British Columbia Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers

Mike van Geyn of Firestance Professional Services Ltd and John Ivison and Associates have spent almost 3 years working on two vintage wood frame buildings in the lower mainland. The first building had property use issues, rodent infestations, mould, plumbing leaks and remediation issues associated with asbestos containing materials. The decision by the Owners was to replace the plumbing systems and the building boilers/plumbing fixtures, kitchen and bathroom cabinets etc. Existing patches in fire separations had to be fire tested.

The risk of transformer loss due to fire and explosion have been studied for over half a century; however, failure to fully address transformer risks in underground, transportation and other networks, in commercial -and also existing building projects- continues to be a concern. Recent losses have shown the impact and subsequent damage that can occur. While transportation network fires for instance are often the subject of CFD modelling, this tends to focus on different fire scenarios that can understate the risk arising from fires originating in transformers in the system.

The prevention of fire and explosions in dusty occupancies has been studied for over a century and consequently, the mechanisms of fire and explosions are well understood. The key codes and standards set out good practices to prevent and mitigate the impact of fires and explosions in various processes but relatively few professionals are experienced in conducting a complete analysis of the actual conditions in real manufacturing plants. John Bachynski B.Sc. P.Eng. will present an overview of factors leading to dust explosions and summarise state of the art approaches to explosion prevention and systems to mitigate the damage that can otherwise result.