Incident Report

Subject:                     Fire and Rescue Service Circular - Acetylene

Date of Email reporting Incident:   06/11/2008

Report Detail:

The Office of the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser have recently released a circular on Fire Service Guidance for Managing Acetylene. This Fire and Rescue Service Circular outlines recent developments aimed at reducing the disruption at incidents involving acetylene cylinders. This issue has been highlighted by many incidents across the country where the implementation of the 200m hazard zone for 24 hours resulted in a severe impact on local communities and the national infrastructure.
A couple of interesting points that I've picked out of the document are:

• London Fire Brigade’s revised procedures should be viewed as current good practice for managing incidents involving cylinders in fires.
• Acetylene cylinders have only failed whilst the fire is in progress or before substantial (1 hour) cooling has taken place.
• No acetylene cylinder has ever failed after it has passed a Wetting Test and not been reheated or moved.
• No acetylene cylinder has ever shown a sign of the shell reheating after it has passed a Wetting Test (and not been subjected to re-involvement in fire).
• No unheated acetylene cylinder has shown evidence of decomposition following mechanical shock.
• It also quite clearly states that all factors should be considered and that the cordon zone can be reduced appropriately, this is supported by operational evidence from London Fire Brigade

More information can be obtained from the British Compressed Gases Association website at http://www.bcga.co.uk/preview/cif.php
I would strongly suggest that the Fire Brigades should be at the forefront of encouraging a move away from the use of acetylene within industry, where appropriate, and in the majority of case there are alternatives. The more acetylene cylinders that get taken out of circulation the more likely we are to see a reduction in the number of incidents involving acetylene and the disruption they cause. Certainly a number of organisation have already embarked on such programmes.

Additional Documentation:

http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/yoursafetynews.htm?newsid=41869

Acetylenecircular2008