Tragic fire broke out in a nightclub in Oakland near the city of San Francisco during the night of December 5. In fact, the latest official news provided by local police say about 33 confirmed victims. At the time of the fire there were between 50 and 100 people inside the ‘Ghost Ship’, as the shed in Fruitdale district had been nicknamed. The nightclub had hosted a rave party gathering on Friday evening.
Investigations into the causes of the fire are still ongoing. And it’s certain that there was no sprinkler system in the building to prevent or reduce the damage.
The importance of a fire prevention system
In Italy there is a fire regulation for entertainment public places, regulated by D.M. 19/08/1996. The legislation follows the following principles:
• Decrease of ignition;
• Ensuring the stability of the structure, facilitating the exit of all people;
• Reducing fire spread;
• Ensuring the possibility of intervention of firefighters.
In fact, it is important that public buildings are equipped with fire alarm systems. It is functional to ensure a timely rescue intervention for people safety. Together with fire detection systems and shutdown systems as hydrants or extinguishers, there are also the prevention ones.
Infact, if the nightclub in Oakland had been fitted with fire prevention systems such as fire resistant cables, it would have been possible to contain the spread of fire, facilitating the intervention of firefighters.
Fire cables
The ELANFIRE cables are fire resistant cables (Low Smoke Zero Halogen) represent excellence in prevention because they have the following features:
- Being fire spread retardant;
- Ensuring working system for 120 ‘in the presence of fire;
- Having a low smoke and halogen free gases.
Elan produces a special LSZH fire cable named ELANFIRE that is fire resistant and flame retardant, according to international standards (see EN50200). Furthermore, the ELANFIRE cable is realized with a technology of glass mica without the use of PE or PPE, which ensures a better resistance of copper and insulation. Such cables are available in several variations of diameter and thickness both for indoor and outdoor fire-fighting systems.
