Multi-Hazard and multi-scale aspects in FHA

It is worth noting that fire hazard has two peculiar characteristics which are relevant for the MiCHe project, focusing on multi-hazard, multi-scale problems. 

First, there is a strict relation between fire and other hazards like earthquake and blast. In fact, it is not rare that fire is triggered as a “cascade” hazard by a previous earthquake or explosion, in this sense the fire hazard is probably the most important between the considered ones. In this cases, in fact, (fire triggered by earthquake or blast) the full probabilistic characterization of the fire intensity is even more complicate and not investigated in literature. Hence, also in this case the scenario-based heuristic approach for FHA is the most reliable tool.

Second, the multi-scale approach is not easily and coherently applicable for fire hazard at the present state, in fact when switching from the facility-scale (single structure) to upper scales (site- or urban- scale), then the fire phenomenology and dynamics changes. 

For example, at the site scale, only accidents in nearby special facilities (e.g. accidental fire in gas pipeline station) can affect other facilities on the same site, and this kind of fires have different developments and spread from the compartment fire generated in the single structure (especially cultural heritages or heritage structures/building) previously introduced. The same idea holds for the urban/regional scale, where only wildfires (e.g. in forests) become of interests in terms of impact on the area.