Fire safety of waste tyres storage facility

When our client approached us, they needed guidance and advice on how to ensure the fire safety of a site that was intended as an outdoor facility for the storage of waste tyres. Although tyres are designed to absorb heat and as such are not easy to ignite, because of their high carbon content, they are highly combustible and once ignited, burn strongly, and are difficult to control.

As members of Fire Engineering Institutions, our team of engineers were able to apply their knowledge and insights to lay out a number of options for our client to plan the use of the facility in conformity to regulatory and permitting requirements. A number of factors were considered, such as the height of the storage of the tyre racks, the proximity of the storage racks to each other, whether to build fire segregation walls, the length of time for the permit application process in different cases, and the extent of installation of firefighting equipment.

As a result, what seemed like a straightforward conclusion was in fact the outcome of a careful weighing of different options, ultimately designed to give our client clear guidance that best suits their operational needs, business commitments, finances and budgets, and project timeframes.