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Installed by Hall Fire Protection, an Early Suppression Fast Response (ESFR) system has helped to extinguish a fire at the TDG/ICI paint storage facility at Stowmarket in Suffolk.
Carried out six years ago, the ESFR system was installed at roof level, with low-level hosereels and external pillar hydrants. The system design consisted of 12 sprinkler heads operating at 2.8bar.
Installation was carried out as an extension to an existing storage facility, which had a roof and in-rack sprinkler system in operation, and a tank and pump supply originally installed by Hall Fire Protection. The introduction of the ESFR system required an upgrade of the existing pump arrangement to introduce a third pump. The original system had consisted of LPC-approved pumps for standard sprinkler installations.
On 15 February this year, a fire broke out on top of a pallet of rags at ground floor level. Two ceiling-mounted heads activated, one either side of the fire, in two different aisles. Although the fire was at a low level, the sprinklers virtually extinguished it throughout the stack.
The operation of the ESFR is monitored by an off-site LPC certified monitoring station, which called for the fire brigade to attend the fire. Once the heat had activated the two operating heads, the fire was forced back down the rack to the ground floor, making it easy to deal with by the fire brigade. Hand-held fire fighting equipment, hosereels and dry powder completed the extinguishment.
According to Hall Fire, due to the effectiveness of these sprinklers, the need for pre-wetting storage in the surrounding areas is virtually eliminated. This approach is said to result in a much smaller fire area and sprinkler operating area, and is particularly suitable for large free-standing storage scenarios, or where there is a need to remove in-rack sprinklers to provide operational flexibility.