University research: EPS-KILLS

The following report comes from Canterbury University researcher Gregory Baker.*

"A recent ten year study, conducted by industrial and commercial property insurer FM
Global (Battrick, 2001), shows an increase in the contribution of plastic construction materials to fire losses. The study looked at 70 large fire losses over the period 1988-97 that occurred in several countries. In all 70 fires, some type of plastic was both used in the construction of the buildings and a significant factor in the magnitude of the loss. More detailed analysis of the study shows that insulated metal panel constituted 19, or just in excess of one quarter, of the 70 incidents.

"There have been a significant number of fires in the food processing sector in the United Kingdom (UK). In the period 1992-97, 39 such fires were reported to the UK Fire Protection Association (Cooke, 2001b; Day,1998) where insulated panel was used in the construction of the premises. No less than twenty four of these fires occurred in the two year period January 1996 to December 1997 alone.

"The most well publicised fire incident in the UK involving insulated panel occurred at the premises of Sun Valley Poultry Limited in Hereford on September 1993 (Fire
Prevention, 1995b; Harwood and Hume, 1997). The different types of insulated panel
used in the construction of the building had cores of ‘non-combustible mineral wool,
combustible expanded polystyrene and polyurethane’ (Shipp et al, 1997). In this
particular fire, two fire fighters were killed as a result of the insulated panel ceiling collapsing and poor visibility (Cooke, 1997).

"Following the Sun Valley fire, the British Home Office commissioned a report (Shipp et al., 1997) into the fire safety of insulated panel. The first phase of the project involved sending a questionnaire to all fire brigades in the UK requesting information on fire incidents involving insulated panel. Thirty seven brigades responded to the questionnaire, and a total of 21 fire incidents involving insulated panel where analysed.

"Both cold storage and food processing buildings ‘are generally perceived as being of high risk’ (Harwood and Hume, 1997). However, only two of the 21 incidents involved cold storage buildings, while twelve involved food processing facilities and a five more were in factory buildings. The main conclusions drawn from the 21 incidents were that:

• all the fires produced large quantities of black smoke
• firefighting could not be carried out in 8 of the buildings, and in a further three, fire fighters had to evacuate the premises
• the only fatalities occurred in the Sun Valley fire
• in all cases, occupants escaped from the building

"In September 1991, a fire occurred in a chicken processing factory constructed from
insulated panel, located in North Carolina. Of the 90 staff present at the time of the blaze, 25 were killed and a further 54 injured (Morgan and Shipp, 1998).
The most widely publicised fire involving PIP in New Zealand, in recent times, occurred at the Christchurch premises of Ernest Adams Limited in February 2000. The majority of the building was constructed from PIP. One of the New Zealand Fire Service reports that summarised the investigation of the fire incident concluded that ‘the sustained elevated temperatures in the flue assembly were sufficiently high for a fire to occur in the polystyrene [core of the PIP roof panels] and that there was a sufficiently high energy release rate from the flue for this fire to be self sustaining until the fire had grown in size for its own heat release rate to be self sustaining’ (Hefford, 2000).

"The building was virtually totally destroyed by the fire. In addition, four fire fighters were injured in the incident. Two Fire Service personnel were injured as they exited a large roof/ceiling void where the fire initially took hold, while a further two received injuries when a section of ceiling collapsed (NZFS, 2000b). All 75 occupants of the building evacuated successfully.

"Following the Ernest Adams fire in Christchurch, the New Zealand Fire Service produced a publication (NZFS, 2000a) dealing with the hazards of fires in buildings constructed from PIP. In relation to fire fighting tactics, the document recommends that personnel should not attempt fire fighting within burning PIP buildings. The bulletin goes on to recommend that rescue entry should only be attempted in extraordinary circumstances, suggesting that ‘successful rescue…is extremely unlikely’ (NZFS, 2000a).

"‘Wide concern over the problems of fighting fires in buildings containing sandwich
panels’ (Morgan and Shipp, 1999) prompted the Fire Research and Development Group
of the British Home Office to commission a report which studied the fire fighting options for fires involving insulated panel. This was deemed necessary because ‘there [was] a clear unusual risk to fire fighters who may have to enter such a [PIP] building on fire’ (Morgan and Shipp, 1998). The majority of the Home Office report provided a summary of a workshop attended by Fire Brigade personnel, where fire fighting options were discussed. The report concluded that British fire brigades were reluctant to adopt the defensive tactic of abandoning a building to destruction even though the dangers of fires in insulated panel buildings were now more apparent."

*Performance of Expanded Polystyrene Insulated Panel Exposed to Radiant Heat
by Gregory B. Baker. A research report presented as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Fire Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, February 2002.

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Who is hiding the truth?

Poly fire makes history in NZ


It has been suggested that it was New Zealand’s largest food processing firestorm in history. The Tegel Poultry Processing Plant in the Christchurch suburb of Hornby was devastated on 5 January, 2007 in a conflagration the like of which fire fighters attending rarely see.
Polystyrene panels have been implicated in this tragedy which left the company scrambling for temporary space, under attack from animal rights activists, and paying fulltime salaries to staff with no work to do.
The Tegel fire set records. The total losses are estimated to be between NZ$50m and NZ$100m. The fire also broke records for the number of appliances attending. “Ten fire engines and more than 50 firefighters were called to the blaze, meaning every available firefighter in the city was on site,” said a news report.
The Fire Brigades’ Regional Commander Rob Saunders said: "They were supported by a number of firefighters from volunteer brigades from surrounding areas and call back staff were called back in to provide fire coverage for the Christchurch district."
TV New Zealand was on the spot to record the dramatic inferno. “The fire-fighters were battling 20m-high flames, the fire’s ferocity kept the first ground crew at a distance. They took to their new multi million dollar aerial towers.”

“With the flames came thick dark smoke fuelled by polystyrene that plumed over much of the western and southern city and precinct,” said the report.

The pure heat of the fire was such the investigation was delayed: “Fire safety officer Sue Trafford says the site examination has taken much longer than expected because the factory was so badly damaged,” said the television report.

The fire performance of polystyrene insulated panel in New Zealand was part of the New Zealand Fire Service’s Research Priorities for 2002/2003. It’s recommendation included the following: “Polystyrene Insulated Panel (PIP) has been used as a building material in New Zealand for over thirty years… There is growing concern, however, about the fire performance of the material within New Zealand and overseas. “ (http://www.fire.org.nz/research/reports/2002-2003.htm)

“The Hornby plant was a 24hour operation, killing 50 thousand chickens a day, mostly for the local market. It has more than 300 employees, half of them employed on the processing line that was destroyed,” reported One News.


Tegel's only South Island poultry slaughterhouse came under attack from SAFE, New Zealand's second largest animal advocacy organization. "Tegel's slaughterhouse operation in Hornby kills about 50,000 chickens each day. The massive backlog of chickens awaiting slaughter could cause serious welfare problems and result in increased bird mortalities," said Hans Kriek, campaign director of SAFE.
“The poultry industry has purposely produced a meat chicken that has an accelerated growth rate that allows the birds to be ‘table ready' at a mere six weeks of age. Their unnaturally large bodies place enormous strain on the birds' legs resulting in abnormal gait, lameness and pain.
"The destruction of the slaughterhouse could cause a delay in killing these fast-growing birds, which will increase the level of suffering. Tegel has publicly stated that their focus is on staff and customers but SAFE calls on them to ensure their priorities include the tens of thousands of animals also affected," says Mr Kriek.
"SAFE is concerned the poultry industry's contingency for emergency slaughter could result in compromised humane slaughter procedures. If the birds are forced to remain on farms for prolonged periods or transported to the North Island for slaughter, systems must be in place to mitigate as much suffering as possible".
In response, TVNZ reported that “Tegel group chief financial officer Rob Aitken says Tegel will work with the Poultry Industry Association in a bid to find alternative plant in order to keep the operation running.”
Despite the reports, the polystyrene industry in New Zealand still maintains it is a safe material. However, in a report titled “Effect of Heat on EPS” Plastics New Zealand admits the following: “As EPS is heated it softens, and at about 150ºC it begins to shrink. This continues until it is reduced to its original density prior to expansion. Continued heating will melt it to liquid and then a combustible gas will form above 200ºC. This gas can be ignited at temperatures between 360ºC and 380ºC, and will self ignite around 500ºC. When burning, it produces 40 - 45 MJ/Kg of heat. Temperatures of this magnitude usually occur only in well-developed fires.”

Tip Top Bakery Fire, Fairfield NSW, 2 June, 2002


Case Study: Major fire in Australian food production facility

The following extract from a NSW Fire Brigade Union report on the Tip Top Bakery Fire in Fairfield, NSW on 2nd June, 2002 acknowledges the fire susceptibility of polystyrene foam insulation panels:

“Polystyrene foam is thermoplastic, that is, it softens when heated. Thermoplastic materials tend to melt and shrink away from heat long before ignition. This melting causes voids that reduce the structural strength of the panels. As the panels buckle, the joints tend to open introducing flame and air into the core. This results in internal flame spread between the panels and throughout the structure and there is likely to be a rapid loss of structural strength and subsequent collapse of walls and ceilings. Polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foams are both thermosetting materials, which means that
they do not melt, flow or drip when exposed to fire. Rather, they form a strong carbonaceous char that helps to protect the foam core and prevent flame spread within the panels themselves. It would appear that the insulated sandwich panels utilised in the construction of the Tip Top factory were constructed with polystyrene insulation. Construction using polystyrene insulated sandwich panels presents several major difficulties for fire fighting:
• The loss of adequate structural integrity and subsequent likelihood of significant building collapse;
• The combustibility of the insulation material adds substantially to the fire load and results in the production of large amounts of heat, smoke and toxic products;
• Fire spread can be hidden within the panels, and
• This fire spread can be rapid, leading to conditions that favour flashover.

There have been incidents in other countries where firefighters have lost their lives whilst engaged in offensive firefighting tactics in structures constructed with insulated sandwich panels. Firefighters need to be aware of the inherent dangers of this type of lightweight construction. Incident commanders must be aware that firefighting in these conditions can be extremely hazardous with early collapse, high fire load and massive smoke production being major factors affecting firefighter safety.”


Fonterra Dairy Factory Fire, Takaka NZ, 22 JUNE 2005


"Takaka, in Golden Bay, will count the cost today of a spectacular blaze that destroyed the town's dairy factory, its biggest employer," reported The Press in June 2005.
"The fire broke out at the Fonterra factory about 5pm and flames soon engulfed large parts of the building. Firefighters spent several hours battling huge flames as thick, black smoke, fed by polystyrene in the building's construction, billowed from the rapidly disintegrating factory," said the press report.
The factory, which employed 100 people, was the backbone of the town's economy.
More than 500 residents were evacuated, according to the Nelson Bays police area commander, Inspector Brian McGurk, because of the "potential for poisonous gases to be released" from combustible plastic material.
"It's a very spectacular blaze. I haven't seen one like this for a long, long time. Huge flames," McGurk said.



Westgate Cold Stores is an abattoir and meat processing complex, situated on a triangular shaped block, eleven hectares in size located in an industrial park just ten kilometres west of Melbourne’s CBD. The rendering plant building, where the $67million fire started, is north of the meat processing plan.

Panorama, the official journal of the AIRAH reports: "The Fire Brigade was called while staff tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the blaze with a fire hose. The building was evacuated when the fire spread to polystyrene sandwich panels lining the ceiling and became too large to fight.... A strong northerly wind blowing through an open roller door in the north wall of the rendering plant building and the volume of polystyrene sandwich panels helped the fire spread quickly to an amenity block on the first floor of the meat processing plant building. It then spread quickly within the meat processing plant but because it had not breached the roof to any extent, it was difficult for fire crews to fight the fire from above using aerial appliances. Instead, they were forced to fight the fire internally using hose reels from fire brigade vehicles. Their task was made more difficult by limited visibility caused by thick black smoke and the complex internal layout of the building."


The final report (Post Incident Analysis & Fire Investigation Report, Post Incident
and Analysis Unit, Metropolitan Fire & Emergency Services Board, Melbourne, 2001) made some broader recommendations in respect to fire safety and risk management. They
included:

"Building regulators and manufacturers are urged to recognise the fire hazards associated with the use of sandwich panels, containing a core combustible insulation, as a building material in non-sprinklered buildings..."

"Australian Standards developed in respect to the fire characteristics of building materials should pay special attention to materials such as sandwich panels containing a core of combustible insulation. In doing so, testing methods similar to those used in the US and Europe should be adopted to determine how such products perform under more realistic fire conditions."

Welcome to the truth

Do you know why so many big fires burn so quickly? There's a secret ingredient... Wait for it.