The US – Sweden – UK project ENVECO is developing a tool to enable local fire services to assess the “prevented impacts” of interventions at fires.
The toll will estimate the impacts which the fire would have had if firefighters had not prevented its development, including both environmental impacts (global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, smog, eco-toxicity and energy use) and economic impacts (property damage, job and business disruption, rent reduction). A prototype to date covering only warehouse fires is available for testing by local fire services. The objective is to develop this to cover other types of fire.
US Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF), SP Sweden, Worcester Polytechnic Institute USA “Instant impact. A new tool calculates the economic and environmental impact of fighting fires” NFPA Journal, Sept-Oct 2016 and “Development of an Environmental and Economic Assessment Tool (Enveco Tool) for Fire Events”, FPRF, 27 May 2016