In the 1999/2000 round, the Commission identified the following as its research priorities
- How people learn about the effects of fire in both the urban and rural sectors
- How they respond in an emergency
- How strategies and actions may be identified to reduce the risk to people in a fire
- How strategies and actions may be identified to mitigate against the effects of vegetation fires
- Identification of strategies to assess hazards of vegetation in the rural areas and to determine resource requirements accordingly
- Identification of strategies to mitigate the impact on people and property of post-earthquake fire
- How these strategies may be communicated to vulnerable groups
- Research in relation to new Zealand Standards and Codes of Practice relevant to the Commission’s strategic goals
- Achievement of the Commission’s goals in respect of reduction of false alarms
Proposals
An advertisement inviting Expressions of Interest was publicised in October 1999. Some 70 applications were received from within and outside the Fire service, from which a shortlist of 20 projects was selected on 27th October 1999, to be developed into detailed proposals. The shortlist was put together with reference to the Commission’s stated aims for the fund as well as an assessment of the track record of the organisations and the perceived usefulness of the project outcomes. The detailed proposals were received in early January and the Research Advisory Group met on the 26th January 2000 to consider them.
Projects
The following projects were recommended to the Commission as achieving the required standards and judged to achieve the best value for money.
Department of Sociology & Social Policy
Fire Safety as an interactive Phenomenon: A sociological investigation focussing on recognition and communication
This project aims to investigate fire safety from a sociological perspective, that is one which places human activity in the contexts within which it occurs. It is within particular contexts that all human knowledge, including that regarding fire safety, is put together. Simply, fire safety involves people doing things together, talking about that collective activity, and displaying what it is they know at the same time they use this knowledge to shape their activities. On this view knowledge does not belong to particular individuals, but is a product of coordinated human activity.
Nevertheless, it is recognised that some people are positioned as having ‘expert’ knowledge which they use, for example to recognise fire hazards in the households where people live. But in these households knowledge is always ‘situated’, that is, the house is not simply a physical space which may or may not have particular fire hazards, it is a through and through a meaning-laden, lived space. It is through seeing these lay and expert dimensions as ‘partially connected’ (see Dew & Lloyd, 1997) that the research questions of this project have been generated.
How does lay knowledge of the household as possibly at risk of fire differ from expert evaluations of fire safety in the household? How can an expert understand how people live in their household, make an evaluation of its fire safety, and then effectively communicate their own expert knowledge on fire safety? Are there other types of processes also involved in fire safety understandings (eg. Public interpretations of fault, blame, risk etc.)? How are the above factors complexly intertwined? This project investigates these questions through a finely detailed qualitative investigation.
Report 9: Fire Safety as an Interactive Phenomenon [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 616Kb]
National Institute of Weather & Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
Integrated Climate & Fire Season Severity Forecasting
This project will develop foundation research for the prediction of fire season severity and will provide improved regional fire danger forecasts. It will do this by identifying the climatic factors that influence fire season severity and by monitoring the improvement of fire danger forecasts issued throughout the term of this project.
This three-year project will deliver:
- Improved understanding of climatic factors influencing fire season severity by relating large scale global and regional climate patterns with known monthly and seasonal fire severity at 21 locations throughout New Zealand;
- A map of New Zealand divided into a number of unique fire climate regions. The fire climate regions will display distinct seasonal and monthly fire severity responses to climate and will be derived using data from additional 90 fire weather stations;
- Identify patterns of climatic variation influencing elevated regional fire severity by examining the key sequence of weather patterns that in the past have caused elevated monthly fire severity;
- Produce seasonal, long-range forecasts of regional fire danger at key periods in the season by combining the new results from this project with modern seasonal climate forecasting techniques, for the National Rural Fire Authority (NRFA) and Rural Fire Authorities. These forecasts will be quantitatively and qualitatively measured against the actual occurrence in order to assess improvements in accuracy.
Report 11: Climate and Severe Fire Seasons [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 616Kb]
Landcare Research
Spatial Analysis of Vegetation Fire Risk and Hazard Across New Zealand
The National Rural Fire Authority (NRFA) is currently developing a Wildfire Threat Analysis System that requires accurate assessment of vegetation fire risk and hazard. This project will underpin the Wildfire Threat Analysis project by:
- developing new models for determining fire risk, and
- accurately mapping fire hazard throughout New Zealand.
Fire risk will be analysed using fire occurrence data for all of the Wellington Region, and Department of Conservation lands nationally. Risk of ignition will be examined in relation to human and environmental factors including proximity to urban areas, roads, tracks and power lines, average climatic conditions, slope and fuel load. Maps will be produced showing variation in fire risk, along with an analysis of the relative importance of different factors.
Mapping spatial variation in fire hazard across New Zealand will be undertaken using the methods currently used to calculate the Fire Weather Index, combined with fuel type and slope data. Digital climate layers will be derived from mathematical surfaces fitted to average values from meteorological stations. Output will include digital data layers describing average fuel moisture and fire behaviour, both monthly and annually, for use by Rural Fire Authorities in efficiently allocating resources for fire prevention and suppression.
Report 22: Spatial Prediction of Wildfire Hazard Across New Zealand [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 650Kb]
Social Sciences Department, Chilton Saint James School
A Pilot Study to Identify Strategies to Assess Vegetation Fire Hazards
This project aims to establish the feasibility and effectiveness of a method to determine the geographical distribution of vegetation fire hazard. This will provide a basis for planning more effective fire attack methods, identification of hazards to fire fighting staff and locations of greatest hazard to property and buildings.
A team of secondary school students from Chilton Saint James School, Lower Hutt, will complete this research as an educational exercise. The resulting report will be entered into the AURISA GIS in Schools competition. As well as being an education activity it is hoped that the results will contribute to other research that is being undertaken, particularly the work of Mr Bert Borger, National Rural Fire Authority, Project Leader for the "Wildfire Threat Analysis Project".
The methodology will use existing data including slope, solar radiation aspect and the location of historical fires, along with fieldwork. The age and height of gorse in sample areas will be established and using an existing model the fuel; loading in each area will be established. Maps will be produced showing the pattern of fuel loading and its relationship to past fire patterns.
Psychology Department, University of Auckland
Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Juvenile Fire Setting
This proposal is for a case study of risk factors and exposures associated with juvenile firesetting behaviour. Participants in the study will be drawn entirely from the Auckland area. The study will compare the prevalence of particular exposures and possible risk factors in a group of juvenile firesetters, identified through the Juvenile Firesetter Prevention and Intervention Programme, with the corresponding prevalence in a group of other juveniles with conduct disorders. Data will be collected using a standardised questionnaire. The same person – a doctoral student in psychology, will carry out all interviewing. Statistical analysis of the data from the two groups will generate relative risks for particular behaviours and factors associated with firesetting and identify those that are of most importance. This information will then be available for design of appropriate intervention programmes to reduce the incidence of juvenile firesetting.
Report 46: Adolescent Firesetting: a NZ case-controlled study of risk factors for adolescent firesetters [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 598Kb]
ESR: Kenepuru Science Centre
Developing a Model for Assessing the Impacts of Run-off Following Fire Fighting Activities
This project aims to provide the New Zealand Fire Service with a model for assessing the environmental risks posed by run-off from fire fighting activities. The project will involve estimating the volumes of run-off generated by typical fire fighting activities and assessing the contaminants in the run-off that could potentially cause adverse environmental impacts. The contaminant focus will predominately be on the products of combustion and fire fighting chemicals such as foams, however the model will also be able to consider specific hazardous substance incidents. The concentrations and quantities of the contaminants will be calculated through direct measurement and calculation, and compared with published or derived water quality standards. The information will be combined into a spreadsheet framework that will allow initial assessments of the environmental risks posed by fire fighting run-off.
Report 17: The Ecotoxicity of Fire-Water Runoff. Part One: Review of the Literature [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 1Mb]
Report 18: The Ecotoxicity of Fire-Water Runoff. Part Two: Analytical Results [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 1Mb]
Report 19: The Ecotoxicity of Fire-Water Runoff. Part Three: Proposed Framework for Risk Management [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 997Kb]
Wellington Lifelines Group
Establishing a Risk Management Based Framework for New Zealand Research
The aim of this project is to develop a comprehensive framework that will assist to co-ordinate research on Fire Following Earthquake in New Zealand. The framework will apply a Risk Management approach by applying the basic steps recommended by the NZ/Australian risk management standard NZS 4360: 1999.
Principal issues relate to identifying the key factors that lead to an appropriate accommodation of fire following earthquake in response management programmes – managing ignition sources, how to reduce the risk posed by this secondary impact, and how to plan to respond.
To date, however, only limited research has been undertaken with regard to fire following earthquake in New Zealand. Moreover, the research that has been conducted has not been the subject of a co-ordinated research programme.
The Wellington Lifelines Group has been an advocate of the introduction of automatic shut-off valves at reservoirs as a result of study tours following the 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquakes. Policies along these lines have been implemented by water supply authorities in a number of regions with Fire Service Support. There is nevertheless a need to revisit this policy using a more systematic risk management based approach as proposed.
The following outcomes from this high-level process are anticipated:
- placing NZ-based research and associated activities in an appropriate context in order to highlight linkages, overlaps and gaps, and
- a clearer indication of the principal risk factors for fire following earthquake in New Zealand and how they are likely to differ from (i) other countries and (ii) between regions.
Report 38: Fire following earthquake: Identifying key issues for New Zealand [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 593Kb]
NZCER
Improving the Fire Safety Knowledge and Practices of Vulnerable Groups: Year Two
The New Zealand Council for Educational Research is undertaking this study with funding by the New Zealand Fire Service Commission’s Contestable Research Fund. The study is involving New Zealanders from groups with are at high risk of house fires and their consequences. The resources were drafted last year and have been designed to help both Maori and non-Maori elderly people living at home and families with pre-school children to avoid house fires from occurring in the first place and to be more likely to escape safely in the event of a fire. Approximately 200 Maori and non-Maori elderly people, carers of elderly people and parents or caregivers of pre-school children in urban and rural areas in the north and south islands are being interviewed individually and taking part in focus groups to test and evaluate fire safety resources which will improve the fire safety knowledge and practices of people from these groups.
University of Otago
Prevention of Domestic Fire Injury in New Zealand with Special Reference to Vulnerable Groups: Year Two
This Wellington School of Medicine research team will continue a programme of research to assist the New Zealand Fire Service Commission to carry out its statutory duty to promote fire safety. The research group seeks to prevent fire-related death and injury using public health methods and approaches, which have proven successful in other areas of injury prevention and in cancer control. Over a three-year period the research programme seeks to:
- provide a comprehensive analysis of available data on occurrence of deaths and serious injury due to domestic fire incidents;
- identify social and physical environmental risk factors for death and injury in fire incidents, and
- review what is known about the prevention of death and injury due to fire, and make recommendations about the development of fire safety programmes in New Zealand to reduce the incidence and impact of fire incidents in vulnerable communities.
The research process will use existing data held by the Fire Service and Ministry of Health, review international literature and gather new information through interviews with household occupants who experience serious fire incidents.
Report 13: Unintentional Fire-Related Child Injuries in Auckland 1989-1998 [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 1Mb]
Report 16: Cooking, alcohol and unintentional fatal fires in New Zealand homes 1991-1997 [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 370Kb]
The University of Auckland
Te Whare Hauora – Interventions in Maori house fire mortality rates through innovations in "healthy" Maori Housing solutions
Based on the accepted knowledge that members of the Maori community population are significantly over represented in fire fatalities the focus of this research project is to develop a targeted "Maori friendly" approach to risk analysis and intervention programmes.
The research will use a multi-method approach that is grounded in the principles of Kaupapa Maori research. The research will carry out an independent analysis and review of two recent domestic fire mortalities involving Maori which will include interviewing families, key informants and the fire service. Included in the research will be a visit up to three communities to ‘test’ and refine fire risk based on predetermined ‘template’, and build research findings into a larger research proposal that will be forwarded to other funding agencies (eg Heath Research Council, Te Puni Kokiri).
Report 14: Interventions in Maori House Fire Mortality Rates [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 1Mb]
McDermont Miller
Scoping a Social Marketing Programme for Fire Safety in the Community
Potentially, "social marketing" is a cost-effective approach to achieving the New Zealand Fire Service Commissions strategic objectives in domestic fire safety. Social marketing involves changing social attitudes and modifying negative behaviour by the application of marketing techniques. In relation to fire safety, the needs and wants of target groups within the population would be assessed and messages and services tailored to these needs would be marketed so that attitudes and behaviour towards the risk of fires changes.
A social marketing programme would utilise existing Fire Service Research and communication capability but still involving a large commitment of funds. McDermont Miller proposes at this stage an initial scoping study to enable the fire service to assess whether social marketing is an appropriate and cost effective way to help reduce fatalities, injuries and property damage from fire.
The proposed research would involve: a review of New Zealand and international experience in social marketing in the public sector to achieve positive social goals, particularly in emergency services; an assessment of the adequacy of the current fire safety research base to support a social marketing programme; and a costed design for a social marketing programme in fire safety aimed at New Zealand households.
Report 12: Scoping a Social Marketing Programme for Fire Safety Research in the Community [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 1Mb]