Tom Roche, Secretary of the Business Sprinkler Alliance, looks at the fast-growing warehouse sector, the regulation gap and why we urgently need to establish effective methods that can adequately safeguard these critical structures from the outset.
The shifting economy of the last few years has led to a remarkable increase in the need for large, tall and clear warehouse spaces throughout the UK. However, changes in warehouse operations bring forth a set of fire challenges, particularly concerning their scale, complex storage arrangements, combustible contents, high concentrations of valuable goods and physical limitations in firefighting capabilities.
Recent statistics reveal the average cost of a large warehouse fire amounts to £5.9m1 and that at least one warehouse fire occurs every working day in England alone. These figures underscore the critical importance for businesses to carefully consider the impact of fire and its devastating consequences.
Pushing the envelope
The scale of warehouses has continued to grow with the needs of the sector and its customers driving this. Where some will focus on the ever-growing floor areas of 20,000m2 and beyond, with 50,000m2 under one roof not being unusual anymore, others will be focused on the mid-range warehouse with recent industry observers noting the need for warehouses at or below 10,000m2 to service local communities or indeed for existing businesses/stores to take care of local demand. Putting these sizes into perspective, an average out-of-town DIY store is around 2,000m2. When looking at some of these warehouse buildings they are 5-to-25 times larger.
Another part of this is that the internal arrangements are changing too. The complexity comes in the form of the internal layouts and storage arrangements. The warehouse of today can operate on multiple levels: mezzanines, platforms, densely packed automated storage systems and handling machinery. These new arrangements offer speed of operation and best use of the available space.
Some things don’t change
The basic hazards of a warehouse remain the same, large stocks of combustible material held in perfect arrays for burning. The complexity of some of the new storage arrangements have exacerbated this with ever denser arrangements. The fire load has also increased with the widespread adoption of standardised containers and carriers, often in plastic, to facilitate automated handling. Coupled with ever larger volumes and no sub-division, these fires can spread rapidly over such arrays.
These hazards challenge the fundamental ability of the fire and rescue service to intervene because of access to the building and internal structures to the seat of any fire. At the same time, these arrangements are pushing the limits of what is possible with current fire-protection technology. All of this has repercussions for the thinking on resilience to fire and insurability of such buildings.
Don’t regulations cover it?
When the latest regulatory guidance was reviewed on this matter in 2006, it perhaps envisaged the design of warehouses differently. The regulatory guidance accepts that warehouses across Great Britain can be 14–20,000m2 in footprint and in many cases up to 18m tall, without incurring guidance for subdivision or sprinklers. Many are stunned to read this but remember that one focus of the regulatory thinking is that the building is escapable, the fire will not spread to neighbours and people are protected. Ultimately, they do not set a target to protect the building and contents; in fact one could consider them disposable in the event of fire. Following the minimums of regulation alone will not protect such buildings. Specialist advice and engineering design, including for fire-safety solutions, are needed to do this.
Sprinklers – an effective option
Sprinklers are an integral part of the fire-safety solutions to protect such buildings. A string of people will now be shouting at this piece to tell me that ‘sprinklers are not a panacea’ and point to fires in North America and the UK as their evidence. However, consider the alternatives; manual intervention can make a difference but will not be reliable enough for all of these situations. Increased levels of detection may tell you something is happening, but unless there is rapid intervention the fire can still grow rapidly. The number of people in such a building, which despite automation can still be hundreds, makes the use of oxygen-lowering systems challenging, if not impossible, for all but contained areas. Increased levels of subdivision of the warehouse into ever smaller compartments are at odds with the direction taken by the sector. Therefore, from a cost effectiveness perspective, the use of fire sprinklers makes sense as part of the solution. The analysis by the BRE showed them to be cost effective in warehouses over 2,000m2.2
The protective systems need to be designed to deal with the hazards created by the storage within the warehouse. Much research has been completed, including full-scale fire testing, to develop such solutions. This means solutions with roof-level-only sprinklers or selected levels of sprinklers within racking structures. The newer forms of automation need combinative approaches of sprinklers and in some cases hose systems to support firefighters. What is clear is that an approach of ‘just add protection’ is a recipe for a poor solution, particularly with sprinklers in dense storage arrangements.
While there are solutions for many types of commodities, there are still special situations for automated warehouses where flammable liquid products such as aerosols are stored in plastic containers. This means moving to early involvement on fire-safety systems in such projects to marry the demands of the logistics solution to the available protection schemes and, importantly, liaison with the fire and rescue service. The latter is so important, as manual intervention needs to be considered as any protection scheme will require the action of the fire and rescue services.
Resilience
The stark contrast between buildings equipped with sprinkler systems and those without becomes evident in the event of a fire. A good example of this point was the newly opened Gardman garden products distribution warehouse in Daventry in 2017. The building achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating for its energy efficiency. Sadly, this was not matched in terms of resilience, as the building lacked active protection such as sprinklers. It was over 35,000m2 and relied on manual intervention to limit fire spread. The building was rapidly destroyed by a fire that had far-reaching consequences, just six months after it opened. The rebuild costs were placed at £30 million and the incident led to the eventual sale of the Gardman garden supplies business. To date, no rebuilding has taken place.
It could have been so different. Businesses that have implemented sprinkler systems often experience only minor disruption and can quickly resume operations within hours. Conversely, those without such systems may encounter five-to-six times more damage and endure longer periods of interruption.
Fire incidents remain the primary cause of damage in warehouse buildings, and although the number of industrial fires may have decreased, the severity and cost of such incidents that do occur are on the rise. Nevertheless, implementing systems like sprinklers can effectively contain and extinguish fires, thereby safeguarding firefighters and preserving businesses, jobs and the economy. This is why the Business Sprinkler Alliance campaigns for the inclusion of such sprinkler systems into warehousing units.
For more information about the BSA visit the www.business-sprinkler-alliance.org
References
2. An environmental impact and cost benefit analysis for fire sprinklers in warehouse buildings – BRE Global
About the Author
Tom Roche is Assistant Vice President, Senior Consultant within the International Codes and Standards Group for FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers. Based in Windsor, Tom works to share FM Global’s knowledge and expertise to influence building codes and loss prevention standards.
Prior to his current appointment, Tom served in a variety of engineering and engineering management roles across the UK. He has travelled extensively to support clients across the world to establish loss prevention policies and implement risk strategies all aimed at improving the resilience of their businesses to property risks. This has ranged from large projects for new facilities to adapting existing facilities and processes. He joined FM Global in 1993 as a field engineer based in the Manchester Office.
Tom works extensively within the field of loss prevention. He is the current Secretary of the Business Sprinkler Alliance, an organisation that promotes the use of automatic sprinklers in Industrial and Commercial premises. He is also the current Active Protection Director within the Fire Sector Federation. Through this role he promotes work on active fire protection systems and supports the review of regulations that impact fire safety within the wider Built Environment.
Tom holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical and electronics engineering from Lancaster University.
