Characterization and Evaluation of Fire Response Performance in Shanghai Based on Fire Department Statistics

Abstract

The efficiency of the emergency response plays a crucial role in both fire suppression and personnel rescue operations, where the travel time and speed are determined. However, there is limited research on the factors that influence travel time and speed, especially in the quantitative influences of time, space, and incident classification factors. In this work, the distribution of all incidents in Shanghai, 2022 are presented. The correlation of temporal factors such as time, date, and month, spatial factors such as distance to the city center, economic scale, population, and incident classification is studied and discussed. The results reveal that as the urgency of incidents increases, the travel time and speed tend to decrease and increase respectively. In the early morning, despite favorable traffic conditions, actual travel time significantly increases due to firefighter fatigue, resulting in a notable decrease in travel speed. During the lockdown period in March, April, and May for Covid-19 pandemic, there is a significant decrease in travel time and an increase in travel speed. Regarding spatial factors, there is a distinct regional distribution of actual travel time strongly correlated with area size, distance to the city center, and average travel distance. Notably, the relative speed difference between firefighting vehicles and regular vehicles increases as the incident type changes from fire to emergency rescues and social assistance. This speed difference is primarily influenced by the economic and population scale of the coverage area. As the severity level increases from Level 0 (lowest) to Level 5 (highest), travel time significantly decreases, while travel speed and relative speed difference markedly increase. The work will contribute to the theoretical foundation for fire station planning.