Fire in an Unsprinklered Office Building

A fire in a small storage room (400-ft.² [38-m²]) with concrete block walls resulted in extensive smoke damage to a three-story, noncombustible office building. It was a typical office environment with combustible furniture and ordinary combustible contents (computers, paper, file storage areas, etc.). However, there were many large open areas with no storage or office furnishings. The building was not protected by automatic sprinklers. Combustible material in the storage room included plastic computers, keyboards, obsolete equipment, software, and manuals. The fire started when ballast in a fluorescent lamp fixture overheated and dropped onto the combustible storage.

After the fire was discovered, there was an unexplained 20-minute delay in calling the fire service. Upon arrival, the fire service successfully confined the fire to the cut-off storage room and extinguished it. Doors and manual skylights were subsequently opened and the building ventilation turned on to vent the dense black smoke. Unfortunately, these measures resulted in the spread of smoke throughout the facility.

More than 100,000 ft.² (9,290 m²) of space was affected by smoke damage, with total physical loss of more than US$6 million.

Valuable Lessons

• Automatic sprinkler protection is needed to protect combustible occupancies because it is the most effective first line of defense against a fast-spreading fire.
  
  
• Smoke travels easily throughout a building and is only held back by physical barriers. If your facility or contents are susceptible to smoke damage, your potential for loss in the event of fire will be increased accordingly.
  
  
• You can greatly reduce your potential for loss by ensuring the fire service is called immediately when a fire is discovered.
  
  
• Pre-plan emergency action with your local fire service. During this process, consideration should be given to various means to minimize potential damage from smoke and water, including effective post-loss clean-up and salvage procedures.