Simulation analysis of fire truck scheduling strategies for fighting oil fires

Abstract

Emergency response is an important measure to reduce the loss of any major fire and prevent its escalation. There may be many fire trucks participating in the fire-fighting at the same time, and the scheduling of them will affect the fire-fighting efficiency and thus, capacity. This work focuses on the cycle process of fighting fire and refilling water of fire trucks, and analyzes and compares the scheduling strategies of the fire trucks. The simulation tool eM-plant is utilized to model the fire-fighting process. In view of the emergency response in relation to a chemical fire accident and to prevent its escalation, strategies in the analysis consider the allocation of fire trucks according to the distance of hydrants, the distribution of fire trucks according to the number of fire hydrants, etc. The results of this paper show that an even distribution of fire trucks leads to a good performance, but can be further adjusted to find a more optimal strategy. This study provides guidance for fire truck scheduling in case of emergency response.