Modeling and analysis of subway fire emergency response: An empirical study

Modeling and analysis of a subway fire emergency response processes are extremely important in metro operation. In this study, a Petri net based approach is proposed to model and analyze the time and resource issues of subway fire emergency response processes. More specifically, the formal specification of subway fire emergency response process is first defined and a real subway fire response process is given to validate our methodologies. Next, resource conflict detection methods along with corresponding algorithms are proposed to detect potential resource conflicts. In addition, a priority criterion which constitutes of key-task priority strategy and waiting-short priority strategy is proposed to resolve the detected resource conflicts and optimize the whole process execution time. By experiment comparison, it is proved that our resolution strategies could effectively resolve resource conflicts as well as achieving high time performance. The proposed approach can be effectively used to simulate and train an emergency response plan to detect potential conflicts in time, sequence, and resources, before its real application. In this way, the reliability and validity of emergency response plan can be improved greatly. With the rapid development of subway in China, it has become an increasingly important form of public transportation. Subway safety is directly related to the healthy development and stability of big metropolis. Therefore, subway emergency management plays a key role in the immediate response, control and reduction of subway accidents. Because of the special spatial structure of the subway, fire accidents usually results in serious consequences, and poses serious threats to the safety of passengers, properties and infrastructures. According to a subway accident statistics from 1903 to 2004, it is discovered that fire is one of the most harmful accidents in daily subway operation (Dai et al., 2005). It happens frequently and results in relatively large numbers of causalities, such as the Baku subway fire in the Azerbaijan Republic (in 1995, more than 340 casualties) and the arson fire in Daegu, Korea (in 2003, more than 189 casualties). Due to the heavy casualties and tremendous economic loss of a fire accident, it is of extreme importance to apply effective and efficient emergency rescue for reducing casualties and property damage as soon as possible after the accident. Generally speaking, a subway fire emergency is a situation that poses immediate risks to human health, life and property (Zeng et al., 2013a; Liu et al., 2015a). Therefore, urgent responses to prevent its worsening are …