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Poster presented at thePoster Session 8 in the13th Simposium on Fire Safetyorganized by IAFSS. Abstract: The integration of Gender Dimension involves questioning stereotypes and investigating gender needs, attitudes and behaviours to enhance knowledge, technologies and innovations produced. However, including this approach is not an easy task. There is no standardized methodology to conduct Gender Dimension. References from the literature formulate general rules/questions of this subject matter while providing case studies in a variety of disciplines (science, health and environment). Here we propose a general methodology to integrate gender in the field of fire safety. The study also includes literature review of gender in first responders and a case study to explore similarities/differences between women and men perceptions in relation to fire and industrial accidents. Figure 1 shows an overview of the study which is part of an ongoing European project (ASSISTANCE – This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 832576).

To increase the gain from costly fire experiments and to facilitate engineering calculations of material performance in case of fire, there is an essential need for careful experimental design and proper characterization of material fire properties. In light of this necessity, the ASTM E1591 standard guide [1] provides a compilation of key material fire properties and explains how they may be obtained in consistence with modeling capabilities. Moreover, an engineering guide developed by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) [2] provides detailed description of different pyrolysis modeling techniques and makes very useful recommendations on how to arrive at required material properties in accordance with the underlying assumptions in the models. The present document aims to supplement the aforementioned guides by providing simple guidelines on practical aspects of the experimental procedures and preparations for reaction to fire tests in particular, and how to extract useful data from fire tests in general. Essential requirements for quantifying the fire characteristics of materials are identified, including recommendations on how to select and characterize the sample materials, what testing techniques to adopt, and which measurements to opt for. It is noteworthy that in some sections, focus is made on specific materials such as wood or polymers because of their relevance and importance, but generally the provided guidelines apply to other combustible materials as well, unless stated explicitly otherwise.

This documents provides guidance on how to perform tests and experiments with respect to the reaction to fire characterisation of bio-based building materials., COST Action FP1404

Data were collected between 2011 and 2014 from five evacuations involving the same school buildings located in Spain. Children from 6 to 16 years of age were observed during the evacuation exercises. Background information was collected on key factors deemed to influence evacuation performance: a description of the geometry, the population involved, the procedures employed and the organization of the drills conducted. Using live observations and video footage of these drills, evacuation data were collected, focusing on the pre-evacuation times, the routes employed, the travel speeds adopted and the arrival times. These data informed a range of a posteriori simulations, conducted by using four computer models (buildingEXODUS, MassMotion, Pathfinder and STEPS) and the Society of Fire Protection Engineering hydraulic model (i.e. Society of Fire Protection Engineering hand calculations). Comparisons were drawn between the models' output and against the observed outcome for one of the trials to determine the accuracy of the model predictions given that they were configured by using the initial conditions for a specific evacuation. The purpose of this work is to (1) provide insight into the configuration of these models for equivalent scenarios, (2) examine any variation in the simulated conditions given equivalent initial conditions, and (3) provide suggestions on how to perform validation studies for multiple evacuation models.