Hazard Assessment for Fires in Agrochemical Warehouses: The Role
of Combustion Products
Process Safety and Environmental Protection (Transactions of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers, Part B), 79 (3):
145--156 (May 2001)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1205/09575820150511920
Abstract
The combustion products released by fires in agrochemical warehouses
are reviewed and a set of elemental conversion efficiencies for production
of gases such as hydrogen chlorine and sulphur dioxide is recommended
for fire hazard analysis. In the absence of better data, it is recommended
that the toxicity of the resulting smoke plume is calculated as the
sum of dangerous dose fractions for each toxic component irrespective
of its action on the body. It is argued that the hazard from combustion
products released by many warehouse fires is at least as great as
that from vaporized parent compounds, but that actual hazard range
is a complex function of warehouse inventory, the way it is distributed
throughout the warehouse, the location of the seat of the fire and
the rate of spread of the fire.