[SML] polystyrene decoration on fire again

Richard Niederberg ladesigners at gmail.com
Mon Jul 27 03:20:49 UTC 2015


I hope that the multitude of polystyrene Pink Flamingos in many front yards
will not become an endangered species due to a knee-jerk reaction by the
Consumer Product Safety Commission.
/s/ Richard
_________

On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 8:08 PM, Dale Farmer via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> LIke it says on the t-shirt.
> Nonflammable?
> Challenge accepted.
>
> ON a more serious note, these polystyrene trees were, I presume, intended
> for more or less permanant installation outdoors by a pool on the nevada
> desert.   I would presume that there was some sort of protective and
> decorative coating to make them look more treelike and less
> polystyrenelike.  I would hope that this coating had some strength and fire
> retardant qualities, but I have no evidence of that.
>
> Also, the video clips showed an awful lot of flame and smoke coming from a
> relatively small area on fire.  Some of that would be from the dense
> packing of these 'trees' to provide shade for the patrons in the area
> providing a lot of fuel, and easy spread of fire once it got rolling.
>
>   I'm curious how long the fire actually lasted.   I would expect the
> polystyrene trees would have long been burned up by the time the fire
> department got there, let alone schlepped all the gear up to the 14th
> floor, got the pipes and hoses filled with water to actually go fight the
> fire.  Were there other fuel sources, such as wooden or plastic
> furnishings, or huts for a bar and so on?
>
>    Fire dept spokesman said fire was fully extinguished after 30 minutes,
> which suggests to me that the intense phase of the fire was well over by
> the time the FD got water on the flames, and they were pretty much putting
> out any fires on slower burning wooden items and structures, and drowning
> any embers.
>
>   The article said rooms were damaged and the 14th and 15th floors were
> closed, presumably any fire in them would have been controlled by the
> sprinkler system.
>
> ONe news article quoted a guest who had noted cigarette burn holes in the
> roof of one of the cabanas the day before, and speculated that they were
> from butts flicked down from the rooms above.
>
> The article also mentioned the extensive decorative lighting as a possible
> source of ignition.
>
> Dale
>
> On 7/26/2015 2:34 PM, Jerry Durand via Stagecraft wrote:
>
>> The article said a cigarette was suspected.
>>
>> On 07/26/2015 11:31 AM, e-mail frank.wood95 wrote:
>>
>>> What was the source of ignition?
>>>
>>> Many years ago, one of our set designers planned to use polystyrene to
>>> make some gothic arches. As LD, I was worried, so I conducted an
>>> experiment. I set up a 2' square panel, from the packaging of a
>>> domestic appliance, and pointed a 1KW VNSP Par at it from about a foot
>>> range. After an hour, the polystyrene panel was noticeably thinner
>>> where the beam had fallen on it, but that was all.
>>>
>>> OTOH, I remember going up a wooden step-ladder to adjust the 1KW PAR
>>> cans I was using in booms. By the time I had finished, smoke was
>>> coming from the ladder.
>>>
>>> Safety experts, please advise.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc.www.interstellar.com
>> tel: +1 408 356-3886, USA toll free: 1 866 356-3886
>> Skype:  jerrydurand
>>
>>
>>
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>
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-- 
/s/ Richard
_________
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