- Author
-
Marinoff, E.
- Title
- Fire Causes by Lightning, Sandwich South Township, September 7, 1990. Fire Investigation Report.
- Coporate
- Office of the Fire Marshall, Canada
- Report
-
Fire Investigation Report
June 22, 1993
8 p.
- Keywords
-
fire investigations
|
lightning
|
fire departments
|
building construction
|
fire spread
- Abstract
- On September 7, 1990 at 6:30 hours a fire was reported at the Sandwich South Township Fire Department. A fire had occurred within the communications room. The fire hall is normally manned only during business hours. The fire was discovered by the morning shift. Lightning had occurred the night before and upon further investigation the cause of the fire was attributed to lightning. The fire hall communications tower, although grounded, contained no lightning protection to reduce the probability of lightning striking the antenna. The radio tower was the highest object in the area and would be easily susceptible to a lightning strike. When the upper communications antenna was struck, the path the lightning current took was through the radio equipment, causing overheating and resulting in a fire. The communications room containing the radio equipment was virtually totally consumed by the fire. The fire, when discovered, had basically extinguished itself. This was due to building construction which prevented the spread of fire and limited the oxygen used in combustion.