Fire protection of emergency electrical devices: effect on the level of risk. A case study of a rail tunnel

The paper proposes the main results obtained from the Quantitative Risk Analysis developed on an existing tunnel, according to the Ministerial Decree “Safety of Railway Tunnels” (October 28th 2005). The fire produces the most severe scenario among the possible emergencies in confined area, thus the regulations in Europe and in Italy (Technical Specifications for Interoperability, Decision December 20th 2007, Ministerial Decree October 28th 2005) obligate to direct adoption of measures and devices for prevention and protection to reduce the probability of occurrence of this specific critical scenario and the containment of the fire effects. To mitigate the damage, the difficulty of providing an effective external rescue in a short time involves supplementary safety measures aimed at improving the process of self-rescue.