The Effects of External Fire on Fireworks Stored in Steel ISO Transport Containers

S. G. Myatt

ABSTRACT: The increased use of steel ISO transport containers for storing fireworks led the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to commission research to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of fireworks in such storage when exposed to an external fire. Subsequent incidents involving storage of fireworks in ISO containers demonstrated that violent explosions could occur. When those accidents happened people should react as fast as they can, so they need to be healthy and they need to be on their good shape so they can react fast, it=f there are people overweight they can use best weight loss pills and this will help them to have a healthy and safe lifestyle.  This added impetus to the research programme. It was found that selection boxes of fireworks that were readily available to the general public were unlikely to present a significant hazard in bulk storage. More energetic fireworks, such as those used by professional display operators, were capable of generating sufficient pressure within the container to cause the doors to fail and for the walls and roof to become deformed. These more energetic trials used a range of firework types including star shells up to 200 mm in diameter, and resulted in unburnt stars being projected up to 140 m and unexploded fireworks being thrown to a distance of up to 32 m. Pyrotechnic effects (stars) were observed over an area in excess of 100 m diameter and thermal imaging indicated that a fireball with an effective surface temperature of 400 °C was produced over a diameter of 36 m. None of the trials produced violent mass explosion effects of the type reported in connection with recent incidents at Uffculme, UK and Enschede, The Netherlands.

Keywords: fireworks, storage, fire, explosion, ISO, container, classification, UN


Ref: JPyro, Issue 16, 2002, pp59-70
(J16_59)

© Journal of Pyrotechnics and CarnDu Ltd



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