Incident Report Subject: Follow Up - Wind Turbine Fires Date of Email report: Mon 28/07/2014 06:33 Report Detail:
“Following on from the JIOFF circulation of the latest report on wind turbine fire safety in the journal Fire Safety Science featured in the Daily Express newspaper, I would add comments from my own experience as the potential effect of wind turbines situated in petrochemical facilities has not been considered. Some 10 years ago having inspected a number of wind farm turbines and climbed up into the nacelle, the working hub of the turbine, it was obvious to me that there was a significant fire hazard from the enclosed nature of the turbine engine room which equates to the confines of a ships engine room only at a height of some 80 metres above ground. The fire detection was basic and met no European standards. There was either no fixed fire suppression system or one that was a mix of water sprinkler/water mist technologies that did not appear to meet any EN fire system standards, albeit a water mist system would be ideal for this environment as would air aspirating detection to give very early warning of incipient fires in the motors and electrical switchgear. The amount of dust caused when the large rotor blades are subject to an emergency stop is quite considerable within the nacelle and this has been the cause of a number of fires at the time I was investigating these structures. The contents of the nacelle with hydraulic oil, fast moving rotating machinery and a hot and dusty environment are ideal for an incipient fire to very quickly spread to the shell of the turbine. The pdf attached showing a helicopter attempt to extinguish a fire in a turbine in 2004 which resulted in the entire structure collapsing and a forest fire resulting. During discussions I had with fire brigades at the time there was virtually no pre-planning for fires in wind turbines for as the report highlighted below notes, given the total number of turbines and in many cases their remoteness, this would be a rare event for any one fire department. In any event a fully developed fire in a nacelle at between 30 to 60metres off the ground is all but impossible for fire departments to deal with without exposing their personnel to unacceptable risks by climbing vertical ladders inside the burning structure. As shown in the 2nd photo attached, where turbines are placed on brown field sites such as industrial, or in the case shown petrochemical facilities, there is a potential serious risk to other elements in the facility such as the floating oil tanks, in the event of a fire in the turbine. Fire Chiefs of any petrochemical facility, tank farm, marine terminal etc. where management decide to allow construction and operation of wind turbines, would be well advised to prepare a detailed emergency response plan to include inspection and photographing the layout, construction and contents of the nacelle engine room, noting any fire suppression/detection system, access to the nacelle by vertical ladder/open lift cage. Adjacent risks within the diameter around the turbine should be determined, that in the event of fire, collapse of the structure and shearing off of the blades, would be likely to be involved. First fire responders should be invited as part of the plan to visit the site and prepare their own plans in the event of a fire in either the base plant rooms of the wind turbine or the upper nacelle. When both the facility plan and first responders plans have been drafted a meeting should take place for both parties to determine the size of fire within the turbine that will be subject to offensive firefighting and those that will be allowed to burn out. In the case of the latter an active defensive firefighting plan should be agreed for the risks within the area likely to be affected by total collapse and fire spread of the wind turbine and its blades”.
Additional Documentation:
|
