NUMERICAL REPRODUCTION OF THE SEN’NICHI DEPARTMENT STORE FIRE AND ITS DAMAGE FACTOR ANALYSIS BASED ON FSE EVACUATION SAFETY VERIFICATION METHOD

Abstract

The Sen’nichi Department-store fire(1972, 118 victims) is noted for the largest loss of life in a single building fire. This work intends to reproduce numerically the smoke spread and evacuation during the fire, and further applies the numerical simulations to inspect the validities of then-discussed assumptions and speculations for the largeness of the life loss and for the possible improvement of the fire safety. The study suggests any better crisis management could have reduced the number of victims but the failure of the smoke separation through elevator shaft, staircases and ventilation duct was the essential cause for the life loss.