Peculiarities of fire safety requirements application under the conditions of a risk-based activity model
Authors:   State Fire Academy of EMERCOM of Russia, Lobaev Igor A. , Pleshakov Vitaly V. ,   State Fire Academy of EMERCOM of Russia
Published: July 2023

PURPOSE. Risk-based activity model is aimed at reducing administrative pressure on business in order to develop national economy. In this regard, the federal state fire supervision (FSFS) bodies are faced with the challenge of applying the minimum necessary fire safety requirements, justified by the calculation, taking into account the risk of causing harm in order to avoid unreasonable costs for the right holders of the protected facilities for excessive fire safety requirements. However, the application of complex calculated estimates of fire danger level to develop proportionate fire safety measures when conducting control and supervision activities is impossible due to lack of time. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an information support tool for employees of the FSFS bodies, which makes it possible to qualitatively assess the compliance of the protected facility with the fire safety requirements within the time specified by law. The purpose of the research is to enhance the technologies of conducting FSFS in connection with the social and economic conditioning of goals of control and supervision activities. The objectives of the research are to justify the need for the development and application of rapid assessments for a reliable calculated danger level and acquisition of skills to establish the proportionality of fire safety requirements to the danger level. METHODS. The theory of system analysis, risk theory, methods of information synthesis, methods of expert analysis, are the scientific basis of the study. FINDINGS. In the current social and economic conditions, it is necessary to enhance the technology of conducting FSFS on the basis of proportionality of interference of control and supervision bodies with the activities of persons being inspected. The costs for fire safety provision are many times greater than fire damage prevented by these measures. This creates social tension in the application and implementation of fire safety requirements as it reflects the disproportionate interference of control and supervision bodies into the activities of controlled persons. Such inefficient application of fire safety requirements has developed due to inconsistencies in the area of effective fire safety requirements application to the risk of causing harm (damage), which shows their insufficiency or redundancy in relation to fire damage. RESEARCH APPLICATION FIELD. The results of the study can be used to develop fire safety requirements, for law enforcement practice by employees of the FSFS, for students, masters and adjuncts of educational institutions of fire-technical profile. CONCLUSIONS. The need to develop information support tools for inspectors of the FSFS bodies in the form of rapid fire risk assessments has been confirmed and is due to the measure of responsibility that falls on the FSFS bodies when making decisions on the mandatory requirements proportionate to the risk of causing harm. In this regard, the area of effective application of fire safety requirements should be proportionate to the danger level established by the predictive design scenarios of fire safety regulatory documents, which can be reliably established by the FSFS authorities using rapid assessments when conducting inspections of protected facilities under time pressure.