Citation

Woolley WD, Lunt MG, Smith PG, Fardell PJ. Fire Safety J. 1983; 6(2): 81-95.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The report describes ignition and fire tests of beds and bedding carried out in connection with the fire which occurred in the James Ward of Warlingham Park Hospital in October 1981 in which 7 psycho-geriatric patients lost their lives. The tests involved ignition studies with matches and cigarettes, studies of fire growth in beds with adjacent wooden lockers, together with a full-scale simulation of a 3-bed area of the James Ward where the fire was first seen and with measurements of smoke, toxic gases, heat radiation and temperatures.The work has confirmed the importance of considering the bed as a complete composite rather than as individual components. It has shown the type of conditions which may have prevailed in the ward during the fire to endanger life, and illustrates the difficulties which may be faced by fire rescue and fire-fighting teams when faced with fires in multibed wards. The work has also shown the vulnerability of certain types of continental quilts (duvets) to match ignition, and particularly the very rapid growth of fire which may occur if match ignition occurs of a polyester quilt draped over the side of a bed with a polyurethane foam mattress.