Stockport Bin Room Sprinkler Save

• Attendance of Greater Manchester Fire Rescue Service (GMFRS
• Date of incident ;7 July 2021
• Time of call; 00:23
• Location of incident; Stockport
• Occupancy; High rise residential block, 15 Storeys
• Location of fire; Bin Room
• Sprinkler system: Wet Pipe, mains fed

GMFRS have reported the above-mentioned incident involving a fire in a bin room which successfully contained by the activation of 1 sprinkler head. Two fire appliances attended the incident turning over and extinguishing the fire with 1x hose reel jet.

Dangers of bin store fires

It should be noted that the outcome of a communal bin store fire can have a dramatic effect on the safety of the residents, specifically where refuse chutes and access hatches can sometimes be found directly opening onto protected corridors, lobbies, and stairs, so providing the potential for the spread of fire and smoke to the common escape routes.

It is therefore best practice in these situations: –

1. Bespoke sprinkler system, Further protection can be provided by the installation of a sprinkler system located over the bins, with either frangible bulb or fusible link sprinkler heads, or open sprinkler heads with water discharge controlled by smoke detectors. The provision of sprinklers should always be considered where access hatches open into protected stairways or lobbies containing more than two flat entrance doors.
2. Automatic fire-resisting shutter should be fitted at the base of the refuse chute to restrict the spread of fire and smoke from a fire in the bin room. The shutter should, as a minimum, be operated on a fixed temperature fusible link.

Housing providers across the country are recognising the danger of these type of fires, London Borough Barking & Dagenham for example, reduced the risk by the retrofitting of sprinklers into all their high-rise residential block bin stores, 22 in total. Following match funding received from the London Fire Brigade (£84,250) to help fund this initiative.

Links

• British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association

Further information on sprinkler news, updates can be found in the sprinkler FOCUS,  the biannual magazine of the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association. It is the only UK publication which has automatic fire sprinklers at its core with current news, features and opinions along with case studies and product updates.

The November 21 edition is now  available to download

• GMFRS