For waste disposal and recycling facilities, fire is a major industry risk.
‘As well as representing an obvious danger to human life, these fires pose a major environmental hazard and impose a significant cost on business in property damage’ says Oliver Balch in his Guardian article on the troubling fire record at UK recycling plants.
With factors such as highly combustible materials and illegal fly tipping and waste sites to contend with, the waste and recycling industry can never take too many precautions to prevent fires on the sites they run.
A study, conducted by the Chief Fire Officers Association of the UK, found there to have been an average of 250 waste fires a year over the past decade, at a cost of £16 million. This number has remained steady through that period, as the tools to combat and mitigate these fires more effectively have simply not been available.
You only need to pay attention to the news to see regular news updates on fires breaking out at recycling facilities around the UK. Firefighters are regularly tackling fires such as these fires in Birmingham or West Bromwich.
Waste recycling plants are at extreme risk of fire, and there is no evidence to suggest that the efficiency or working practices of the plant management has any impact on the incidence of fire. It is clear that the equipment required to ensure that inevitable minor flames do not become major disasters has not existed, until now.
Here at Ciqurix, we are currently working with a number of recycling and waste facilities across the UK to eliminate the risk of major fires. We’ve been working with Bryn Group, Recycled Packaging and KSD Environmental to install our FCAM Series and protect their facilities.
The Ciqurix FCam Series is a revolutionary fire detection solution, combining infrared and visual feeds with built-in algorithms creating the most accurate, reliable fire detection solution available today.
Able to detect a semi-concealed 40cm pan fire at 180m and a lighter flame at 10m, typically in under 10 seconds, day or night, the FCam is so sensitive that it is able to dramatically cut vital response times. Meaning a potential disaster at a waste processing facility, turns into a harmless incident.
Source: https://www.ciqurix.com/post/fires-in-the-waste-and-recycling-industry