Real Fire Case Studies

These case studies clearly illustrate that standard PUR panels do not present a significant hazard in a real fire situation.

Firefighters were able to enter the building safely to extinguish the fire. Further details of these case studies and copies of the Tenos report are available from Kingspan Fire Engineering Services Department.

Gala Bingo, Barnsley

A severe fire took place just before Christmas 2001 at a Gala bingo hall in Barnsley. Tenos who are a leading fire consultancy were commissioned to perform a detailed fire investigation. Tenos visited the South Yorkshire Fire Brigade who attended the fire. The building had standard polyurethane wall panels around it’s perimeter adjacent to the area where the fire took place. The fire was caused by an electrical fault on a slot machine and developed into a large fire that was so intense that the roof began to collapse. The conclusions made by Tenos are summarised as follows.

Conclusions

• The internal fire reached a fully developed stage.
• The standard polyurethane panels did not contribute to fire growth and fire spread.
• Severity of the fire would have been identical if the cladding had been steel sheeting.
• Panels did not collapse in the fire and remained attached to the building.
• Firefighters entered the building and extinguished the fire safely.

IP Europe Ltd, Ireland

This fire was at the plant of IP Europe Limited in County Wexford.

IP Europe manufacture plastic film and extrusions for a range of applications. In this particular case there was a serious fully developed fire in a manufacturing link corridor between two large manufacturing facilities.

Owing to the fact that there was not direct assess to the link corridor firefighters entered the adjacent building and were able to extinguish the fire safely.

Conclusions

• A severe fully developed fire took place - as a result of a large amount of plastic components. The severity of the fire was increased due to the fact that the fire brigade attendance was delayed due to another fire.
• There was no fire spread through the standard polyurethane insulation to the adjacent manufacturing units. Had this happened the whole factory could have been lost.
• The PU panel partition wall incorporating fire doors performed well and prevented fire spread.
• There was minimal smoke damage to the adjacent manufacturing units with minimal loss of production.

Wharfedale Hospital, 5th July 2003

This is the first recorded fire in a building clad in LPCB approved PIR panels. This fire occurred in an extension to the hospital under construction. An arsonist ignited a solvent based adhesive poured over a large pile of combustible building materials that was stored in the ground floor of the facility. The ground floor was essentially open with the external cladding starting at the first floor level.

Kingspan commissioned Tenos to perform an independent investigation into the fire. This involved a visit to site and discussions with West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue. A detailed report is available.

The Tenos report concludes - “In spite of significant heat generated by the fire (sufficient to damage the intumescent coating and distort the steel beams); the orientation of the cladding panels directly above the fire; and the fact that the fire stopping was not in place; the cores of the panels as evidenced by photograph 2, 3 and 4 did not ignite; did not promote fire spread within the core or to the eaves and did not significantly contribute to the products of combustion.”

These photographs provide a record of the damage and include some explanatory comments.

Image 1

Side of the building exposed to direct flame impingement and smoke/heat damage from the ground floor. It is clear that the PIR core has not ignited and has played no role in the fire.

Image 2

The side of the building that experienced a bigger fire attack.

Flames appear to have rise to the eaves – a height of approximately 10 metres. The external steel sheet has bowed and delaminated in the areas of flame impingement – however, there is no indication the fire has spread through the cladding.

Sections were cut out of the short panels in the middle of this photograph in order to inspect the steel column behind the panels. The next photograph shows this more clearly.

Image 3

Close-up of the inspection holes cut in the panel after the fire. The insulation core can be seen clearly and looks to be virtually unaffected by the direct flame impingement on the outer steel facing. The steel column was not affected.

Image 4

A panel that has been exposed to direct flame impingement on the outer sheet. The metal has been pulled away by contractors to inspect the PIR core. It is clear that the insulation core has been almost unaffected by the fire. Only light charring can be seen.