Is The Future Of Fire Fighting And Suppression Already Here?
Atomised water fire extinguishing systems are becoming standard fit in UK prisons under the Hydramist® brand. Installations in over 30 new Temporary Custodial modules in 2008 were followed by a direct Ministry of Justice order for 200 Mobile 8™ units and 100 Modular™ Hose Reel cabinets. The follow on orders after that will enable each English prison to be equipped with either mobile, modular or fixed high pressure misting hose reel units.
The units work by using water, powered by purpose built high pressure pump units, creating a fine mist of water via specially engineered nozzles. The droplets of water absorb large amounts of heat energy from the fire, this leads to an immediate drop in temperature of the surrounding air and gases. At the same time the water increases in volume by evaporation and in doing so reduces the amount of oxygen at the source of the fire. In addition the fine mist droplets bind a high percentage of the smoke particles and help to greatly reduce smoke damage. This can also assist evacuation from the affected areas. It seems an obviously better system than deluging water, foam or inert gas onto a blaze. Custodial Review interviewed Derek Killaspy on the product, its genesis, applications and its future.
Q Your fire extinguishing system seems a very logical one, almost obvious! Where did the idea come from developed and where was the technology developed?
A Watermist was used as long ago as the early 1930s when it was discovered that atomised water was effective in fighting fuel fires. This system used a backpack with a pumping handle on it, a device similar to what we use today to spray weeds. In the 1980’s & 1990’s water mist systems were developed for fighting fires in machinery spaces and engine rooms on ships. It was proved to be very effective at putting out fires without filling the ship with water. The atomised water converted to steam quickly and created an inert blanket of steam. This combination is a very effective and fast acting fire suppressant. International Maritime Organisation (IMO) rules and standards were developed to include all areas of a ship from cabins to engine room resulting in most cruise ships and ferry’s sailing today being protected this way.
The product started to move into land based applications in the early 90s and we started to install the very first systems in the UK from 1992. We anticipated it being used in small computer server rooms, large  data centres, generator areas and offices. The potential applications grew as people became more interested in what it could do, and the adverse side effects its use prevented.
One of the greatest areas of interest was the food industry, especially where large industrial deep fat fryers were in use. Traditionally you had to fight oil & fat fires with CO2 gas which would snuff the fire out quickly but would do little to reduce the oil temperature. Such a system gave you enough time to evacuate but re-ignition of the fire was very likely and it was not uncommon for the factory to still burn down. The introduction of water mist systems meant the oil temperature was reduced by the water turning to steam, the fire was put out quickly and the oil cooled to below ignition temperature. The process of extinguishing a fire in this way takes a few seconds and after one minute the oil will be cool enough to have removed the risk of re-ignition.
Q I thought the instruction was to never put water on a oil fire?
A That holds good for a hosepipe, but the atomized water that is produced by our system doesn’t sink into the oil and then explosively evaporate. It turns to steam close to the surface of the oil. This has the effect of constantly smothering and cooling the blaze and the fuel.
Q What difference is this system going to make to firefighting? Are we going to see Firemen with high pressured water hoses with Water mist nozzles?
A They already do. In parts of the UK there are fast response units which consist of motorbikes which have  Water mist fire extinguishers. These units offer fast reaction calls to small fires such as wheeled bins and cars. They are also units on the quick response fire trucks, which is a four wheel drive SUV, not a big fire engine. They use a petrol powered pump and an on-board supply of water to fight heath land fires where you can’t get one of the big heavy fire engines or a find large supply of water.
Q What are the commercial benefits to buildings equipped with it?
A It will put the fire out quickly and keep it out. In the larger scale food industry, some of the traditional fire fighting methods used are foam based, when used it involves a major cleanup effort before you can start to produce food again. With the water mist system you put the fire out and providing the equipment is still in working order you can resume production again. The only clean up will be some surplus water and oil so downtime is dramatically reduced. The benefit to the Prison Service, another big user of the system, is that cells where a fire has been extinguished only require minimal cleaning and can be put back in use almost immediately. And because minimal amounts of water are used it does not affect other cells. People in close proximity to the fire are not subject to toxic chemicals or biological health hazards.
Q If you have an industrial kitchen do you also have to have the additional fire extinguishers or does this replace them?
A No, this would be in addition to what fire regulations demand now. Generally they are foam based or CO2 hand held fire extinguishers or a fire blanket. They have still to be there but you may never use them again. With the Watermist system the fire suppression comes on automatically which means that nobody needs to try and attempt to put the fire out with hand held extinguishers and so put themselves in harm’s way.
Q Where next do you think this technology will go, and in what form?
A I think it will become a domestic system, either low or high pressure. High pressure would be more effective, low pressure would be more cost-effective. You could quite conceivably have a nozzle in every room in a newly built house and I think we will see it first in sheltered housing. There is a lot of speculation at the present about this and I think it is only a matter of time before it happens. It would only work with a misting system because if you tried to install a conventional sprinkler system in every house there would be issues with the amount of water needed, the storage or guaranteed supply of large amounts of water and subsequent water damage. If there was a low volume water spray system installed your water storage problems have gone as it would be connected to the standard incoming main. A typical high pressure water mist nozzle for this application will flow around 12ltrs/min, a low pressure nozzle around 40ltrs/min and a conventional sprinkler nozzle around 100ltr/min.
Q Would it be cost effective to install these systems in all new build projects?
A Commercial buildings yes. At the moment the price of this equipment is quite high because of relative low volumes and high specification material to ensure failsafe operation. By the time it’s common in domestic installations the technology for the equipment and piping will probably have changed. We are already looking at different materials for pipes. It’s quite conceivable in the next few years you could have a water mist system installed in a house using plastic pipe and have a nozzle in every room, most certainly in the exit corridors, for no more than the cost of adding a water softener to the building.
Q Are there any new systems you are developing?
A The industrial and domestic kitchen range system has been about for a couple of years it is a product that has a massive amount of development potential and we are seeing a big amount of interest in it. That and developing the commercial applications to be lower cost and even more effective. The future for us is to carry on with what we are doing, but do lots more of it!
Thank you for talking to the Review.
Derek can be contacted on
fireworks@fireworks-ltd.com
T: +44 (0)1953 861 070.
There are videos that demonstrate the Hydramist products in action
www.fireworks-ltd.com.
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