Fire safety in warehouses

Many serious fires occur in warehouses and storage areas, even though these contain relatively little hazardous equipment compared with production facilities.

Most of these fires result in the total ruin of the plant concerned, with economic and social damage running into millions of euros.

Over the last twenty years, the desire for rationalization and profitability has led the vast majority of companies (whether specialized in storage activities or not) to store goods on ever larger surfaces and at ever greater heights. Moreover, the widespread use of plastics in all industrial activities has considerably altered fire risks in storage areas.

The problem of fire in warehouses is a particularly wide-ranging one, and in order to gain a better understanding of the phenomena involved, it seems essential to take an initial look at the usual configurations of today's warehouses.

This document is dedicated to the presentation of a typology of warehouses and the existing means of prevention and protection, focusing on the following points:

• stored products: it's clear that the risk of fire, and the way in which it occurs, depends directly on the properties of the products concerned. What's more, it's also important not to overlook the contribution of packaging materials in terms of thermal power and fire propagation. It should be noted that certain fertilizers or hazardous materials such as plant protection products, whose main danger lies in the fact that they are likely to decompose and release toxic substances, are excluded from the present study.

• storage methods and building design, which have a major influence on fire propagation, but also, for example, on the number of people present in the warehouse. It should be stressed that storage in tanks, vats, etc. is excluded from this study. A number of documents deal with these particular types of storage.

• protection and prevention measures adopted: these different parameters have a major influence on the probability of occurrence and the development of fire in the building, and also make it possible to assess the potential consequences of a fire occurring in the facility concerned.

It is important to specify that the purpose of this document is to provide a description of warehouses and associated fire safety systems, focusing on the existing situation on the one hand, and on the regulatory context on the other.

This comment is all the more important given that the regulatory context has changed significantly since the publication of the August 5, 2002 decree relating to heading 1510, and that some...