That Wyndham Hotel fire, more questions than answers

There are new developments as it relates to the fire, which occurred in the wee hours of the morning of Thursday, March 14, 2013.

One report, is that the fire was in the ceiling and may have  started from a deep fat fryer. On TVJ last night, the reporter was very careful and choose his words very carefully when he said ” the fire may  from activities unrelated to the hotel operations”.

Since I consider myself to be pretty familiar with the operations of hotel kitchens, it strikes me   as odd , that such a large fire could have developed so quickly and there are no reports yet of an “explosion”, which preceded that fire.

Most hotel kitchen and I suspect Wyndham would be no different has a number of fire systems that are run independently of each other but all form part of a overall system to protect and contain a fire within that area.

Typical Fire Protection  System.

1. Hood fire protection system (Lquid fire retardant system)
2. Fire reel house or water system
3. Fire Extinguisher CO2 or ABC system
4. Heat detector
5. Smoke detector
6. Manual Pull station
7. Fire doors.

Hood protection system.

Most cooking taking place under what is called a kitchen hood, this is typically of stainless steel construction with removable stainless steel filter for ease of cleaning. Due to nature of the cooking process and the ease at which a fire could occur and get out of control, a fire protection system usually containing a “liquid  fire retardant” is used.  Once a fire occurs under the hood the system is automatically activated and the nozzle which are strategically positioned based on the where the fire is likely to occur, will go off and quickly smoother the fire by preventing oxygen from getting to the fuel.

Was this system working and when last was it inspected and verified ?

Water System

This consist typically of a 1.5″ water line and a ball valve as well as over hose ( 1″ or 1.25″), equipped with jet nozzles to direct water to a none oil based or electrical fire. ( You cannot put out an oil based fire with water).

Fire Extinguishers

I think we all know these .

Where any empty canister(s) found at the site to indicate that any attempt was made to use them ?

Heater Detectors

These are devices that are typically roof mounted in the highest part of your roof( since hot air rises) and will be triggered when it sense heat beyond a preset level. These are typically tied back to a master intelligent stand alone system or included as part of a building management system (BMS).  This system will trigger a general alarm, dial out to the fire department, turn on a sprinkler system to try and control the fire depending on how the system was designed.

Did this system work?

What time did it(they) go off?

Smoke Detectors

These are also roof mounted units that will go off when smoke is detected at the level where the device is mounted. They will also be tied into an stand alone intelligent system or form part of the building management system. Depending on the system design, the alarm will go off and other actions such as activation of a sprinkler system may occur.

Where these used and if so which ones were triggered ?

This information is easily retrieved from the intelligent system which logs each activation, in terms on time, date , zone and in some cases the actual device which was triggered

Manual Pull Station

This is, as the name suggest, you pull down on the tab that says “pull” to trigger the fire alarm system.

Where any pulled ?

What time ?

Fire Doors

These are fire resistant rollup/down door( typically metal) which can will rolldown in the case of a fire to contain  the fire to the area within , which it occurred ie to prevent it from spreading to adjoining buildings.

The can be either motor driven, in which case as you exit the space where the fire is, you hit a palm size switch and the door shuts behind you and serves as a physical barrier to the flames. The door have time limit however and may give you 45min to hr before the fire can get pass this door.   Some are manually operated via a chain, which you pull down and then secure the chain.

Auto shut off gas system

Most kitchens tend to use LPG for cooking and you would not want to have live LPG flowing into the kitchen should you have a raging fire in your kitchen. So what you will have is the building management system on determining a fire is in the kitchen base on the input from a pull station, hood system, heat or smoke detector, sending a signal to a solenoid valve, which will cut off the flow of LPG to the kitchen.

Question

1. Was such a signal sent to the gas valve.
2. What time was this signal sent.

Note this time cannot be before the fire started and so it must be few seconds after the fire detection system was activated .

Answers to the above question may help us piece together what really happened.

Bless.