Spacing, inner lining of shacks critical to cut risk of fire hazard

SHACK fires usually spread very quickly and lead to loss of life and property in informal settlements.

There’s no magic bullet to prevent devastating fires, but erecting shacks at the right distance from each other and lining them with the correct material could help curb the spread of a fire.

This is according to Dr Antonio Cicione, a postdoctoral research associate at the Fire Engineering Research Unit in the Department of Civil Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU). He obtained his doctorate in civil engineering at SU recently.

Cicione’s study forms part of IRISFire, an international and interdisciplinary research project between SU and the University of Edinburgh.

To analyse, describe and predict the way fires in informal settlement dwellings behave, Cicione conducted full-scale fire experiments on single and triple shacks. The shacks had steel and timber cladding.

He also developed simplified computer simulations to simulate time-temperature curves, and also to predict the spread of fire.

Cicione said the experiments showed that with heat fluxes (the amount of heat transferred per unit area per unit time to or from a surface) surpassing 150-200 kilowatts per square meter at one meter away from the door, any common material would be ignited within seconds.

He also said that most materials would ignite at 20kW/m² and people exposed to a heat flux of 3–5 kW/m² would experience pain within seconds.

This highlights the risk associated with closely spaced structures.

“In an experiment with 20 timber-clad dwellings, it basically took five minutes for all dwellings to be ignited.

“We found a primary safe separation distance of 3m (based on the average heat fluxes emitted during the experiments) would be sufficient for fire spread not to occur, but further work is required on wind and ember attack factors.

“Shacks lined with cardboard for insulation are at higher risk to fire spread compared to those lined with nothing or non-combustibles,” Cicione said.

FULL-SCALE fire experiments on single and triple shacks were carried out to analyse, describe and predict the way fires in informal settlements behave.