Sprinkler stop South Wales

On the night of the 9th December 2005, at just after 9pm, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service received a call to the town centre of Newport which indicated that a fire was in progress involving two adjacent shops. On the arrival of fire crews from Maindee and Malpas fire stations it was established that there was a large fire involving plastic storage crates on the underground service road beneath the shops.

The resultant large volume of smoke generated by the fire entered a number of commercial properties the most serious of being the smoke logging of two stores, in addition the heat build up in the area of the loading bay doors of one of the stores was enough to actuate 1 sprinkler head in this location. This had the effect of preventing fire spread to the store stopped the external fire developing.

Divisional Officer Gareth Lloyd of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service stated that although this particular fire was started in an external area, the sprinkler system in the complex operated under the loading bay and prevented the fire from entering the shops. Without the sprinkler system it is possible that the fire could have developed, spread into the shops and the fire could have developed into a major incident involving substantial financial losses and large scale Fire Service involvement. In the event, the fire was dealt with by one sprinkler head and some relatively minor Fire Service involvement.

Gareth Lloyd
South Division Fire Safety