A Fire Is Coming

Although fire is not a big source of employee injury in the recycling business, it is a huge source of property losses. Emphasis on huge. Tens of millions of dollars industrywide.

I've discussed sources of ignition in this space in the past, so without belaboring the point, a fire in a recycling facility is nearly inevitable.Think about it. Think of the materials we process and the means by which we process them. Think of all the moving parts that can overheat or that can cause a friction spark. This is before we get to the more exotic sources like arson, lightning strikes, and electrostatic discharges.

A fire is coming your way. Accept it. Do your best on the prevention end, but realize that in the long run the odds are woefully against you. The question you need to embrace is this: Will it be a big fire or a small fire? The answer is one over which you have a great deal of control.

To exist, fire needs only three components: heat, fuel, and oxygen. Increase any of the three, and the fire gets bigger; decrease any of them, and the fire gets smaller. Take fuel, for example. In a gas stove, once you twist the valve shut, the flame disappears because the fuel goes away. It's the same way that the Great Chicago Fire ultimately went out, only in that case it was because after three days, hundreds of lives and 17,500 buildings, the fire storm had consumed all the available fuel.

The Great Chicago Fire grew to the catastrophe it became because of three major factors: an initial delay in reporting the fire in its incipient stage; the close proximity of buildings that allowed the fire jump from one building to the next; and the inability of the fire department to apply adequate quantities of water on the fire.

To this day, those same three factors continue to be common denominators in most major loss fires in our industry. The scrap pile itself is a terrific fuel source. Once it starts burning, it gets very hot very quickly. The increased heat increases the rate of fuel consumption, which in turn creates more heat. It's bad enough if the materials on fire are cars and white goods and other metal scrap, but when the materials are more exotic—say, rubber tires—the fires have been known to burn for days.

If the fire burns beyond its incipient phase, this geometric increase in heat, combined with wind-driven firebrands, poses imminent danger to nearby exposures, whether on your property or on your neighbors'. Once exposures start burning, an already bad day becomes manytimes worse. Somebody's got to put all those fires out, and the local fire and rescue services have only so many resources. Plus, big fires mean big water, and even in metropolitan areas there's frequently only so much water to share.

Sooner or later, fireground commandershave to make a criticaldecision on resource allocation: What are they going to save, and what are they going to let burn? Commanders will work through adecision tree that may well leavesubstantial parts of your facility—the one that started the fire, and othersto which it has already spread—at number seven (dead last) on theirlist of priorities. Ahead of you willbe people and property that arethreatened but not yet involved.

Many people don't realize that the critical elements of firefighting begin long before there's any visible smoke or flame, much of it accomplished during the design of new facilities and processes. A facility that is so compact—or so unkempt—that a fire would likely daisy-chain from one exposure tothe next is one that is easy to write off during a major fire.

Conversely, a facility that providesadequate separation distancesbetween exposures, and providesengineered fire stops to separate onehazard from another gives firegroundcommanders options towork with.

Remember: The outcome of any emergency is determined in its opening minutes, and the outcome of the opening minutes is entirely determined by the planning you've done ahead of time. Consider these questions:

• Do you have an adequate water supply to support sustainedflows of thousands of gallons perminute?

• Can emergency vehicles get toevery corner of your facility? Dothey know how to get there?

• Are the couplings on the firedepartment’s hoses compatible withthe fittings on your yard hydrants?

• Are your operations adequately separated to prevent a fire from jumping from one building to the next?

• Have you discussed fire fighting strategies with your local fire department?

If you haven’t already done so,have these conversation with theemergency responders in your jurisdiction.

The fact that a fire may beunavoidable does not mean that ithas to be devastating. A little planning on your part will spell the difference between catastrophe and minor incident.

—John Gilstrap,
Director of Safety