Risk management in case of fire after earthquake

Abstract

Fire following earthquake is the most concerning earthquake-related hazard. Large fires following an earthquake in urban areas are relatively rare phenomena, but they have occasionally been of catastrophic proportions. Building characteristics and density, meteorological conditions and other factors can combine to create a situation in which fire following earthquake is the predominant agent of damage. Records from historical earthquakes show that sometimes the damage caused by the subsequent fire can be much severer than the damage caused by the ground motion itself, this being true for both single buildings and whole regions. For the sake of example, it is estimated that the loss due to the fires after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake is 10 times larger than that due to the ground motion; in addition, within the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, it is estimated that 77% of lost buildings were destroyed by fire. [excerpt from Description]