Did you know that the Business Fire Risk Monitor shows that in 2020, 3617 business fires were reported in the Netherlands? That's 10 per day, despite many businesses being closed due to the pandemic in 2020 and employees mostly working from home. Most fires occurred in buildings with an industrial function (30 percent), followed by offices (23 percent) and shops (20 percent). We hope never to experience a fire. However, it could happen to you. It is therefore wise to consider what happens if there is a fire in one of our storage buildings. In this blog, we will discuss:

• The difference between 'fire resistant' and 'fire retardant'?
• Requirements for fire safety in Building Decree 2012
• The fire safety of Kroftman storage building
• Increasing the fire safety of your storage building
• Practice and prevention tips for your storage building

The difference between 'fire resistant' and 'fire retardant'?

The terms 'fire resistant' and 'fire retardant' are often used interchangeably, but there is a clear difference. 'Fire retardant' concerns the fire behavior of a certain material. Factors such as flame spread, droplet formation, and smoke development of the burning material are considered. You can then speak of the fire class that the material meets.

'Fire resistant' relates to entire spaces and structures, such as a wall with a door or a steel support structure. For a specific space, factors such as how long it takes for the fire to spread to another space (fire penetration) are measured, and for a steel structure, how quickly it collapses under the influence of fire and heat with a certain load is considered. You can then speak of a fire resistance of a certain number of minutes.

The fire safety of Kroftman storage buildings

In the Building Decree 2012, buildings are classified into certain categories. Safety requirements (including fire safety) are determined per category. Our storage buildings are intended for storage and therefore fall under the category 'light industrial function'. This means that relatively light requirements are imposed on a storage storage building when it comes to fire safety. For example, our storage buildings are not required to have fire-resistant facades, and our storage buildings do not have them. Without fire-resistant facades, fire spread towards neighboring properties must be prevented by building at a sufficient distance from the property boundary. Kroftman has had the safe distance from the property boundary calculated by PH Building Advice. PH Building Advice has conducted a so-called 'radiation calculation' for one of our storage buildings.

To prevent a fire from spreading between two opposite buildings, the radiation from a fire on the opposite buildings must not exceed 15 kW/m2. Above this (legally defined) limit, untreated wood may spontaneously ignite without an open flame being present. In other words, if more than 15 kW/m2 of heat radiation passes through a structure, there is a high chance that a fire will also occur on the non-fire side without flames being present.

The calculation by PH Building Advice shows that the radiation value, from 3 meters from the property boundary, on the opposite facade is 14.39 kW/m2. This is less than the maximum 15 kW/m2. In other words, if you place a Kroftman storage building 3 meters from the property boundary, no further requirements are imposed on the fire resistance of the facade.

Install a sprinkler system in your storage building
If you want to increase fire safety for people and property, you could install a sprinkler system in the storage building. We do not supply this sprinkler system; you can purchase it yourself from a supplier. Please consider the weight of the installation. The maximum permissible snow load of your storage building must be reduced by the weight of the sprinkler system.

Use a Kroftman storage building only for storage
The most important tip is to use our storage buildings as storage space and not as workshops or offices. The (fire) safety requirements our storage buildings meet are not tailored to the (prolonged) presence of people or animals.

Fire-resistant coating is not an option for our storage buildings. The C-profiles of our storage buildings are very light. This is convenient for assembly, transportation, and the price (lower material costs) of the storage building, but they are therefore not suitable for a fire-resistant coating. A fire-resistant coating has no effect because the metal is so light and there is insufficient mass to dissipate the heat. Think, for example, of a (thin) fork that becomes hot immediately in a pan of boiling water and the thick handle of a pan of boiling water that can still be touched.

Practice and prevention tips for your storage building

On the website of insurer Interpolis, customers share their experiences with a fire. Lauran Vermue from Heinkenszand experienced a fire in a storage building at his company in 2019. Perhaps you can benefit from his practical and prevention tips. Below, we have listed some for you:

• Firstly, take out fire insurance if you are unable to pay for any potential fire damage yourself.
• Consider reviewing the insurance terms and conditions as an important part of the survival of your business. Pay attention to what is, but also what is not, insured. And consider whether you can take preventive measures for the risks that you cannot insure.
• Make sure you have the current drawing and layout of your business premises digitally. Just like inventory and inventory lists. This way, you can easily show the insurer where and how the goods and products were stored. And what their value is.
• Mount battery chargers on a non-combustible surface and place them in a non-combustible environment.
• Your business premises are insured for the reconstruction value. Report interim adjustments to your business premises to your insurer. Then you don't have to worry about being underinsured.
• Incorporate measures into the design of your business premises that reduce the risk of fire. Often it is much cheaper to take measures to prevent fires during construction than afterwards.

We hope the above information helps you make an informed decision. If you want to know exactly what the storage building of your choice costs, please fill in our quotation tool without obligation. In the last question, enter your postal code and if desired, select the option 'add assembly'. This will result in a quotation that we will send to you by email, showing at a glance what the assembly and transport costs are for your storage building. You can create multiple quotations and select different options. This allows you to compare them properly.

Do you still have questions? We are happy to help.