Background
Warehouse fires can be catastrophic, causing huge financial losses as well as endangering lives. This is due to the fact that warehouses are primarily used in storage of different items, some of which may be highly flammable and therefore safety procedures ought to be adhered to the latter. In mid-February 2023 we received a call from our partner that a warehouse storing approximately 1344.25MT of Macadamia nuts, cotton seeds and macadamia dust caught fire on 15th February 2023 resulting to extensive loss to the cargo as well as the warehouse structure.
It was reported that on 15.02.2023 at around 0600hrs, security guards manning the Tuff Steel Godown premises raised a fire alarm after noticing thick plumes of smoke billowing from the warehouse no. 18. An emergency fire response was activated and local fire firefighting teams responded on time. The fire was ultimately contained after nearly 8hours of battling heavy smoke, scarcity of water among others.
The liability underwriters were informed accordingly about the loss and reached to us through our partner to organize a joint survey in order to investigate the circumstances, nature, cause and extent of damage as well as activating loss mitigation measures.
Survey and Assessment
Fire incidents are seldomly taken lightly by authorities and whenever such incidents occur, the areas are cordoned off and treated as incident scene- this is to ensure there’s no tampering of evidence prior to investigation. Witnesses including staffs are often times requested to share what they might have seen prior, during and after the incident.
Our Fire Specialists attended the incident site primarily to focus and lead an investigation to the circumstances, cause and nature of the fire. As experts in this kind of investigation, we carried out a detailed review and evaluated the structural integrity of the building, electrical cabling and installation, obtain any relevant documentation relating to safety checks for gas and electrical appliances and where necessary calling witness evidence to identify the most likely source/origin of fire.
Cognizant of the fact that parallel investigations were launched by relevant authorities, our experts liaise with the Fire Service, Police and County HSSE team to obtain information and work alongside them where possible to establish the cause of the fire.
Probable cause of loss.
A standard warehouse should always adhere to safety measures surrounding the cargo as well as those operating in the warehouse. During warehouse inspection, the assessor keenly inspected the warehouse structure with a pointed eye on building structure comprising of heating, fuel, electrical wiring by identifying the make, model and age of appliance and windows, floor, walls and roof condition.
The warehouse fire protection system was also inspected with all fire extinguishers such as portable, hose and standpipe to establish their fit for purpose and whether they were evenly distributed and serviced. The distance between warehouse and fire department was measured, number of volunteer fire marshals established, fire alarms inspected, presence of hazardous materials documented, management of hot work/smoking/ignitions inspected as well as neighbor’s activities and the neighborhood.
The warehouse physical security ranging from burglar protection, alarm company, clock station records, number of guards, police protection, premise fencing, building exposure, hours of operation, number of employees, number of building night lights as well as general location were all checked into.
Preventive Measures
With our risk assessor’s report, there were multiple gaps identified in the warehouse including upgrading the fire protection system and introduce routine inspection of the same among others. Further neighbor’s activities within the premises was questionable with regards to hot works especially for the casual laborers. To avoid recurrence, our experts pick up the lessons, gaps noted and develop an LFI document recommending warehousing best practices.