How might a building flood cause a fire?

What type of building, home, business, factory?

In the US, most wall outlets are 16 to 18 inches from the floor, but if its a multilevel building, the water could always flow down the walls and cause a problem.

It could knock over an appliance like an old bar heater.

I know of someone who was electrocuted while wet-vaccing several inches of water out of their basement. I believe a drop light fell into the water.

I would imagine that such a situation (perhaps an extension cord plugged in and running across the floor?) could result in a fire - especially if it's an older building where the electrical system isn't up to code.

Yeah, something would have to short out. I was originally thinking of a massive flood when I read the header, because of the height of outlets. There have been plenty of bizarre fires that have started even during floods, hurricanes, tropical storms, caused by water knocking over appliances that weren't unplugged, faulty extension cords close to a curtain or drape. It's definitely plausible.

In a multistory... the water could seep down walls from a busted pipe from an upper story. It could short our a light switch, a light in the ceiling, or a wall outlet. There could be flammable material below or near the source that then catches fire to carpeting, drapes, or wood paneling. Wood paneling that is very old is very flammable compared to new composite materials made today.

The thing is, I can't imagine any insurance company writing a policy where a museum does not have a security or sprinkler system. Museums generally mean high value objects, many are one of a kind, so the insurers are going to make sure the museum has adequate protection.

Unless its a private museum, in which the owner can not afford to insure...

My father-in-law installs sprinkler systems for a living. My husband says the fire is detected almost immediately, and it's put out rapidly. Size will be a factor, but if it's a small fire, it will be extinguished within seconds. No more than 60 seconds for a large fire. If it's an extensive fire, it will be contained by the sprinklers. Any damage will be minimal and extremely localized.

What's the source of the water for the flood? A storm? Maybe a lightning strike?

A couple of inches of water on the floor might cause a table to rock, causing a candle to tip over, burning the table and papers on it and spreading to other nearby furniture items?

Flood waters come through the door and scare the cat, which runs and knocks over a display pedestal that is lighted. Pedestal falls, and its bulb hits the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. The bulb sparks and ignites a crumpled ball of paper towels on a nearby bench. The towels are saturated with flammable cleaning fluid, etc., etc.

Think Rube Goldberg. http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

Fargo, North Dakota, several years ago had a really devastating flood which set off big downtown fires that couldn't be extinguished because fire services couldn't get to them. I'm pretty sure they were gas-fed, but it might be worthwhile to see if you can find any info on that particular event.

If you get the right proportional mix of methane and oxygen, you have a really volatile situation and even static electricity could ignite an inferno.

caw

Museums are going to cause you several problems.

As Thothguard51 says, insurance insists on a lot of things. Combine that with the building code for a building having a number of people moving through it, and you have a sprinkler system tied into an alarm system. As Orianna2000 says, sprinklers come on quickly and contain the fire. Further, as soon as the head goes off, the fire alarm will be triggered. The whole thing is designed to produce minimal damage. A modern museum will also have fire doors that are closed at night to prevent the spread of fire.

Of course, depending upon what the sprinklers hit, it would get wet. But the museum's management is going to be notified very quickly and will take steps to minimize the damage. If nothing else, you throw the stuff into big walk-in freezers and let the stuff freeze until you figure out how to protect it. Fire damage is going to be a lot less than the water damage.

Because it is a public building, the wiring would be protected with ground fault interrupters in any areas where water is. These will nearly always trip way before a fire can start.

The water system is also a simple fix. If you don't have a night watchman, there is no need for a water supply in the building at night. (Sprinkler system has it's own dedicated water line.) Easy solution would be to shut off the water main. A little bit more complicated, but easily done, is add an alarm to the water main so that any flow when the alarm is turned on triggers the alarm. The cost of such a system is probably less than a thousand dollars.

Absent someone intentionally doing something, museums are well protected from fire and water damage.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

What if it was the pipe going to the sprinklers that broke?

Would the following work? Power failure = no heat = pipes freeze = broken sprinkler pipe, then power back on = electrical short = fire?

debirlfan said:

What if it was the pipe going to the sprinklers that broke?

Would the following work? Power failure = no heat = pipes freeze = broken sprinkler pipe, then power back on = electrical short = fire?

Click to expand...

Depends somewhat upon the system as to whether it is a wet or a dry system.

A dry system (more likely in a museum) uses air pressure in the pipes. When the air pressure drops below a certain point, water is allowed into the system, going out the sprinkler heads normally and in this scenario through the broken pipe.

In a wet system, when a sprinkler head is activated, it releases water. Same result if there is a broken pipe.

In either case, that flow of water triggers a fire alarm. This trigger is electronic, but has battery power for if the electrical power fails. Fire alarms systems have a lot of fail-safes to deal with things going wrong.

Broken pipes, although not common, are not surprising with sprinkler systems. You've got maybe ten to fifteen minutes of water flow before the fire department shuts off the water. Further, the fire department will shut off the electric at the same time. The electric doesn't come on until everything is checked out.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

It's a military museum. The cat bumps into the flame thrower on display...

Sodium stockpile in the basement.