Proposed design fire scenarios for underground hard rock mines

Abstract Given the complexity and uniqueness of underground hard rock mines, the application of the design fire scenario approach is recommended when evaluating fire safety in mines. Providing a full set of design fire scenarios – ensuring that several important life safety aspects are covered – for a mine can be challenging. The question is whether a catalogue of potential clusters of design fire scenarios could be developed, covering important aspects found underground? Given the general lack of research into design fires in the mining industry, this paper provides a unique analysis of design fire scenarios in underground hard rock mines. Taking advantage of several different and diverse data sources, a comprehensive analysis with holistic character is provided where several proposed clusters of design fire scenarios and analyses of what criteria to apply when evaluating the scenarios are presented. The analysis of suitable criteria highlights the toxicity of the emitted smoke and decrease in visibility as potential criteria underground. The proposed scenarios focus on influencing parameters such as the fire behaviour, position of fire, fire load, and smoke spread. The proposed clusters of design fire scenarios will provide a key tool when evaluating fire protection measures in an underground mine.