NFPA Journal - November/December 2012 - (Page 62)

2011 U.S. LARGE-LOSS TEXAS Date, Time of Alarm, Dollar Loss October, 10:40 a.m., $20 million Property Characteristics and Operating Status This was a one-story, 102,749-square-foot (9,546-square-meter) chemical manufacturing building of unprotected noncombustible construction. The plant was operating at the time. Fire Protection Systems There was no automatic detection system present. A wet -pipe sprinkler protected the building, but it was not effective. There was no fire pump in the system to help with waterflow, and it is believed that 30 or more sprinklers opened and flowed water when hydrogen gas was ignited. Upon arrival, firefighters pumped water into the sprinkler system, but the system failed altogether after about five minutes. No reason was given for the failure. Fire Development A chemical reaction in the mixing area during manufacturing allowed a hydrogen gas cloud to form. It was then ignited by an unknown source. Contributing Factors and Other Details Workers evacuated the plant before firefighters arrived. During the fire, barrels of mineral oil ignited and ruptured, causing a flowing fire that destroyed a fire department aerial tower unit. The aerial tower unit was extended and in operation at the time, and could not be moved quickly enough to save it. Firefighters operating in the bucket were lowered to the ground and evacuated before the tower caught fire. Eleven fire departments responded. Damage to the structure was listed at $10 million and damage to its contents at $10 million. MASSACHUSETTS Date, Time of Alarm, Dollar Loss March, 7:39 p.m., $12 million Property Characteristics and Operating Status This was a three-story, 23,039-square-foot (2,140-squaremeter) adhesive manufacturing plant. The construction type was not reported. The plant was operating at the time. Fire Protection Systems Smoke alarms were present, as was a wet-pipe sprinkler system. Neither the coverage nor the operation of either system was reported. Fire Development At the time of the explosion, a chemical reaction process was underway during which a Class I flammable liquid solvent is added to a 4,000-gallon (15,142-liter) vessel containing polyester resin solution. A valve on a transfer line was inadvertently left open, resulting in the release of flammable acetone vapors, which were ignited by an undetermined source. Contributing Factors and Other Details Four workers were injured in the explosion. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration cited the company with 50 safety violations (not listed) and has fined the company. The state fire marshal’s office also found several violations at the site. A state government news release with further information can be found at www.mass.gov/eopss/ docs/dfs/news/press/20110831-bostik-middleton.pdf. per hour, and the relative humidity was 12 percent. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned 34,068 acres (12,787 hectares), destroyed 1,645 homes, and killed two people. This is the sixth time in the last 10 years that the largest-dollar-loss fire in the United States has been a wildfire. NFPA reports annually on large-loss fires and explosions that occurred in the United States the year before. Such fires and explosions are defined as any event that results in property damage of at least $10 million. Last year, according to the “Fire Loss in the United States During 2011” report that appeared in the September/October issue of NFPA Journal, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,389,500 structure and non-structure fires, which caused an estimated loss of $11.7 billion. Many of these fires were small or resulted in little or no reported property damage. However, 22 of them resulted in losses of $10 million or more each, for a total of roughly $799 million in direct property losses. Although these fires accounted for only 0.002 percent of the estimated number of fires in 2011, they accounted for 6.9 percent of the total estimated dollar loss. The number of large-loss fires annually has ranged from 16 to 45 over the past 10 years, with an average of approximately 24 fires per year. When adjusted for inflation to 2002 dollars, the number of fires in 2011 that could be categorized as large-loss fires—that is, fires resulting in a loss of $10 million in 2002 dollars—drops to 13, with an adjusted loss of $562 million in 2002 dollars. In 2011, 11 fires resulted in more than $20 million each in property damage. These costliest 11 fires, which include eight structure fires, two wildfires, and one outside fire with loss, resulted in a combined property loss of $672.5 million, which represents 82.6 percent of the total loss in large-loss fires and 5.8 percent of the total fire losses in the United States for 2011. The Bastrop County Complex fire alone resulted in losses of $400 million. Where fires occurred Seventeen of the 22 large-loss fires last year occurred in structures, resulting in a total property loss of $293.9 million. Five non-structure fires—a yacht fire, a fire outside of structures with a loss, and three wildfires—resulted in losses of $10 million, $40 million, and $455 million, respectively. The Bastrop County Complex fire alone was responsible for 50 percent of the total loss in large-loss fires last year. During the past 10 years, wildfires have accounted for 30, or 13 percent, of the 236 large-loss fires, resulting in a total estimated loss of $6.5 billion, or 53 percent of the reported losses. Of those 30 fires, nine resulted in a loss of more than $100 million and two were responsible for a loss of more than $1 billion. In eight of the last 10 years, at least one wildfire resulted in more than $20 million in direct losses. Of the 17 large-loss structure fires, seven occurred in manufacturing properties. These included a calcium carbide manufacturing plant, a fertilizer manufacturing plant, an adhesives manufacturing plant, a paper coating plant, a vehicle parts assembly plant, a food 62 NFPA JOURNAL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/dfs/news/press/2011/20110831-bostik-middleton.pdf http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/dfs/news/press/2011/20110831-bostik-middleton.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2012

NFPA Journal - November/December 2012
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Past + Present
Easy Being Green?
Pressure Points
2011 Large-Loss Fires
2011 Firefighter Injuries
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - November/December 2012