Fire is a main threat to property and human safety in materials storage of process industry plants as well as other industrial sectors, and risk management of materials storage fires is challenging due to potential accident causes and various safety measures. Complex accident causes, severe consequences, and effective safety measures have been the main concerns of industrial companies and researchers. However, for storage fires, a generic risk management model is absent. Bow-tie is an effective method to reveal causal relationships of accident causes, safety barriers, and possible accident consequences. In this study, based on bow-tie analysis, a generic framework for quantitative risk management of storage fires is established via analysis of previous storage fires. Pertinent safety measures are presented, allocation and efficacy of these safety measures to reduce storage fires risk is investigated. Finally, the methodology and proposed generic framework is applied to a major storage fire accident for a case study, the probabilities of fire accident and consequences are reduced significantly, which shows the efficacy and applicability of the proposed approach. The generic framework established in the present study can be tailored to various storage fire accidents with limited manipulation; and also, allocation and implementation of pertinent safety measures can reduce storage fires risk significantly. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.