Shack fires move with devastating speed, large-scale experiment shows


Date:
October 8, 2020
Source:
Stellenbosch University
Summary:
An experiment showed that a fire spreading through an informal
settlement can destroy twenty shacks (informal houses) in five
minutes.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Twenty shacks destroyed in five minutes. That's how quickly fires can
spread in informal settlements.


==========================================================================
This is one of the major results of the world's largest informal
settlement fire experiment consisting of twenty homes.

The experiment was conducted by the Fire Engineering Research Unit at Stellenbosch University (FireSUN) in collaboration with the Western
Cape Disaster Management, Fire & Rescue Services and the Breede Valley Municipality (BVM) Fire Department who hosted the experiment and provided significant assistance to the overall research efforts. The work forms
part of a collaborative project with the University of Edinburgh looking
at how to reduce the impact of such fires, which has been funded by the UK-based Global Challenges Research Fund.

The results of the experiment have been published recently in Fire
Technology, one of the leading academic journals in fire safety.

[A video of the experiment can be watched at https://youtu.be/kkXr6ueakAU
with the technical details being found at https://rdcu.be/b7Z9e.]
"People often criticise the Fire Department for not acting swiftly,
but our experiment showed that a fire can move really, really
fast. Firefighters have always known this, but now we have better
experimental data to understand the problem and analyse interventions,"
says Prof Richard Walls from FireSUN who managed the overall project.



========================================================================== "From our experiment we could see that certain interventions currently
being implemented would have been ineffective for slowing down this
fire. For instance, fire-resistant paint would have had little impact due
to the intensity of the fire and the fact that the fire ignited homes
through any small openings in these structures, negating the influence
of coatings. Also, doors and windows in a densely-packed settlement will
always provide an easy entrance for fire." The experiment was designed
by Walls' colleague Dr Nico de Koker who also analysed the results.

He says the experiment was designed to simulate a 'fire line' which
would be found in a dense settlement as a large fire moves through
it. "We included extensive instrumentation, thermal-imaging cameras,
a drone and other equipment in the experiment to provide data on flame
lengths, temperatures experienced, spread rates and details regarding
when homes ignited." Walls points out that from the time the first
homes were ignited until the time the last homes caught alight was around
five minutes.

"This is a frightening figure when it is considered that often it can take
many minutes for a resident to notice a fire, to contact the local fire
brigade (often the wrong number is called), a fire truck to be dispatched
and then possibly has to drive a long distance, for fighters to find the burning dwellings (in the midst of a settlement with no street names),
to setup and finally extinguish the fire." "After around 16 minutes
there were almost no homes left standing in the experiment, there was
simply a pile of scrap metal lying on the floor.

Temperatures of up to around 1200DEGC were measured, and flames many
meters long emerged from dwellings."


========================================================================== Highlighting the value of the experiment, Deputy Fire Chief Josephus
Pretorius of the BVM notes that their firefighters regularly risk their
lives to fight these very dangerous fires. "It is exciting that our municipality has been able to make this research possible, so that we
can better understand how these fires spread and behave." Echoing his sentiments, Marlu Rust of the Western Cape Disaster Management, Fire &
Rescue Services explains that "We have been actively working on ways
to improve fire safety in informal settlements, and have worked closely
with Stellenbosch University over the past years. Our fire departments
have major challenges in trying to fight such fires so it is important
that government, academia and communities are working together to find solutions." Walls says that from this research experiment, and many
others, the team has been developing a good understanding of fire spread
in settlements.

"Although there are no easy solutions to the problem, at least the
data is immediately showing what sort of interventions are likely to be
less effective.

Computer models have been developed to simulate fire spread
through settlements, and may soon be useful decision-making tools
for analysing risk in settlements, and potentially for developing
fire safety strategies." Walls adds that this experiment, amongst
others, also helped to shed light on the performance of products
(e.g. detectors, fire-resistant paints, extinguishers and warning systems
to municipalities) used to prevent an informal settlement fire; how fast
these fires spread; and how to suppress them as efficiently as possible
and how communities can assist.

He says a final set of experiments conducted after this large-scale
test are currently being analysed to provide further insight on a number
of aspects.

Also, a series of tests have been undertaken to understand the
effectiveness of community-based suppression systems.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Stellenbosch_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. N. de Koker, R. S. Walls, A. Cicione, Z. R. Sander, S. Lo"ffel,
J. J.

Claasen, S. J. Fourie, L. Croukamp, D. Rush. 20 Dwelling Large-Scale
Experiment of Fire Spread in Informal Settlements. Fire Technology,
2020; 56 (4): 1599 DOI: 10.1007/s10694-019-00945-2 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201008104239.htm

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