Possibility of Suppressing Fire Spread in the Event of a Large Earthquake by Greening and Demolishing Vacant Houses

Abstract

In recent years, disaster mitigation measures by greening and demolition of vacant houses to prevent large post-earthquake fire spread have been promoted. However, few studies evaluate its effects on reducing property damage and human casualties, especially in vulnerable areas for earthquakes, such as densely built-up wooden residential areas. In this paper, we develop a model to describe the delay of post-earthquake fire spread between neighboring buildings, and incorporate it into the simulation model. Using the integrated model, we evaluate the reduction of the number of burnt-down buildings and human casualties in densely built-up wooden residential areas, and demonstrate the effectiveness of greening and demolition of vacant houses.