Current affairs
hotel due to an electrical fire. More than 40 flexible connections immediately came loose, leaked and resulted in a multi million pound water damage claim for the property insurer. Once again, this highlights the implications of using non listed components, which brings into question the long term reliability of fire protection systems.
Industrial oil cookers Industrial oil cookers, also known as industrial deep fat fryers, pose a unique and dangerous fire hazard. A fire occurring within an industrial deep fat fryer as a result of oil reaching autoignition temperature will result in a devastating and rapid fire, causing severe and significant property damage and major business interruption, potentially leading to the loss of key customers. A fire extinguishing system that is appropriate
and suitable is therefore needed for the protection of industrial oil cookers. Too often I have encountered watermist systems that are inappropriate, unproven or unsuitable for this risk – and furthermore not backed up by suitable fire test data. A thorough and robust analysis of each
and every watermist system designed for the protection of industrial cookers is required to ensure that the system is appropriate for the risk. This will provide confidence that an industrial oil cooker is sufficiently protected. Large oil fires occurring in industrial oil cookers are very
difficult to extinguish due to their size and the large amount of hot oil involved. Watermist systems have a proven ability to
work effectively to extinguish large cooking oil fires and prevent them from reigniting. However, in order to have confidence in a watermist system to provide successful and repeatable extinguishing performance, the system must be carefully selected, designed, installed and commissioned. Confidence is not to be automatically placed in watermist equipment, component suppliers or contractors. A thorough evaluation at design and survey stage is to be undertaken for all watermist systems for – amongst other things – the type of watermist system; discharge pressure; nozzle type; listing and spacings; hood position in the oil cooker; size of fryer; surface area; and volume of oil to be protected. Only a system that is proven according to ANSI/ FM5560 can be considered effective and reliable, and may be applied to fryers of various sizes, as defined by the test protocol. Common deficiencies include: • extrapolation beyond the limitations of the fire test protocol
• inexperienced and incompetent contractors
• no full scale discharge and functional testing at the time of commissioning
• use of non listed and third party accredited components
• incomplete or partial fire test data being provided for review and comment
FOCUS
www.frmjournal.com DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
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