Analysis of a high-tech plant fire happened in Taiwan: A case study

Abstract

High-tech plants typically have sophisticated devices, complicated pipeline designs, and various chemical products in narrow spaces. Furthermore, air tunnels are generally applied to connect multiple floors for product production; hence, fire would readily spread to those floors. In addition, the fire would spread to neighbouring buildings if fire-prevention structures between them were destroyed. Such situations would inevitably cause hazardous staff evacuation and make it more difficult for firefighters to rescue in case of a fire disaster.

A fire that happened in a high-tech plant in 2018 claimed 6 deaths and 6 injuries of firefighters and 2 deaths of staff members from the company. This study focused on this fire to discuss the reasons for the speedy fire spreading at the beginning of the fire, the death of human beings, and property damage. We concluded that neither the adaptive responses nor the fire-blocking deployment was sufficient. These reasons caused fire to spread to other floors promptly and extend to neighbouring buildings. In addition, the staff from the company did not provide the necessary information about the fire scene for firefighters to retrieve from the fire along the water belt. To avoid the recurrence of the disaster, improvements should be made in several aspects: (1) The need for greater capability to prevent disasters at plants, (2) The need to increase public safety and report illegal occupation of areas controlled for fire safety, (3) The need to establish a mapping of various layouts and provide relevant information on high-risk facilities for firefighters to better understand the necessary information about disaster sites, (4) The need to enhance the capability possessed by the rescuers to predict potential risks, (5) The need to upgrade the rescue equipment firefighters use, (6) Flammable materials should not be used in construction anywhere in the operation part of the plant, (7) Separate HVAC system and Exhaust ducts should be installed on each floor to minimise the spread of fine and to provide better control of fires, (8) Learn from fires in other manufacturing installations globally, even those not in high tech plants, (9) Conduct fire drills under the supervision of a third party expert and in the presence of city fire fighter and police supervisors, (10) Thorough HAZOP analysis to be carried out as and when any major change is planned, and (11) It may be explored if CCTV cameras can have a small silent fan to keep smoke and dust away and help fire fighters to vies the situation constantly.

The initial response to the disaster can minimise both the casualties and property losses. Therefore, to avoid the recurrence of the disaster, the government should legislate to require the industry to strengthen the plant's self-disaster prevention and responsive capabilities. Various disaster relief training can use different disaster relief cases to share the accumulated disaster relief experience and improve the ability to predict fire hazards. The government should also utilise advanced science and technology to upgrade firefighters' disaster relief equipment so that firefighters can adequately complete all the tasks much more safely.