WHY FIRES HAPPEN

Understanding the science

Our product has been developed from detailed investigation and observation into the science of woodchip fires.

We knew that under certain conditions the wood could self heat, eventually resulting in a fire. Our research was focused on discovering where in the pile would be the best location for the probes and what were the alarm temperatures which required preventative action.

After monitoring batches, we started to get some idea of the likely heating patterns within a storage bay. We noticed that the heating generally began in areas of the pile well out of the reach of any probes. This is why we developed the sensor strings and, over time, refined the placement of the strings to obtain representative data.

We started to notice that the hottest parts of the pile are constantly moving around so a large number of sensors are required to monitor a pile thoroughly. We also observed that not all piles seem to self-heat to any significant level.

This research has helped to identify what constitutes an ‘alarm condition’ within woodchip and is an early pointer for how excessive temperatures reach the point where a thermal run-away causes ignition.