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Fire in elderly home in Melle, Belgium - 6th of august 2009

10th EΦA ROUNDTABLE

Lt.-col. ir. Christian Van De VoordeChief Fire officer

Fire Brigade Ghent

03/06/2010

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TIME - HISTORY

• 19:54 Emergency call

• 19:57 Contact call centre – Fire Brigade Melle

• 20:02 Departure Fire Brigade Melle

+ demand reinforcement Fire Brigade Ghent

• 20:03 Fire Brigade Melle arrives

• 20:11 Fire Brigade Ghent arrives

• 20:20 Fire under control

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TIME - HISTORY

9 CASUALTIES

5 SERIOUSLY INJURED

2 EMERGENCY MEMBERS INJURED

ïï ï ï ï ïï ïï ï ï ò

35A

31B

kerk-melle

RINGVAART

Ovenveldstraat

Moerrede

n

SCHELDE

OUDE SCHELDE

0 400 800 1.200 1.600 2.000200Meters

´

Fire Brigade

Ghent

Fire BrigadeM

elle

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DAMAGE

Only the room where the fire started has completely burned out

Other rooms in the compartment only smoke damage

HOME DESCRIPTION

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HOME DESCRIPTION

− Modern building (1998)

− Renovation 2008

− Conform fire safety legislation

− Each room door Rf ½ h

− Detection in each room (not imposed)

− Fire compartmentation of stair cases (doors Rf½h

+ automatically closing doors by detection )

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

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HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

− Residents in bed (± 19:50)

− Hot summer evening

− All room doors open

− Fire in room next to central staircase (ventilator, TV?)

− Resident in room on fire, leaves room without

closing door

− Detection closing Rf doors – staircase

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HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

− Very fast dispersion of smoke in gangway and other

rooms

− Due to heat and smoke it was impossible for staff to

enter compartiment

− When the Fire Brigades arrived they could only

recover the casualties.

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LESSONS LEARNED

− Legislation (1974) not up to date

− Decoration of the rooms

− Curtains : value of flame retardant treatment?

− Mattress : incombustible instead of flame retardant?

− Obligation for a flat TV-screen? (implosion, decoration)

− Trust property has brought in

− By detection automatically closing room doors?

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LESSONS LEARNED

− Sprinkling?

− Not enough staff at night (2/100 is imposed)

− Knowledge and training of internal emergency plan

− First actions of staff are crucial

− Closing doors

− Use of means of first intervention

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DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY FIRE BRIGADE

− Smoke evacuation nearly impossible because of

external sunscreen

− Doorway too narrow for bed

− Patient + mattres too heavy

− Safety bars on bed

− Mattres has no grips

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QUESTIONS ?