1 Fire in elderly home in Melle, Belgium - 6 th of august th E Φ A ROUNDTABLE Lt.-col. ir. Christian Van De Voorde Chief Fire officer Fire Brigade Ghent 03/06/2010

3 TIME - HISTORY 19:54 Emergency call 19:57 Contact call centre – Fire Brigade Melle 20:02 Departure Fire Brigade Melle + demand reinforcement Fire Brigade Ghent 20:03 Fire Brigade Melle arrives 20:11 Fire Brigade Ghent arrives 20:20 Fire under control

4 TIME - HISTORY  9 CASUALTIES   5 SERIOUSLY INJURED   2 EMERGENCY MEMBERS INJURED 

Fire Brigade Ghent Fire Brigade Melle

7 DAMAGE Only the room where the fire started has completely burned out Other rooms in the compartment  only smoke damage

HOME DESCRIPTION

9 −Modern building (1998) −Renovation 2008 −Conform fire safety legislation −Each room door Rf ½ h −Detection in each room (not imposed) −Fire compartmentation of stair cases (doors Rf½h + automatically closing doors by detection )

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

11 HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? −Residents in bed (± 19:50) −Hot summer evening −All room doors open −Fire in room next to central staircase (ventilator, TV?) −Resident in room on fire, leaves room without closing door −Detection closing Rf doors – staircase

12 HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? −Very fast dispersion of smoke in gangway and other rooms −Due to heat and smoke it was impossible for staff to enter compartiment −When the Fire Brigades arrived they could only recover the casualties.

14 LESSONS LEARNED −Legislation (1974) not up to date −Decoration of the rooms −Curtains : value of flame retardant treatment? −Mattress : incombustible instead of flame retardant? −Obligation for a flat TV-screen? (implosion, decoration) −Trust property has brought in −By detection automatically closing room doors?

15 LESSONS LEARNED −Sprinkling? −Not enough staff at night (2/100 is imposed) −Knowledge and training of internal emergency plan −First actions of staff are crucial −Closing doors −Use of means of first intervention

16 DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY FIRE BRIGADE −Smoke evacuation nearly impossible because of external sunscreen −Doorway too narrow for bed −Patient + mattres  too heavy −Safety bars on bed −Mattres has no grips

17 QUESTIONS ?