Fatal restaurant fire
Fire at the restaurant on the 24thfloor of the INTERCONTINTAL HOTEL in Zurich, Switzerland on 14.02.1988
This fire caused little damage to the building. Nevertheless 6 people were killed. The main reasons for this disaster were the combustible decoration, the limited evacuation capacity, the fact that the restaurant is inaccessible from the street level for the fire brigade and the lack of training of the restaurant personnel to handle the emergency situation.
The panoramic restaurant was located at the 24th floor (72 m above ground level) in a fire resistive construction with adequate fire water supply, and fire detection. Yet the exits were not clearly indicated, and the staff was not trained to handle emergencies.
This application is documented in DT73 évaluation des risques, (1988) of ANPI Belgium. The calculation has been made with the data from a report in ANPI magazine.
The calculated values for this situation was in FRAME version 1:
R = 0.44 , R1 = 1.08, R2 = 0.66
This result indicates does not indicate a problem for the people, but some deficiency.
FRAME version 2 has a new formula for calculating the evacuation time factor t, which gives the following result:
A1 = 0.24 : this is already a severe warning !
R= 0.77 , R1 = 4.25, R2 = 0.62
These results indicate an acceptable property loss, but it is a real case for victims. Unfortunately, this risk assessment has been proven by reality !
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