T 1.4 Fire
In addition to the direct damage caused by a fire to a building or its equipment, there may be consequential damage whose damaging effects, especially to information technology, can reach catastrophic proportions. For example, damage from the water used to fight the fire can occur not only at the immediate site of the fire, but may also be found in the floors of the building below the site of the fire. Burning PVC generates chlorine gases that form hydrochloric acid when they come into contact with moist air and extinguishing water. If the resulting hydrochloric acid vapours are spread via the air conditioning system, then sensitive electronic devices located in a part of the building far away from the site of the fire can become damaged. However, even "normal" smoke generated by a fire and spread by the air conditioning system can cause damage to the IT equipment.
Fires can be started by careless handling of sources of fire (e.g. unattended open flames, welding and soldering work, etc.), but also through improper use of electrical equipment (e.g. unattended coffee machines, overloaded power strips). Technical defects in electrical devices can also start a fire.
The following factors can help spread a fire, among other factors:
- Keeping doors separating fire zones open using wedges,
- Improper storage of flammable material (e.g. waste paper),
- Failure to observe relevant standards and regulations for preventing fires,
- Absence of fire detection and alarm systems (e.g. smoke detectors),
- Missing or unusable hand-held fire extinguishers or automatic extinguishing equipment (e.g. gas extinguishing systems),
- Poor fire prevention measures (e.g. the absence of fire seals in cable trays or the use of unsuitable insulation materials for heat and noise insulation).
Examples:
- In the early 1990s, a mainframe computer centre near Frankfurt suffered catastrophic fire damage that lead to its complete failure.
- Small electrical appliances such as coffee machines and table lamps are frequently installed improperly or in the wrong place, and can then cause fires.