ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT OF A WAREHOUSE FIRE CONTAINING AMMONIUM-NITRATE

Burning of materials is one of the most investigated reactions. However, there are some areas, such as warehouse fires, which are still not well understood because of the complexity of the problem. The problem in warehouse fires is the combinations and reactions of different chemicals and substances the nature of which is not always known either by the experts or by the people extinguishing the fires. Hence, warehouse fires can have very serious effects on the environment in air, water and soil, as experienced in the Sandoz fire, for example. The objectives of this study were to gain experimental data on combustion products at the laboratory scale and to demonstrate the use of these results by introducing a case study where 50000 kg of ammonium nitrate is stored in a warehouse.