– We feared that exactly what happened on Friday was going to happen one time or another. It is very sad, but unfortunately we were right, says Ole Jacob Eide. He is talking about the fire in the company IVAR’s modern garbage facility at Forus in Sandnes. The plant was new in 2019, it cost NOK 650 million, now it is a total loss. This is what the roof of the facility looks like today. Photo: Rogaland Fire and rescue One of the reasons why the flames were allowed to develop is, according to Eide, that the facility had a gas-based extinguishing system, not a water-based one. The principle in a gas-based plant is that gas should smother the flames. Sent message of concern Already in June 2016, Eide sent a message of concern to the project manager in the building project about this. news has read the report of concern. There he wrote, among other things, that: “Neither inergen nor other extinguishing gases have approval to put out fires hidden in waste piles. The project cannot therefore document that the building’s fire safety is safeguarded with extinguishing gas. You risk a total breakdown of the building.” According to Eide, the notice was never answered. Here are the gas bottles that were installed to smother any fires in IVAR’s sorting facility at Forus. Photo: Odd Rune Kyllingstad / news Chosen not to submit an offer Eide has worked with fire safety and extinguishing systems for approximately 30 years. In 2016, he ran Ingeniørfirmaet Tore Eide which, among other things, supplied extinguishing systems based on water. The municipal company IVAR then announced a tender for a fire-fighting solution for the state-of-the-art sorting facility to be built at Forus. SENT MESSAGE OF CONCERN: Ole Jacob Eide believes that the wrong extinguishing system has been installed in the facility. Photo: private Eide reacted to the fact that IVAR expressed in the tender that they wanted gas rather than water as an extinguishing solution. – I know all types of extinguishing systems, what they can and cannot be used for. A solution was described that was far outside recognized norms and rules. We told the project that this does not look good – it could end in disaster, says Eide, who today runs the company Eide Spesial Sprinkler System AS. According to Eide, the report of concern was ignored. His company therefore did not wish to submit any offer for the tender. This is also clear from the notice. Could have been avoided It was Friday morning when the police received a report about the fire. The fire brigade struggled to gain control and in the afternoon parts of the roof began to collapse. The fire was not extinguished until 9pm on Saturday evening – a day and a half after it started. On the night of Tuesday, it started to burn again, but the fire brigade extinguished the fire after 45 minutes. The fire flared up again late on Monday evening, but the fire brigade quickly got it under control. Photo: Heidi Karin Gilje Skog Eide believes that the major fire in the million dollar building could have been avoided by a long way. – If water had been used, the building would probably be there today. Steel structures would not collapse, he says. – Depending on whether gates are closed According to the fire expert, the extinguishing system in the sorting facility was based on the gas Inergen – a mixed gas consisting of nitrogen, argon and CO₂. – Why is it better to extinguish with water than gas in such a building? – Inergen is a good extinguishing gas for its use, but here we are talking about enormous room volumes and large doors that must be closed. Eide points out that the system is completely dependent on the fire doors and doors closing, so that no oxygen gets in. – If not, it is not certain that it will work, perhaps that is what happened here, he says. The police cannot yet say much about what happened on Friday morning at Forus. – The cause of the fire is currently unknown. During the day, an assessment will be made together with forensics with a view to investigating the crime scene. With what we have in the case today, we do not suspect a criminal offence, says acting section leader for intelligence and investigation at the Sørvest police district, Hege Aase Andreassen. Not sure if water is best Torgrim Log is a professor of safety studies at the University of Western Norway. He does not want to speculate on the cause of the fire, but is unsure whether a different type of extinguishing system would have made a difference. EXPERT: Professor of security at the Norwegian University of Applied Sciences, Torgrim Log. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Log points out that it often starts burning in the middle of the waste itself. – In order to extinguish the waste itself, it is best to wet it all the way down. When it comes to gas, it will take quite a while for the gas to seep in completely, he says. Eide also warned against this in its notification. However, according to Log, it is difficult to answer which extinguishing system is best without knowing how big this system was. – Something that is perhaps the very best thing in such buildings is foam, but then you have a challenge with chemicals in the foam which can become a pollution problem and therefore have to be collected, he says. Another message of concern Politicians have also previously expressed concern about fire safety in the sorting facility. Just over a year ago, Ingebjørg Folgerø (H), who is a local politician in Stavanger and who sits on the representative board of IVAR, asked for a report on fire safety. WERE CONCERNED: Ingebjørg Folgerø (H) asked last year for an explanation about fire safety in the post-sorting facility. Photo: Ingvald Nordmark / news The background was a fire at the sorting facility in Kristiansand in which seven people were injured. Folgerø received a response to the report of concern in November last year. IVAR then said they had control. – Unfortunately, it turns out that my concern was well-founded. I wish it wasn’t like that, but unfortunately it has turned out that they didn’t have that control, says the politician to news. – Assessed gas as safer The CEO of IVAR, Ingrid Nordbø, does not want to speculate either on the cause of the fire or on the type of extinguishing system. Managing director of IVAR IKS, Ingrid Nordbø Photo: Odd Rune Kyllingstad / news – The choice of extinguishing system was a major issue in the construction project and at the time thorough investigations were carried out, both by our own professionals and external professionals. One then chose a gas system over a sprinkler system, despite the fact that the gas system is quite a bit more expensive. This was done because it was considered to be a safer facility for this type of industrial building, she says. Nordbø believes parts of the extinguishing system worked as they should on Friday. – Because the first fire that occurred in the reception hall was extinguished, and our preliminary assessment is that those systems contributed to it. Some time later the fire flared up again and spread. How it could spread is what we are now going to dive into and find out more about. – Was anything practical done after you received the report of concern from Folgerø? – We have a continuous assessment and improvement of all fire measures. It has probably also happened since that message came, says Nordbø. Know too little to comment It was the fire engineering consulting firm Branncon that assisted IVAR in preparing a fire concept for the building. Managing director Vidar Kristoffersen does not wish to comment on the report of concern yet. – As the incident is under investigation, and as of now there are many unknown circumstances surrounding the course of events, we do not wish to comment on the report of concern until we have more information on the matter, he says. Fire Eater supplied the fire protection solution in the facility. The general manager of Fire Eater Norway, Halvor Bergsaker, writes in an e-mail to news that they have contacted both Rogaland Fire and Rescue and IVAR, and made themselves available to help clarify the circumstances surrounding the fire. – We are currently not aware of details of the case, but hope that news will contact us again when the report from the investigation is available, writes Bergsaker.
ttn-69
