Sprinklers ‘could have saved’ Burger King supplier’s factory
Wessex Foods’ Lowestoft facility was wrecked by a blaze last July. But a report commissioned by the Business Sprinkler Alliance (BSA) described the incident as “wholly avoidable”.
The 5,000m2 plant, which contained 1,000 tonnes of beef, lamb and pork, has now been closed and pulled down, with the loss of 150 jobs.
The fire is one of several highlighted in the report, Assessing the Role for Fire Sprinklers. The blaze took 10 days to extinguish, as the building became too dangerous for fire crews to enter.
Local residents were evacuated and roads closed while 14 appliances fought the fire.
Burger supplies unaffected
A spokesman for Wessex Foods, part of the Irish Food Processors Group, declined to comment on the report’s findings when contacted by FoodManufacture.co.uk.
He said no decision had been made about rebuilding on the site and added there had been no disruption to supplies of burgers and other meat products, thanks to the transfer of business to other sites within the company.
There are around 360 fires in commercial premises in the UK each year, according to the report, prepared for the Business Sprinkler Alliance (BSA) by conformity assessment firm Bureau Veritas.
Installing fire sprinklers in commercial and industrial buildings would save England and Wales over 9bn litres of water used in fire-fighting every year, the report claimed.
Commercial buildings fitted with sprinklers emit 22% less carbon dioxide than those without, it added.
Premises with sprinklers often use only 0.2% of the water used to extinguish a fire in a building that has no sprinklers, it said.
Terrible environmental damage
BSA chairman Iain Cox said: “The science is clear: the simple fire sprinkler can dramatically cut carbon emissions and water usage.
“Fire losses are felt right across the economy. They cost the UK £3.4m every day. They also cost lives and now we have the proof that they cause terrible environmental damage.”
A Suffolk County Council spokesperson said: “Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service always recommends that sprinkler systems be fitted to commercial and domestic properties. They have been proven to control a fire in its early stages, thus saving lives and property.
“Wessex Foods in Lowestoft is a good example of where the fitting of a sprinkler system would have prevented a small fire from developing rapidly and ending-up in the destruction of the building, with the subsequent loss of the business.”
