Little research has been conducted on the potential impacts of fire following major earthquakes in the United States and on ways to mitigate such secondary impacts of earthquakes. This represents a serious gap in our mitigation and preparedness activities in the United States. In another investigation, the research team began developing a model on the technical aspects of post-earthquake fire initiation and spreading using San Francisco as a case area. This project will extend the research to other jurisdictions, focus on selected high risk categories such as high-rise buildings or hazardous industrial installations, consider system aspects of firefighting response, and expand and implement the model on fire initiation and spreading.
