Fire safety in refugee/ IDP camps

Reports of fires in camps housing survivors of the 'Boxing Day' Tsunami three years ago prompted the BRE Trust to commission research into the problem. As the research progressed, it became clear that the same issues extended to other refugee camps, as Martin Shipp and Kelvin Annable explain.

It is estimated that over 187,000 people died, 115,000 houses were damaged or destroyed and around 1.7 million people were left homeless after the tsunami struck countries surrounding the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. Immediately after the event, the BRE Trust funded a project on the needs of tsunami affected countries(ref 1).

In December 2005, a report made to the Disasters Emergency Committee2 stated that “the real cause for concern is the poor conditions in temporary shelter and the continuation of tented camps. In particular, these camps and shelters are at risk of fire, cyclone and flood”. It was separately reported by the BBC that the shelters provided to tsunami victims had poor fire performance. Further investigation on the web revealed that a number of tsunami camps had suffered major fires, some with loss of life.

Reported causes vary; some appear to be deliberate, some accidental, e.g. due to cooking or paraffin lamps. An initial examination of photographs of such camps suggested that fire spread between shelters should be easily limited by adequate spacing, with 5m or 6m spacing, as is done in the UK to protect mobile homes, for example. However, it was understood that practical, structural, environmental or social reasons might exist to explain why a solution could not, or is not, being adopted.

Read the rest on the Fire Safety Engineering magazine website! Thanks to Cathy for passing this on.