Risk Assessment and Crisis Management in Gas Stations

Filling stations inside the urban environment are known as one of the existing and potential dangers in cities which according to their centralized fire load can be of high safety importance. Tehran holds 101 active filling stations faced to extreme accidents and high explosion potentials. In this study, 59 out of 101 gas stations were investigated under the fire risk assessment implementation. By the application of the existing standards, a checklist consisting of the entire hazards related to filling stations fire safety was organized, then customers' behavior of smoking and usage of mobile phones were assessed and accounted for determination of probability of fire. Finally, using Williams-Fine and FMEA methods along with an assessment providing model for under study filling stations, the fire risk measurements and estimations were performed. By means of a questionnaire and the related experts' viewpoints, the impact of each parameter in the probability and severity of fire in the filling stations were determined and applied to risk calculations. Also experts' viewpoints, information and data were used for determination of risk tolerance. The results showed that about 68 % of filling stations in Tehran suffer from poor conditions and improper constructions to face risks and crisis. This shows inadequate implementation of risk and crisis management and also inadequacy of manpower training in fire extinguishing techniques. Besides, just three of these gasoline stations were equipped with automatic fire extinguishing system. Regarding preparation for encountering critical conditions, most of the personnel were trained to extinguish fire at gas stations, but only 5 % of them were informed on crisis management. Thus, they attempted to execute a maneuver to be well-prepared when there is urgency. Therefore, prompt and urgent improvements, as well as training are needed through application of crisis management in all directions.