Fire station planning principles Table 2: Fire response coverage for category B fire risks
time function of a fire station, the following verification of estimation is possible:
Where: T= Response time of the fire station in minutes t0 = Turnout time in minutes K = Traffic impedance factor r = Distance in kilometres Table 3: Fire response coverage for category C fire risks
Table 4: Fire response coverage for category D fire risks
Thus to estimate the value of K, the formula would have to be substituted with the probable benchmark criteria of road kilometre travel radius (r) of four kilometres with an estimated turnout time (t0) of one minute and a response time of seven minutes; thus K would equal to 1,5. Alternatively, by using the formula Τ=to + K(r) where K is known (as a result of detailed traffic studies) and where t_0 and r are the variables, it will then also be possible to embark on analysis of historical response data. This will aide in improving the management of turnout times taking into consideration the urban diversity and varying complexities of different parts of the areas to be protected. Attendance time standard for community-centric fire response As the travel time is a component of the response time sequence and travel can only occur after turnout and dispatch and dispatch can only occur after call taking, it is then possible derive the attendance time for a first arriving fire fighting unit in a built-upon area.
Changing the standard and the approach: a new criterion In reading the above tables and computing the averages (arithmetic mean) of categories A, B, and C fire risks (category D – rural risks deliberately excluded) and including the average of the travel time by road and average of square kilometres that can be covered against the preceding calculated averages, the following conclusion is then possible as a benchmark criterion for the planning and siting of fire stations for built upon areas in South Africa. This above suggested benchmark criterion therefore takes into account the decentralisation of risk as influenced by the urban complexity factor and makes the intent of community protection against fire more plausible by focusing on a consistency of response travel requirement.
Benchmark travel time criterion for community centric fire response:
A community fire station should be located to provide fire protection for a built- upon area with an initial coverage span of 42km2 and a first due firefighting response unit travelling at an average speed of 37,5 km/h should take five minutes to cover four road kilometres and provide an expected initial response travel time of not more than seven minutes to a structural fire in that coverage area.
Using the new benchmark criterion for community-centric fire response (as concluded above) against the response Volume 4 | No 1
This is done by adding the three minutes cumulative maximum time allocated for call taking, dispatch and turnout and adding this to the benchmark travel time criteria of seven minutes. Thus the attendance time standard for community centric fire response can be stated as: The total attendance time from time of call to time of arrival for a first arriving fire fighting response apparatus should be 10 minutes or less for any structural fire incident in a built-upon area. The response convergence principle The influence of the urban complexity factor coupled with the additional pressures of continuing expansion of urban edges, increasing traffic densities and decentralisation of central business districts into integrated human settlements warrants (and desperately so) a new approach to the way we actually design fire stations. The proposed attendance time standard for communitycentric fire response also suggests the shift away from large centralised fire stations (one town-one fire station model) and instead decentralisation to real community focused (smaller) fire stations in built upon areas by virtue of promoting turnout overlaps where larger built-upon areas would have more than one fire station strategically located within the built upon area in order to meet the initial seven minute response travel time window. FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL | 33