Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The determining features which make one industry more of a fire hazard than another are, broadly speaking, the frequency and the subsequent spread of fire. If the industries being compared were similar in every respect but for their product, that is, the goods they produce, any differences in the frequency of fire, and their subsequent spread, could be attributed to the products of the industries. The very nature of these products, however, precludes the industries from being similar in every other respect , The processes of production vary in accordance with the goods being produced, as also will the market conditions for buying and selling, resulting in a diversity between industries. The aircraft manufacturing and repairing industry, for example, consists of 384 establishments, each establishments employing, on average, 716 people, but there are relatively few buyers in the market. The buildings tend to be large one-storey buildings, without internal partitions. The industry specializing in watches and clocks is made up of only 119 establishments. These have an average of 86 employees, but the market contains many more buyers than that of the aircraft industry. Their premises and internal spaces are small when compared with those pertaining to the aircraft industry. The bread and flour confectionery industry, on the other hand, consists of 2371 establishments employing 58 people on average, while its market contains virtually every household at least once a week. The internal spaces in this industry tend to be similar to those in the. watches and clocks industry, on average, but the variation in size is probably larger.