PATTERNS OF URBAN FIRE OCCURENCE IN IASI CITY (ROMANIA)

Abstract

Fire incidents are a problem of major importance for cities, as they affect the lives of a large population and produce significant material damages. Assessing the temporal and spatial distribution of fires is an important stage in order to efficiently manage this issue. Using a comprehensive database for a five year period, the present study tries to identify certain patterns and specificities by analyzing the occurrence of urban fires, grouped by their main causes and damages, at different time scale and integrating the information from street level to urban district and, finally, at city level. The spatial distribution of the number of fires follows the center-periphery model, overlapping the neighborhoods with multiple functions (residential, administrative and cultural). The industrial area also concentrates a bigger number of fires, these brownfields being used by homeless population which make use of garbage as fire material. Applying the location quotient was an opportunity to highlight cross-scale the concentration of fires and revealed that the neighborhoods located at the periphery are more vulnerable to fires. The results can be used for further, more comprehensive studies of urban fire risk assessment and can also became the basis for (re)configuring the emergency services, in particular, and urban planning, in general.