Forensic analysis of a fatal fire incident in a high-rise residential building in Bangladesh, 2010 using fire modelling

• Main Authors: Mahmud, S. A., Haque, F. M., Rahman, M. A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carpentry; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Fuels; High rise buildings; Interior design; Mathematical models; Numerical methods; Propagation; Residential buildings; Smoke; Turpentine; Visibility
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5115930

The present study reports the science-based fire scene reconstruction of a fatal fire that occurred in a high-rise residential building in Dhaka in 2010, taking the lives of 7 inhabitants. Numerical methods have been applied to analyze the deadly event in order to demonstrate different smoke propagation and to compare them with the official investigation report on the actual incident. In this investigation, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based fire dynamics simulator PyroSim is used for exploring the fire spread and smoke propagation. The results suggest that teak wood would not have been the only fuel source in this incident. It is proposed that burning of other fuel with higher CO yield such as turpentine oil or white spirit, in addition to the teak wood in the apartment where interior decoration and carpentry work was going on and where the fire was initiated, results in the required high level of CO to cause the asphyxiation of the trapped occupants. It is also to be mentioned that the victims of casualty were entrapped by the smoke within the main staircase due to a drop in the tenability which caused the fatality. By analyzing the effects of smoke temperature, visibility, CO concentration, the tenability limit for this residential building is measured. The use of engineering analysis and modelling of fire for fire forensic analysis is considered to be an important tool in fire investigation, this paper reports first such study in Bangladesh.