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Awareness of what causes fires and constant attention to the relevant conditions at the facility are perhaps the keys to preventing fires.
Part I
THE SUBJECT of fires at composting facilities is a bad news/good news situation. The bad news is that fires are more common than we realize. Ask a group of facility operators if they have had to deal with a fire, and the majority will quietly admit they have. The good news is that we don't realize that fires are fairly common at composting facilities. Most are neither frequent nor destructive enough to attract attention beyond the facility gates, with notable exceptions. Generally, operators are recognizing and containing fires without a great deal of damage or publicity. A devastating fire, such as the one that occurred at the Hartford, Connecticut biosolids composting facility (see accompanying article), is rare.
Nevertheless, a fire is a serious matter. A minor one threatens to attract public inquiry about the risks and nuisances of composting activities at a particular site and within the compost industry generally. A major fire threatens a multimillion dollar investment and presents a potential danger to workers and firefighters. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand how fires start and how they should be managed in the presence of large volumes of organic materials. This is not an issue to hide under the curing pile. BioCycle has covered fires in previous Compost Operators Forums (see "Controlling And Preventing Fires At Composting Facilities," May, 1999 and "Feedstocks, Conditioning and Fire Prevention," April, 1997), but in light of the fire in Hartford, it deserves another visit.
Part I of this article covers the causes of fires at composting facilities and how conditions should be managed to prevent them. Part 11, which will appear in next month's issue, will cover procedures for controlling and extinguishing a fire once it begins. While this article speaks of fires at "composting facilities," the same conditions, risks and recommendations apply to nearly any facility that handles large volumes of bulk organic materials, including wood and bark grinding sites, paper mills that store wood chips, hay barns, transfer stations and landfills.
A Few Of The Basics
Fire is a rapid oxidation of chemicals that releases energy as heat and light....