The Commission determined that its research priorities for 2006/2007 were as follows:

Targeting vulnerable groups

• perceived barriers to take up of fire safety features in homes
• delivery mechanisms for hard-to-reach groups

Measurement of our impact

• evaluation of targeted programmes on our key results
• true measurement of social behavioural change
• Fire Service impact on non-fire emergencies
• assessment tools for rural service delivery

Built environment

• reliability of fire safety systems for use in quantitative risk assessments
• review of fire safety in existing building stock including trends in change of use
• sprinkler protection and sustainability

Incidence and control of vegetation fires in rural areas

• projects in alignment with Rural Fire Research Strategy

The following projects were recommended to the Commission as achieving the required standards and judged to achieve the best value for money.

Te Rōpū Whāriki (Whāriki Research Group), Massey University
Evaluation of Research and Promotion for Māori

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of NZFSC’s fire safety education programme and promotional activities in relation to Māori communities. Projects to be evaluated include:

• Protecting Marae from fire – Ngā Whakatūpato ahi mō te marae
• Maui Tinei Ahi school programme for kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori
• Te Kotahitanga – the ambassador programme – captures many Māori families though it is not Māori exclusive
• Māori print media and iwi radio campaign

2. Evaluate the quality and utility of the New Zealand Fire Service Commission’s research outputs in relation to Māori communities. This includes:

• Identify any barriers to the uptake and utility of currently available research commissioned by the NZFSC
• Identify any gaps and provide any necessary updates to the research

Ensis Bushfire Research
Fire behaviour calculator to assist rural fire management

This research project will develop a user-friendly software calculator to allow rural fire managers to predict fire behaviour quickly and easily. This calculator will be based on sound science, incorporating existing fire behaviour models in use in New Zealand into a stand-alone software package. The Ensis Bushfire Research Group has developed and validated a range of fuel and fire behaviour models to assist rural fire practitioners in making effective decisions regarding protection of life and property of from wildfires. Those models are currently widely available in paper format, and there is a growing need for a computerised software package capable of providing a quick and reliable tool for day-to-day fire management purposes. This calculator will effectively transfer scientific knowledge into a user friendly toll that will provide a meaningful outcome to forest and rural fire management in New Zealand.

Centre for Human Factors & Ergonomics
Measurement of rural firefighter physiological workload and fire suppression productivity

This research project aims to improve the health and safety of rural firefighters by determining, under New Zealand operational conditions, the physiological workload of firefighting tasks. At the same time, the research will measure fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions to provide real data for incorporation into fire management decision support systems. The project will utilise a novel suite of data collection equipment worn by the firefighter to record visual, physiological and geographical information relevant to firefighting. Results from the research will be used to quantify firefighter physical workload and fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions.

Martin, Jenkins & Associates
Evaluation of the Firewise for schools programme

The New Zealand Fire Service Commission’s mission is to ‘reduce the incidence and consequence of fire and to provide a professional response to other emergencies’. A number of strategic priorities aim to achieve this mission including the priority to ‘improve community fire outcomes through fire prevention, fire safety and better response’. Children are recognised to be one of the at-risk of fire groups and as such the New Zealand Fire Service Commission target fire safety education messages to children through a range of activities including the Firewise for Schools programme.

The Commission provides participating schools with resources to deliver the Firewise for School programme. The fire safety messages are delivered to Children in Year 1 and 2 by teachers and reinforced with support from local Fire Service staff and parents who undertake homework activities with their children. This proposed evaluation of the Firewise for School programme is aimed at understanding how the programme is delivered and generating insights about the perceived value of the programme with a view to improving its delivery and the results that flow from it. Our evaluation approach is based on: (a) a survey of 250 New Zealand primary schools to understand the nature and extent of programme uptake; and (b) in-depth interviews with school principals, representatives of school boards, teachers, Fire Service staff and parents to identify factors that help or hinder the successful implementation and uptake of the programme and the perceived value or worth of the programme for recipients.

Auckland UniServices Ltd
Evaluation of the successes of the juvenile Fire Awareness and Intervention Programme (FAIP)

This proposal is fro a study to conduct a process and outcome evaluation of the FAIP programme. Currently the FAIP measure its success by what it describes as its ‘recidivism rate’. This is, if children who deliberately light are re-referred to the FAIP within one year of the first referral, they are counted as recidivist fire lighters. If they are re-referred after one year, they are counted as new referrals. To date, no independent process or outcome evaluation had been undertaken and therefore research that closely examines the effectiveness of the programme is required. We propose undertaking a 12 month study that will consist of three phases. The first phase will involve a review of the recidivism literature on prevention programmes for children who deliberately light fires. The second phase will involve developing questionnaires for interviewing parents and caregivers of children who have been through the programme, along with developing the procedures for gathering recidivism data from the Ministry of Justice or New Zealand Police. This will be followed by data collection and analysis. The final phase will involve the integration of material from phases one and to, resulting ina report to the Fire Service Commission and a series of recommendations as to how the programme might be improved.

Marsh Limited
Reliability of fire safety systems for use in quantitative risk assessments

Knowledge of the reliability and effectiveness of fire protection systems such as sprinklers, alarm systems and smoke control systems is fundamentally important when assessing the acceptability of fire safety design for a building. Without this knowledge there is considerable subjectivity and uncertainty when comparing design alternatives. Currently engineers have very limited information available to assist them in this aspect of the design process and this is hampering the use of quantitative risk assessment methods in fire engineering design. The scope of work proposed in this submission reviews the New Zealand and international literature and databases to derive deterministic and probabilistic reliability and effectiveness data suitable for use in the New Zealand fire engineering design environment. Specifically this knowledge will be used to produce generic fault tree models which can then be used as a design tools by practitioners.

BRANZ
Revised cost benefit analyses for fire protection in buildings including impact of sustainability

This project will update the cost-benefit methodology and data used in two previous BRANZ studies: for the installation of a home sprinkler system and for assessing the impact of mandatory regulations for fire properties of upholstered furniture.

The previous methodology will be improved by:

• investigating how the impact of sustainability can be included in a quantitative cost-benefit analysis with particular emphasis on evaluating the use of fire sprinklers and developing a new module into the cost-benefit model for sustainability impacts.
• accounting for input parameter uncertainty by including input distributions instead of single value inputs whenever possible.
• revising input data for the analyses by including the current estimated value of a statistical human life based on recent h and also reviewing and updating other input data, where more up to date or appropriate data can be located.

Successful completion of this project will result in guidance on how sustainability considerations should be included within a cost benefit analysis and the nature of availability of the data requirements. Also, up-to-date information on cost benefit of home sprinkler systems and upholstered furniture regulation, based on current data and new knowledge will provide new information, intended to inform policy and regulation.