Fire in Sprinklered Texas Warehouse with High Piled Storage

BY JEFFREY A. HARWELL

巨大亏损的风险fires involving fully sprinklered buildings are extremely rare these days. Consequently, when the large-loss fire described below occurred in February 2011 at a warehouse with high piled storage in the Regency I Warehouse in Grand Prairie, Texas, the nation's interest was piqued. What especially caused the fire service and related industries to ask what went wrong was the fact that this warehouse had been equipped with an Early Suppression Fast Response (ESFR) sprinkler system. At the time, this fire was thought to be the first large-loss fire involving the new ESFR technology.

A building permit for the Regency I Warehouse was obtained in early 1995, and construction was started during that summer. The 405,780-square-foot speculative warehouse was in the far northwest corner of Grand Prairie along the Arlington border. The structure measured approximately 800 × 500 feet and featured tile-wall construction with a system of steel columns, bar joists, and beams supporting a rubber membrane roof on a metal deck. The roof was 30 feet above the finished floor along the east and west exterior walls and rose to a height of 36 feet above the finished floor at the center of the building. The roof included four- × eight-foot skylights scattered throughout the warehouse area. Situated along the south end of the building was 5,000 square feet of office space. There were a few isolated offices within the warehouse space. A fire lane completely encircled the building.