operational and tactical characteristics of the area departure of the unit. Graphically shows the components of the total time of rescuing people in a fire, depending on these indicators. Also, a comparative analysis of the total time of rescuing people in a fire, taking into account the scheme number, period and place of use of the fire and rescue unit with the safe time of people in the room before the fatal concentration of carbon monoxide. The obtained results allow researchers to determine the total time of rescuing people in a fire with the appropriate adjustment of its components and the introduction of their relevant documentation. The paper also substantiates the choice of the scheme of operational deployment of the fire and rescue unit upon arrival at the scene of the fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a real case of fire in a large shopping centre. Described is the manner of work of experts and the investigation team. Methods are listed for determining the place of fire origin and cause of fire, indicating the found defects which may have caused the fire. The building in question was equipped with fire protection systems, but their activation did not prove effective. The fire took place at night, after working hours, thus there was no need to evacuate shoppers and employees. In the fire the building suffered total damage, including damage to furniture, installations and merchandise. Through the conducted investigation of the fire location including an examination of the protection systems, and on the basis of other gathered information, it was found that the direct cause of fire was a defect on a light fixture installed in a metal rack with wooden shelves for storing textile goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground car park fires are among the riskiest firefighting operations. The main reasons for high risks are underground location, large spaces, possible high fire load, lack of installed fire protection systems, etc. When accounting for an underground car park fire scenario we must know the fire load, i.e. car characteristics, number of cars in underground car park, underground car park design features and possible ignition sources. Based on this framework we can predict the fire development. Additional help can be provided by using deterministic and probabilistic methods. In general, fire spread will be highly dependable on the initial fuel - the first vehicle, which was ignited and the spread of fire to adjacent vehicles. The success of fire brigade intervention depends on fire development stage at the time of its arrival at the fire scene. In this paper heat fluxes during car fires were analyzed. Experimental data were recalculated by computational fluid dynamics code (CFD) where some significant consistency was found. In addition to this, real underground car park fire (the fire that was used as an example happened in Ljubljana in 2007) and fire brigade response times were analyzed by probabilistic method. Car burning properties and realistic fire data were compared to probabilistic values. The expected performance of these features has often been predicted using rules-of thumb or expert judgment. These approaches often lack the convincing technical bases that exist when addressing fire safety measures and fire brigade responses. This paper presents science-based approaches to analyze fire brigade response and fire spread in underground car parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fires pose a serious threat to people, especially in closed environments with a lot of people. Good evacuation and rescue system is one of the most important factors reducing the number of injured and dead people, whereby the behaviour of people is of crucial importance in the situation of ire, especially when it comes to quick decision making. People can choose various strategies for surviving in ire, but they go through the process of evacuation at different speeds. In addition to making an evacuation and rescue plan, the staff responsible for managing evacuation in crisis situations should also be trained in topics such as disaster psychology. It is important to conduct evacuation and rescue drills, further evaluate those drills and continue improving the evacuation and rescue plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]