[USCC] Fire Plan for a Remotely Located Open Air Composting Facility

Fri Mar 14 12:27:30 CDT 2008

Alan -

Bob Rynk (One-time Technical Editor of BioCycle) has written two very  
good articles on fires at compost facilities, covering prevention  
(the best idea) and means of extinguishing (largely misunderstood).  
The Rynk articles are archived on BioCycle's web site. I believe they  
(BioCycle) have had a few more recent articles that you may find with  
a quick search on "fire" at www.jgpress.com/biocycle.

Perhaps the most significant nugget of wisdom Dr. Rynk passed on is  
that good composting practice (i.e., managing moisture content,  
monitoring temperature, adequate porosity, etc.) is also the best  
mitigation for preventing fires at composting facilities. Many of the  
newspaper accounts of "compost fires" are actually spontaneous  
combustion fires in very large piles of organic material that may or  
may not be in any way managed to produce compost - though clearly  
there are lots of ways to make compost, some are more likely than  
others to run into spontaneous combustion issues - I've seen sites  
with very large piles, who don't seem to have have fire problems.  
Nonetheless, it is reasonable for large composting sites to have a  
written plan (and train employees) on fire prevention and control  
measures. I want to emphasize the training part because I am aware of  
at least one situation where a first-shift employee arrived at a site  
early in the morning to discover a spontaneous combustion fire, but  
didn't have the training to do much about it.

I have written a number of site-specific fire plans for composting  
facilities here in CA - oddly the State requires a signed-by-the-fire- 
marshall, Fire Prevention, Control, and Mitigation Plan for permitted  
C&D recycling facilities, but they do not require them for compost  
facilities. This requirement came from the fallout after a well- 
publicized fire at a C&D recycling facility. I would hope operators  
of large compost facilities would have the foresight to plan for the  
eventuality of fires before the local planning or fire authority  
requires it.

There are a number of resources available to help here:

http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LEACentral/Fires/default.htm

Including a somewhat dated "US Composting Council Presentation". I  
believe Phil Leege put this together many years ago, as part of then  
USCC training (?)  While there is some good stuff here, it should NOT  
be construed as USCC policy (I guess I'd be more comfortable if it  
was reviewed in this decade - I think the Industry has learned a lot  
since this was written), but there is some good stuff here.

Fire officials who are not familiar with compost pile fires (or any  
fires involving really large piles of organic materials) tend to want  
to douse piles with water. Experience says this can be less effective  
then using material handling equipment (like loaders and dozers) to  
carefully remove non-burning material first, and then even more  
carefully remove the smoldering material to a location where it can  
be spread out, cooled off, and extinguished (water can be used here).  
Some facility operators who experience relatively small "smoker  
fires" (characterized by a small plume of smoke emanating from a  
specific chimney within the pile) report a technique of smothering  
the entire pile with finished compost or sand or other available non- 
flammable material. The danger in the "smothering" technique is that  
it can be very difficult (especially in fires who's origin is  
spontaneous combustion) to know for sure that all fire activity has  
ended. I have heard anecdotes about fires that were "out" but then  
"another" fire started a week later. This leads me to believe that  
the original fire might not have been fully extinguished.

Nonetheless, large piles of organic materials are subject to fire  
from a number of sources - See the CIWMB resources or Dr. Rynk's  
articles for a good list.

To address the remoteness issue, the plan should demonstrate an  
understanding of the causes, describe methods of prevention, and  
describe the fact that large amounts of water (which may not be  
available) are not necessarily the first line of defense, a good  
plan, employee training, and adequate material handling equipment,  
may be more useful.

Matthew Cotton
Integrated Waste Management Consulting, LLC
19375 Lake City Road
Nevada City, CA  95959
(530) 265-4560
Fax (530) 265-4547
matt at mattcotton.com
www.mattcotton.com

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10, 2008
"The Possibilities are Endless ... Compost!"  Get details at  
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On Mar 13, 2008, at 2:13 PM, A RUBIN wrote:

> I am writing to request any available information regarding a fire  
> plan for a composting facility. I would be specifically interested  
> in fire plans for remote composting facilities that do not have  
> access to public utilities. Maybe you have or know of a composting  
> facility that
> has been very proactive in their approach/planning with their local  
> fire department?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Alan B. Rubin, Ph.D.
>
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