A recent development in the industrial field is the introduction of highstacked
storages of heights ranging from 6 m (20 ft) up to as much as 30 m (100 ft)
or more. These storages create a high fire hazard both in their configuration and
and in the immense value of the goods in them. The detection and extinction of
fires in them is of paramount importance.
This note describes an investigation of the efficacy of a conventional
sprinkler system, combined with the latest means of fire detection in controlling
fires developing in a palletised storage of height 7.3 m (24 ft), consisting of
two rows of back-to-back pallets at four levels.
The main avenues of fire spread were found to be up the vertical gaps between
the goods, rather than up the outer face of the stack, and it was found that
sprinklers installed on the longitudinal axis of the rack to cover each gap at
alternate levels controlled the fires, without the fires ever reaching serious
proportions.
It was also found that the detection systems gave a warning of fire from
3 to 7 min before the first sprinkler operated.