By Valerie Ziavras

Photos and videos shared across social media this week show large waterslides exploding and completely engulfed in flames at a theme park in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The incident occurred Monday, February 12, at the Liseberg Theme Park’s Oceana Water Park, which is a large indoor waterpark under construction and set to open in the summer. There were no visitors in the water park, since it was still under construction, however, there were 16 workers treated with minor injuries with one person still missing as of Tuesday, according to media reports. It was reported that the fire is now under control with no official cause of the fire yet known.

The need NFPA 241 serves 

This incident highlights the importance of proper fire safeguards during construction. While building, fire, and life safety codes such as NFPA 1, Fire Code, and NFPA 101^®, Life Safety Code^®, have requirements that safeguard a completed building from fire and provide life safety to the occupants, many of these features may either not yet be installed or may not yet be operational at any given point during construction.

RELATED TRAINING: Learn more about the Fire Prevention Program Manager Online Training Series 

This is why those documents defer to NFPA 241, Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations, to protect those unfinished buildings. NFPA 241 requires that each construction project have a site-specific Fire Prevention Program (FPP) developed to address all of the hazards associated with that specific project. NFPA 241 also requires that a Fire Prevention Program Manager (FPPM) be assigned in order to ensure that all the safeguards in the plan are followed. Below are two videos explaining the responsibilities of an FPPM and outlining what needs to be addressed in an FPP.

Hot work safety

Some unofficial initial reports from witnesses have mentioned that there may have been some welding activity in the area when the recent waterpark fire began. Due to the heat generated, welding is considered a hot work activity.

A FPP per NFPA 241 would need to outline the requirements for a hot work safety program to be followed in accordance with NFPA 51B, Standard for Fire Prevention During Welding, Cutting, and Other Hot Work, with the FPPM serving as the permit authorizing individual. Prior to hot work being completed, the FPPM would need to consider things such as nearby combustibles, atmosphere conditions, available fire protection, and the need for a fire watch.

RELATED BLOG: Read more about hot work

The explosions shown from the slides in some of the videos could indicate that there may have been flammable gasses present at the time of the fire that could have contributed to the growth. These types of conditions would have been closely monitored and identified with atmospheric monitoring required by 51B during hot work activities.

It is unfortunate that we are seeing a trend in construction site fires across the world that are causing injuries, loss of life, and property damage. It is events like this that show the need to properly safeguard construction operations to ensure that the workers, occupants, and buildings are safe from fire and other hazards. For more information, download our Construction Site Fire Safety and Hot Work Safety fact sheets.

SOURCE: NFPA