Analysis of Fire Accident Factors on Construction Sites Using Web Crawling and Deep Learning Approach

Abstract

Fire safety on construction sites has been rarely studied because fire accidents have a lower occurrence compared to construction’s “Fatal Four”. Despite the lower occurrence, construction fire accidents tend to have a larger severity of impact. This study aims at using news media data and big data analysis techniques to identify patterns and factors related to fire accidents on construction sites. News reports on various construction accidents covered by news media were first collected through web crawling. Then, the authors identified the level of media exposure for various keywords related to construction accidents and analyzed the similarities between them. The results show that the level of media exposure for fire accidents on construction sites is much higher than for fall accidents, which suggests that fire accidents may have a greater impact on the surroundings than other accidents. It was found that the main causes of fire accidents on construction sites are violations of fire safety regulations and the absence of inspections, which could be sufficiently prevented. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring factors related to fire safety on construction sites and their interrelationships as well as providing evidence that the fire type should be emphasized in safety-related regulations and codes on construction sites.