Towards the development of a fire safety systems evaluation for public assembly buildings

The application of the Delphi Technique in the development of fire safety evaluation schemes is reviewed. The Analytic Hierarchical Process is introduced and suggested as an appropriate tool for use in the development of fire safety evaluation schemes using expert opinion. A study undertaken to investigate the potential of the AHP in the development of a fire safety evaluation scheme for public assembly buildings is reported. The results obtained indicate that the AHP which incorporates a check for consistency in the decision making process is a useful tool for handling information obtained on a judgemental basis.