Since a long time, fires have broken out in construction built by humans. Fires have broken out in cities, buildings, airplanes, underground mines and other areas and have resulted in the loss of lives of many people as well as loss of property. The paper analyzes three types of devastating fires in the human built environment that have caused the death of hundreds of people. The fires that are discussed are the Piper Alpha oil rig fire, fires related to the September 11 attacks and a fire in a nightclub in Ireland.
Piper Alpha Oil Rig Fire
Fabig (2007) has reported extensively about the fire in the Alpha Piper ring. According to the report, it was a oil production platform in the North Sea oil and it was under the control of Occidental Petroleum Caledonia Ltd. The well was very profitable and it contributed 10% of the North Sea oil and gas production. A huge explosion occurred on the platform on 6 July 1988. The fire killed 167 people and many of them died due to suffocation from poisonous fumes from carbon monoxide and other gases. The loss that was incurred at the 1988 rates was 3.4 billion dollars in addition to the stoppage of activities for a considerable amount of time.
Occurrence of the Accident
FABIG (2007) has constructed the events that lead to the accident. According to the report, in the morning shift, a problem was reported from a backup propane condensate pump that was situated in the processing area. The safety valve had to be checked and the work was not completed even till six in the evening. The crew took permission to leave and resume work the next day and did some temporary sealing with a plate. This information was not conveyed to the second shift people. When the primary condensate pump failed the backup pump was started and none of the crew knew that this was not to be started.
The defective gas pump failed and explosive gases were released from the hole of the valve. The gas immediately began expanding and exploded and the ripped apart the fire walls and also ruptured the oil line and caused large quantities of burning oil to flood the workplace. The automatic pump that was to be start automatically for such fire fighting work had been switched off. The reason foe switching off of the pumps was that the pump drew water from the sea and had long pipes with blowers to such in the seawater. The oilrig utilized a number of diver would undertake dives in the afternoon and consequently, the pump were switched to manual and even if fires occurred, the pumps would not be switched on automatically.
The pumps were switched off so that divers would not be sucked inside the rig. The fires continued to rage for a few more minutes and in a few minutes, the fire had attained sufficient heat and temperature and caused the gas risers of the other platforms and thee were created from stainless steel pipes that had a diameter of 3 feet. The pipes were filled with inflammable gas that was under high pressure of 2000 pounds per square inch and very explosive. The risers burst and the gas under pressure caused huge jets of fire that rose more than 300 feet in the sky. The platform was being supplied with oil from two other rigs and from here it was pumped to the main refinery.
The other two stations had no information o the fire and the operators did not have instructions to stop the flow of oil to the Alpha Piper. As a result more fresh oil continued to be pumped for quite some time. The operators at the two pumping stations had instructions never to close the lines of pumping unless their manager told them to stop the fire. It seems that once the oil flow is stopped, it takes many days and lots of money to make the oil flow again.
DOCEP (Friday, 7 October 2005) has reported that Many of the crew tried to escape by entering the accommodation rooms that were designed to protect the people from fire. But the lodgings were not created as smoke proof and in minutes the area was flooded with noxious smokes of carbon monoxide and burning fuel and suffocated many of the people to death. some people attempted to escape by trying to reach the lifeboats but the path was blocked by burning fuel. Some people tried to jump overboard and many perished by hypothermia as the freezing waters sucked out their body heat and froze them to death. A few of the people were rescued by rescue ships that had appeared in the seas.
Fire safety engineering issues
A number of fire safety engineering issues were pointed out in the accident and they were reported by committee. Some fire regulation issues were:
Pipeline Emergency Shutdown Valves: Emergency shutdown valves were required to be installed. These valves isolate the pipeline contents from the installation and the precise location of the valve can be critical. Operators reassessed the location of 400 valves and repositioned some of them to minimise the extent of exposed pipeline. Where appropriate, Operators also added protection from fire and falling debris.
Sub Sea Isolation Systems: Sub sea isolation systems were provided for large diameter pipes so that the in case the main emergency valve failed, then these systems could be activated.
Formal Safety Assessments: A system called the Formal Safety Assessment was developed and this system set up a formal safety assembled rule and a procedure. The tasks of the body was:
- To identify all possible hazards on the installation.
- To lay down the steps that were to be taken to prevent accidents.
- To set standards and measurement system that were implemented to nullify the impact of an accident.
- To prescribe the Safety Management System that would ensure the promotion of safety in all activities on the installation, and formalise safety documentation which can be used by the Operator to manage a safety programme and by the Regulator to audit the installation and its management.
Lessons learned from the case
The whole world was shocked at this accident and many changes were recommended. There was an enquiry conducted by Lord Dunning who published a report with 106 recommendations and these were implemented at various levels by the owners, the supervisors and also the workers who work on the rigs. Some of the lessons learned were reported by FABIG (2007) as given below.
Regulatory control of offshore installations: The Disaster helped to bring in the Offshore Installations Safety Case Regulations. The safety case is an undertaking in which a rig owner must show that an effective safety management system has been implemented.
Adherence to Permit-to-Work System: A new system of paperwork to laid down rules of communication between all teams on the rig who would be interested in the maintenance procedure done on the platform.
Disabling of protective equipment by explosion: The firewalls on Piper Alpha failed to stop the spread of the fire. Regulations were brought in to use proper equipment.
Safety training: Compulsory safety training was imposed on all members and they had to take exams in fighting fires, providing first aid and ensuring they knew what to do in case of a fire. Protection against and mitigation of fire and explosion as well as fire fighting were to be installed mandatory.
Temporary Safe Refuge: It was proposed that each installation should have a breathable atmosphere through prevention of smoke ingress and provision of fire protection; escape routes and embarkation points should be determined through safety cases.
September 11 Crashes – Twin Trade Tower Crashes
On September 11, the terror cells founded by Osama Bin Laden, of Al-Quaida launched a series of plane hijacks and bombed some key locations of the US infrastructure. Among those bombed were the twin World Trade Centre towers in New York. Thousands of people were killed when the plane crashed into the building and the hot burning aviation fuel melted the steel frames of the towers and caused its collapse (NTSB report. Feb. 19, 2002).
How the Crash happened
Barter Sheila (Thursday, 13 September, 2001) has reported the design of the tower was essentially good and that is the reason why the tower stood standing for more than an hour after the crash. According to the author, The combination of the high intense flames caused by the burning aviation fuel from the aircraft had reached temperatures of 800 degree centigrade and this temperature was enough to melt the steel used for the reinforcement and also the concrete that was used.
There were over 91,000 litres of aviation fuel that ignited in a massive fireball as the plane crashed and started melting the steel of the top floors. Once the steel frame of the building crashed, then the other floors that were above the floor also fell down like a pack of cards. The floors collapsed inwards and taking almost everything that was underneath on one massive crash. The weakened floors below could not take the weight and crashed inwards. The author strongly suggests that the building could have withstood the force of the plane crash but it was the burning fuel that brought the whole building down. She also suggests that no building can be made strong enough to resists such large forces.
The building that was first created on te 1960 design was made with vertical steel and a concrete core that had lift shafts and stairwells. The steel was immersed in concrete so that fire-fighter would have at least one hour in which they could operate, The floors were also created from concrete. As thee top floors feel on the lower layers, the whole tower collapsed as the lower floors could not take the weight of more than 100000 tons of debris that fell from above. The author suggests that many lives would have been saved if the emergency rescue workers were asked to vacate as collapse of the building was a foregone conclusion but the order for them to vacate the place were never given.
Fire safety engineering issues
The collapse showed the dangers that such tall buildings pose to people. In such large structures, it is very important that safety exists and proper rescue procedures should be installed along with a clear evacuation plan. Barter Sheila (Thursday, 13 September, 2001) has argued that it is not possible to prevent any building from collapsing when thousands of tons of burning aviation fuel is set on fire in a building and steel will melt at temperatures of 800 degrees. The Air Traffic Control Recording centre has suggested some basic safe guards in the manner in which hijacked planes should be treated. The government brought in regulations for better air safety control that would ensure that incidents of hijacking by terrorists are quickly reported and preventive action taken.
Lessons learned from the case
Subsequent to the September 11 crashed certain rules and regulations fro the safety of people were brought in. The recommendation relates to certain aspects the use of fire depressant and fire retardant material to be used in the construction of buildings. The recommendations specify the minimum area that must be provided for safety fire stairs, the availability of fire fighting equipment, plans to provide for evacuation and others. The builders need to submit a number of documents for the building to be passed for occupation. There are five requirements which, when taken together, aim to ensure that a fire in a building will not endanger the safety of it’s occupants. (BBRS. 2007).
References
Barter Sheila. 2001. How the World Trade Center fell. Web.
BBRS. 2007. Board of Building Regulations and Standards. Web.
DOECP. 2005. Piper Alpha Incident. Web.
FABIG. 2007. Piper Alpha report. Web.
NTSB report. 2002. Document 1, Flight Path Study-American Airlines Flight 11: Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report. Web.