Using Smart Fire Systems in Buildings in Afghanistan: A Case Study in Kabul

Abstract

Ensuring fire safety in residential buildings remains a critical component of sustainable urban development, particularly in developing countries. This paper evaluates the applicability and effectiveness of Intelligent Fire Protection Systems (IFPS) integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart automation in typical multi-story residential buildings in Kabul, Afghanistan. The study is based on the fire-risk situation of Kabul, where rapid informal urban expansion, high population density, unstable electrical grids and non-standard winter heating practices increase the probability of severe fire incidents. A three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and visualized in Smokeview for a typical six-story residential building. Severe fire scenarios were considered, including apartment ignition and staircase ignition. The model was combined with evacuation assessment through Available Safe Evacuation Time (ASET) and Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET). The results show that, under conventional conditions without automated systems, ASET is limited to 220-250 s for an apartment fire and decreases to 150-180 s for a staircase fire, while RSET for 150-200 occupants reaches 300-400 s. Therefore, the safety condition ASET > RSET is not satisfied. Intelligent sensors, automated alarm, localized smart sprinklers and smoke-exhaust integration reduce the maximum heat release rate by approximately 40-50% and increase ASET by about 100-150 s. The proposed low-power decentralized IFPS framework can improve early warning, evacuation safety and fire response under Kabul's power-supply and infrastructure constraints.