After a spate of dramatic warehouse fires, Adair Lewis covers the high costs of dealing with such incidents
Warehouses and bulk storage risk review
fires that have taken considerable time to extinguish. Public perception, however, is that fires in these premises will not be particularly costly, as waste has little or no intrinsic value. This survey shows that this perception is entirely
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erroneous: the average cost of a waste storage facility fire is just over £1m, whereas the average loss resulting from a fire in any form of warehouse or bulk storage site results in a loss averaging only slightly more: some £1.1m. Clearly waste or – as we shall see – the building containing the waste is not valueless, confirming the north country adage that ‘where there’s muck there’s brass’. During the nine year period of this survey, there
were 293 major fires in warehouses and bulk storage premises, the latter wording suggesting that the incidents were not all within buildings, although further details could not be determined. It has therefore to be assumed that the fires include some that were in the open air. Of the 293 major fires, just 15 were in waste storage, averaging less than two events annually. This falls short of the anticipated number, and thus it is surmised that details of a significant number of waste storage fires may not have been submitted for inclusion on the database. The 293 major fires represent 5.6% of all large
loss fires, thus any missing waste storage fires could increase this proportion significantly to join other occupancies, such as retail and the food and drink industry, that make major contributions to annual fire losses.
52 FEBRUARY 2018
www.frmjournal.com
HERE HAVE been several recent waste storage premises fires: television pictures have been dramatic, suggesting very large, deep seated,
The causes of waste storage fires are not
markedly different from those in other warehouses – about 40% are known to be accidental and 20% of deliberate origin, with the remaining 40% being ‘unknown’. The time of origin of the fires suggests that fewer fires in waste storage occur during the afternoons and evenings, but a higher proportion (just over 60%) at an undetermined time of day. This latter fact may result from a waste fire in sparsely occupied premises possibly smouldering for a protracted period before being discovered, with an accurate time of origin not being able to be determined. Despite the dramatic images, only two of 15
major fires in waste storage presented difficulties to fire and rescue services: in one case there was impeded access, and in another an acetylene cylinder was reported. It is good to note that adequate forward planning resulted in no recorded cases of inadequate water supplies. This contrasts dramatically in other forms of warehouses and bulk storage premises, where water supplies were a problem in 21 cases. Returning to the losses associated with these
fires, there are significant differences between the insurance components that make up the totals. Not surprisingly, the major contribution was in the form of losses associated with buildings: this is especially the case with waste that is stored within an enclosed area. Business interruption losses associated with waste materials are less than a quarter of those in other forms of warehousing and, as may be expected, losses relating to contents and stock are very low indeed (some 0.6% of the total) where waste is concerned.
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