Publications in English

Fire safety

Fire safety of indoor car parks accommodating electrically powered vehicles (2021)

This paper discusses the safety and more specifically the fire safety of indoor car parks accommodating electric vehicles and of charging facilities in indoor car parks. It answers the question of how to deal with the increase in electric vehicles in indoor car parks from a fire prevention and repression perspective. This paper provides guidance for fire safety advisers and those combating incidents who work for the security regions. Of course, other parties involved in the development, construction and operation of indoor car parks can also use this paper.

Basis for Fire Safety (2018)

This document was originally written based on the situation regarding fire safety in the Netherlands, but was soon found to be applicable to situations outside the Netherlands as well. The approach to fire safety as described in this document can therefore be applied universally. It describes the backgrounds and foundations of fire protection measures and facilities.

Smoke propagation in residential buildings (2019)

Smoke propagation is a widely reported problem that raises fundamental questions about its consequences for fire safety, particularly for vulnerable groups, including the elderly. In this study the effect of smoke propagation on the possibility of escape and survivability in the event of fire was examined through field experiments (19 tests) in a residential building with internal corridors.

Fire safety of upholstered furniture and mattresses (from 2017)

In 2016 the Institute for Safety and a retailer started a co-operation with the purpose to initiate a new approach towards product requirements for upholstered furniture and mattresses. Those requirements are meant to improve consumer safety, taking into account current living situations and current research on domestic fire safety. The overall goal is to improve domestic fire safety through safer home furnishing products.

Fire safety of fire safe cigarettes (2017)

This study shows that fire-safe cigarettes play only a limited role in reducing the number of smoking-related fire deaths, as there are several other factors that influence the probability of dying in fires caused by smoking.

Fire safety and the ageing population (2016)

In 2015 the Fire Service Academy and the Dutch Burns Foundation studied the influence of the ageing of the population on fire safety, and the fact that elderly people generally live independently on their own for a longer time than in previous years. This resulted in a numer of extensive reports. A summary of these reports has been translated into English.

Hydrogen cars in parking garages (2021)

The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management commissioned NIPV to investigate the safety aspects of hydrogen cars in parking garages. The following questions have been been answered in this report:

1. To what extent do incident scenarios involving hydrogen cars in parking garages result in the release of hydrogen, and what are the effects of this release?
2. What are the conditions that determine the nature and significance of these effects?
3. What is known about the probability of the release of hydrogen in a parking garage and the probability of that released hydrogen being ignited?

Firefighting

Wildfire Signal ’23 (2023)

In the past years, wildfires have been both inside as outside The Netherlands a very current topic. The question is how, also due to climate change, the wildfire risk in The Netherlands is developing. This main research question is divided in a number of sub-questions:

1. How is the susceptibility for the occurrence of wildfires changing?
2. How is the susceptibility for the development of wildfires changing?
3. How is the impact of wildfires changing?

A renewed view on firefighting (2018)

The basic principles of the view as laid out in this document help firefighters to carry out safe and effective attacks. This document combines the results of recent studies by NIPV, observations of actual fires, international investigations and the principles of fire safety engineering.

Fire service doctrine (2014)

The fire service doctrine is a theory that supports the skills needed to safely and effectively conduct firefighting operations. The quadrant model is a tool for deciding which tactic to use when fighting a fire in a building.