ELECTRICAL FIRE PREVENTION GUIDE SAFETY ENVIRONMENT …

Electrical Fire Prevention Guide

WIRE Consultancy, F-03, First floor, D-53, Red FM Marg, Sector-2, Noida-201301

www.wireconsultants.com, [email protected]

ELECTRICAL FIRE PREVENTION GUIDE

SAFETY

ENVIRONMENT

HEALTH

http://www.wireconsultants.com/

mailto:[email protected]




1. What are electrical fires?

Electricity is a common cause of fires in commercial buildings and other industrial facilities.

To understand the impact of electrical fire, take a look on these statistics of India & Worldwide.

According to data from the National Crime Records

Bureau (NCRB), in 2015, 2,255 persons died due to

accidental fires caused by electrical short circuits, a 25%

rise from the previous year and a 48 per cent jump from

2011.

The National Building Code 2016 tackles the issue of

fatalities caused due to short circuits and lists regulations

to prevent electrical hazards. But inadequate awareness

about the code and general laxity in its implementation

has been responsible for the apathy towards safety

norms while laying down electrical installation

A total of 1,970 fire accidents were caused by electrical

short-circuit of which 1,368 were men. Maharashtra,

West Bengal and Karnataka were the states with the

most deaths.

According to the German Insurance Association, 31.7% of

fires in Germany are caused by electricity.

In 2011-2015, United States fire departments responded

to an estimated annual average of 5,750 structure fires in

health care properties each year. These fires caused

annual averages of two civilian deaths, 157 civilian

injuries, and $50.4 billion in direct property damage.

The CEA data relates 42% of fires to defective electrical

systems. Most short-circuit fires are triggered by loose or

improper wiring, substandard electrical fittings, and poor

maintenance of wiring.

Electrical faults seem to be the major reason for industrial

disasters in the country as 56% of incidents are reportedly

caused by them; The Hindu

Workplace accidents report nearly 13 electrocution

deaths on an average day in India.






Huge losses can happen in industrial facilities due to electrical fires and this loss could be in the form of

Fatality or death

Loss of business continuity

Business opportunity costs

Assets and production loss.

These losses have the potential to disrupt the businesses forever.

If an electrical design is in compliance with national and international standards such as IEC, NFPA, BIS, NBC etc, and equipment

are following these standard guidelines, the risk of electrical fire can be reduced. This guide considers risk of electrical fire

which may cause by overcurrent, overvoltage or overheating. This guide focuses on latest solutions to help mitigate such

hazards in both new and existing installations.






2. Area of electrical fire risk

Lack of procedures and electrical practices.

Poor electrical trainings and weak technical knowledge

Use of non-compliant equipment as per national & international

standards

Use of substandard material to achieve cost reduction

Poor workmanship and maintenance issues

Design issues

3. How to mitigate the fire risk?

Lack of procedures and electrical practices:

Fire risk is mainly found in low voltage (LV) switchgears which is due to high

intensity of normal operations, high short circuit current and temperature rise

due to various reasons. The risk of fire gets multiplied when there is a lack of

working procedures and practices for the electrical network. These risk needs

to be addressed as a part of fire risk reduction strategy.

Procedures and policies help working individuals to understand the electrical

system and provide a safe approach towards the electrical work. These

procedures and policies such as SOPS, work permits, LOTO policy, Incident

investigation reports, near & miss reports etc. shall be formulated for each

activity at electrical installation.






Poor electrical training & weak technical knowledge:

Electrical network understanding is essential when it

comes to maintaining or working on the electrical system.

The behaviour of electrical installation shall be well known

to each working individual of the facility. Fire risk can

increase up to an alarming level by not using trained

working individuals.

At an electrical distribution network fire risk can be easily

reduced by providing proper technical knowledge and

electrical trainings to each employee of the facility. The

training must be focused to reduce fire risk of the facility.

Use of non-compliant equipment and substandard material:

Use of substandard material such as cables, switchgears, protecting devices etc. could be one of the major reason of fire at

the facility. Hence equipment and products of the distribution network shall be in compliant with national and international

standards such as IEC 61439, IEC 60502, IEC 61641 and IEC 60204 etc.






Poor workmanship and maintenance issues

Electrical installations can deteriorate with time,

often due to environmental factors, such as heat

and humidity. Additionally, damage can occur

during use or as a result of corrosive chemical

reactions. Hence maintenance of electrical

system is mandatory. Poor workmanship at

electrical network can also lead to fire.

Maintenance of each electrical installation shall

be scheduled at regular interval and

management shall ensure to perform these

activities on time. Poor workmanship can be

avoided by deploying KPIs (Key performance

indicators) to the system and focusing on

process not peoples.

Design issues

Machine control panels with a high number of connections, switches and, in particular, variable speed drives, auxiliary supplies

and transformers also need to be carefully designed and manufactured to mitigate the risk of electrical fires. IP rating,

creepage distance and insulation failure could be the reason of fire at electrical network.

Designing equipment and switchboards in accordance with IEC 61439 standards ensures a proper IP level and significantly

reduces the risk of fire due to

insulation failure or excessive

temperature rise. The IEC

61439 standard sets a wide

range of requirements,

including: designing a “system”

compliant in all aspects,

checking interactions and

consistency between

switchgear and equipment,

providing protection against

electrical, mechanical and

structural hazards, and

simplifying system

maintenance and upgrading cycles.






4. Who we are & how we can help reducing fire risk?

WIRE CONSULTANCY is a well-known risk engineering & EHS solutions consultancy, catering to a diverse clientele across several

industries. Years of experience has given us immense expertise in the market and we understand the requirements of each

specific sector.

WIRE is an ESCO empanelled firm by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and awarded GREEN Energy Award by ESDA

(Environment & Social Development Association) currently operating from 5 major cities to work pan India.

WIRE has completed many prestigious projects which starts from concepts to operations. Our Expertise blends with clients’

technical requirements, resulting in spectrum of services across the lifecycle of the project – Conceptualization stage to

Decommissioning.

To reduce the fire risk at your facility we can

Develop procedures and policies specific for your facility.

Teach incident investigation techniques such as Why-why analysis and fishbone analysis.

Provide training to the employees and maintenance staff.

Will help to build training matrix for your facility.

Build maintenance schedule for each electrical installation.

Provide standard guidelines for each equipment as per national and international standards.



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