Do you remember Fiumicino airport fire that broke out in May 2015 at terminal 3 causing a flight ban and destruction of 1,000 square meters of shops? The prosecutor of Civitavecchia did the incident clearly. The liability is due to firefighters, who started the fire extinguishing operations with a 35-40 minute delay, to ADR (Roma airports) who knew the risk of overheating and danger of the air conditioner, and finally to the contractor of the plant maintenance.
Regarding this last point, the Committee in the Senate has recently closed the investigation on accidents with a paper where they talk about who and how “the rules on prevention and fire protection have been negleted.”
Is it possible to talk about fire prevention?
Beyond the decisions and responsibilities, what we want to talk about is how to prevent fires or moderate effects. When it comes to fire prevention, as in the case of the fire in Dubai, compliance and adoption of systems and fire Cables are key elements in order to provide adequate security. To this end, the fire LSZH cables (Low Smoke Zero Halogen) represent excellence because they are characterized by the ability to:
- Be in the spread of fire retardants;
- Ensure the operation of the plant for 120 ‘in the presence of fire;
- Have a low smoke and toxic gases.
These features are critical in facilitating aid to the areas affected by fire. Able to contain the flames even for a few minutes longer, will it be possible to save lives or, in the case of Fiumicino Airport, able to contain drastically the economic damage.
Elan produces a special fire cable LSZH called ELANFIRE that, besides being fire resistant and flame retardant according to the main international standards (see EN50200), is implemented with a technology of glass mica without the use of PE or PPE , which ensures a better resistance of the copper and insulation. Such cables are available in different variants for both indoor and outdoor fire-fighting systems.
