Firework storage safety - is there any?

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

I had a similar thing happen in my house one Bonfire night.

You should have seen the kids' faces light up...

[Vaud]

Chrisgr31 said:

The Lewes fire was spectacular and visible from miles away. Seem to recall the owner of the site was detained at her majestys pleasure as well.

It would seem sensible for those facilities to be in remote locations so that they only affect themselves. I would be surprised if many insurance companies are happy with insuring them in populated areas due tot he likliehood of claims from neighbours etc.

I think we have bigger problems, like, say, Buncefield?

[Lotus Notes]

No one learns from this, the Enschede firework warehouse disaster killed 23 people.
In the video it kicks off from 2:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks5X0N8M_o8

Regular audits to an international standard and prompt enforcement with corporate criminal cases would certainly be a start. No slaps on wrists, but sentences proportional to the potential consequences.

The trouble is, most European countries are incapable of such things as we are drawn into long legal processes. Look at how long AZF/Total took to bring to closure!

[Munter]

Lotus Notes said:

No one learns from this,

But that didn't happen. In fact it looks like the damage was confined a single industrial unit. Which might have been luck...or it might have been by design.

[Lotus Notes]

Munter said:

Lotus Notes said:

No one learns from this,

But that didn't happen. In fact it looks like the damage was confined a single industrial unit. Which might have been luck...or it might have been by design.

I don't understand..In both events there was a fire that led to the detonation of fireworks and then loss of life as well as damage outside of the containment area putting at risk the lives of the general population (basic legistlation should prevent this happening).

I agree with you that design or regulation possibly helped in this case, as there was some containment and most probably the quantities of ignited explosive were less than the Eschede disaster. Luck is luck and is only part of the outcome.

But talking about regulation, I had a look at the HSE guidelines:

If you wish to use the fireworks for a commercial display or for some other work activity, you can keep up to 100kg of hazard type 3 fireworks for up to 5 consecutive days without the need for a licence, provided they are kept in their place of intended use.

Reading further, there appears to be no stated upper limit for license holders.

[Munter]

Lotus Notes said:

Munter said:

Lotus Notes said:

No one learns from this,

But that didn't happen. In fact it looks like the damage was confined a single industrial unit. Which might have been luck...or it might have been by design.

I don't understand..In both events there was a fire that led to the detonation of fireworks and then loss of life as well as damage outside of the containment area putting at risk the lives of the general population (basic legistlation should prevent this happening).

I agree with you that design or regulation possibly helped in this case, as there was some containment and most probably the quantities of ignited explosive were less than the Eschede disaster. Luck is luck and is only part of the outcome.

But talking about regulation, I had a look at the HSE guidelines:

If you wish to use the fireworks for a commercial display or for some other work activity, you can keep up to 100kg of hazard type 3 fireworks for up to 5 consecutive days without the need for a licence, provided they are kept in their place of intended use.

Reading further, there appears to be no stated upper limit for license holders.

My point is we don't know how this site had decided on their contingency plans. In this case they could have assessed how much stock to hold at a maximum based on their containment, the likely response time and type of the fire service, the design of the building, the buildings location etc etc. Or they might have stuffed as many as possible in the unit and "hoped".

Either way, as you say also, the event was much less significant than Eschede. And I'm saying the reasons for that may not be luck. They may not be regulations either. It could be the operator got their own worse case assessment and planning pretty much right. We don't know any of that. But we do know we didn't have Eschede mk2.