Due to advances in building regulations, many timber frame multi-storey apartment buildings have been constructed in the Nordic countries. However, until now, no comprehensive method to estimate fire risks in such buildings has been available to designers. This paper briefly outlines a methodology for developing risk index methods for this purpose and describes the development and testing of such a method, FRIM-MAB. It shows how the method has been evaluated against a more complex quantitative risk analysis technique. It describes how a maximum allowable risk index value can be determined when using building codes in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark). The paper shows how the method has been tested on 20 different multistorey apartment buildings. Finally, the paper describes how 5 different engineers used the same documentation to evaluate four different buildings, thus allowing a check of the repeatability of the method.

Crises affecting societies at a national level have regularly highlighted the importance of societies being prepared and resilient. There is a lack of standardized and proven procedures to ensure continuity of vital societal functions at a national level, as demonstrated in the recent COVID‐19 pandemic. This article investigates how the methodology of business continuity management (BCM) can be used at a national level to increase resilience and societal safety. The article shows that a societal safety approach, where critical societal functions are based on societal values and basic individual needs, can be a fundamental platform for national continuity management. National risk assessments (NRAs), refer to the process and documentation of assessing risks at a national level. NRAs in three Nordic countries where societal safety is the basis for national disaster risk management (DRM) is analyzed, and in two other countries, which have worked extensively with NRAs. This article presents several possibilities and problems inherent in using the BCM process and methodology for national DRM. Finally, a rough proposal is given on how DRM can be developed at the national level with the help of concepts and methods from BCM that would increase societal safety.

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Fire safety regulations have a major impact on many aspects of the overall design of high-rise buildings, where complex and non-conventional architectural elements and designs can lead to fire environments diverging significantly from those used in the development of current codes and standards. Additionally, fire-fighting in high-rise buildings must be carried out from the inside of the building and fire-fighters must use stairwells or special fire-fighter lifts to access the floors which are on fire One way of assessing fire risk in such complex buildings is to use the principles of quantitative risk analysis (QRA), where deterministic and probabilistic models are combined to quantify risk and compare different fire safety strategies. In order to do this in high-rise buildings, account must be taken of the fire department intervention time in the QRA methodology, but data on the various parts of fire department action time has been scarce.. This paper focuses on the effect of the fire department intervention in high-rise building fires and how information on fire department intervention can be accounted for when using quantitative risk analysis to compare different fire safety strategies in such buildings.