Fire safety
Fire remains potentially the most damaging
and disruptive event that any food business has to face,
potentially leading to significant loss of production process and,
in some cases, destroying whole operations beyond repair. Such
events not only place people and businesses at risk of harm but can
result in loss of facilities, orders, customers and jobs.
The impacts of even small fires should not be underestimated.
The food industry is unique in the fire safety issues it confronts
and it is essential to have good property risk management practices
in place.
Complicating factors include:
- high capital values at risk
- hot process inception hazards
- combustible building components and potential for rapid fire
propagation, smoke and building collapse
- large numbers of people present
- availability and cost of insurance
Poor insurance loss experience in the food sector, which is
currently estimated by the Association of British Insurers to be in
the region of £85m per year, is often attributable to the
unsuitable use and management of sandwich panels, and poor overall
standards of fire safety risk management.
Fire inception hazards
A significant number of factory fires are attributable to high
risk process areas. The causes of these initial outbreaks
include:
- debris in the base of an oven
- oil heated to above its flash-point
- discarded smoking material in a packaging store
- oil deposits on filters ignited from a spark from an oven
- badly maintained deep fat fryer
- oil ignited in a bund surrounding an oil holding tank
- sparks from a smoke box containing burning sawdust igniting
tarry residue on pipework
- inappropriate specification for conveyor belting
- badly maintained, or used, radio frequency defrosting
ovens.
Many of the causes of such fires may be identified as being due
to inadequate levels of fire safety management.
Explosion hazards
Major physical losses are also associated with dust explosions
which can arise when there is an uncontrolled release of energy in
the form of light, heat, pressure and noise. Explosions are
often violent and release energy that subsequently ignites
combustible materials.
Explosions in food premises can have serious consequences and
may be forceful enough to collapse an entire building and every
step should be taken to recognise and manage the hazard. Where
present, it's important that consideration is given to
constructional materials, premises and plant design, explosion
suppression, venting, sprinkler systems and maintaining high
standards of housekeeping.
Dust explosions arise from solid particulates, particularly
organic materials in the right combination suspended in
air. Some particulates are relatively harmless in their
traditional form, but when reduced to dust by grinding, sanding or
other forms of size reduction or refining, they can become highly
explosive. Some of the most serious dust explosions have been
associated with dusts created during milling and processes
involving dry and powdered products - beverages like tea,
sugar, starch and potato.
Best practice
Problems with the use of composite sandwich panels are that
they encourage the rapid spread of fire and often result in the
sudden collapse of building structures. Their predilection to
collapse has prompted fire officers to adopt a defensive approach
to fire fighting at food premises rather than proactive action that
may limit damage but potentially place fire fighters lives at
risk. As a consequence, large material damage and
consequential loss insurance claims have resulted from fires within
properties containing these structural elements.
Whilst physical risk improvements need to be addressed to
prevent ignition and fire spread, proactive fire safety risk
management can be used as an effective management and loss
prevention tool.
To bring the problem in the manufacturing sector under control,
a number of trade association risk management initiatives have been
promoted. This includes best practice guidance published
by the International Association of Cold Storage Construction
(IACSC).
Food Drink Group Resource
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