Fire at Liseberg's Oceana water park

[cookie]

The fire appears to still be ongoing. Firefighters are hesitant to get any closer to the building due to the risk of structural collapse. One worker is still missing as of this morning.

Efter 23 timmar – branden är under kontroll

Räddningstjänsten har fått kontroll över elden i Lisebergs vattenland. Men en person saknas fortfarande och räddningstjänsten har inte kunnat söka igenom hela b

www.aftonbladet.se

 

[Christian]

The fire appears to still be ongoing. Firefighters are hesitant to get any closer to the building due to the risk of structural collapse. One worker is still missing as of this morning.

Efter 23 timmar – branden är under kontroll

Räddningstjänsten har fått kontroll över elden i Lisebergs vattenland. Men en person saknas fortfarande och räddningstjänsten har inte kunnat söka igenom hela b

www.aftonbladet.se

I havn't physically seen it burning since yesterday evening and there is no longer smoke or smell of smoke coming out. There could still be small fires inside. All road blocks have been lifted, it's pretty much like normal. There are still firefighters working on the building. I dont know if they are actually extinguishing fires inside or investigating/cleaning up something.

That photo in that article is from yesterday. This is a photo from today.



Source: GP

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I havn't physically seen it burning since yesterday evening and there is no longer smoke or smell of smoke coming out. There could still be small fires inside. All road blocks have been lifted, it's pretty much like normal. There are still firefighters working on the building. I dont know if they are actually extinguishing fires inside or investigating/cleaning up something.

That photo in that article is from yesterday. This is a photo from today.

View attachment 29822

Source: GP

So it's taken out the main pool building too, surely that's going to require a full rebuild and not just the slide tower.

You can see, in that photo, inside the main pool building, (what looks like) a fireman's hose firing up and deep into the main building.

I wouldn't have visited the waterpark anyway, but I was hoping to take Cara for her first visit to the theme park this year, and maybe stay in the new Hotel. I wonder if this will affect the new hotel, in that many of the rooms will either be overlooking this, or a construction site. :/

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I hadn't seen the clip at 0:44 in that video! Was that part of the main explosion, or was it another mini-belch of flammable gases? (also, where was that filmed from? Liseberg offices?)


"That is a bit weird, isn't it?"

Looks like that might be the main sequence of explosions, according to the video below the fire started at the Serpent slide, which is, I believe, the slide you can see destroyed in that video at 00:44... The slides involved in the main explosion look to be undamaged on the left edge of the screen. (I'm just speculating though.)

---------------------------------------------------------

Official press conference here, understandably it's in Swedish with no subtitles, if @Christian or anybody else could give us a transcript in English, would be great.

 

[Christian]

I will try my best to transcribe that press conference. It really doesn't say much, the whole thing seems very clouded and badly produced.

The head fireman says that the fire had a very gaseous explosive fire progression, which meant that the firemen had to retreat and instead work at limiting the fire spread instead of extinguishing it. They got the alarm at 10:06 AM. It caused a lot of smoke over Gothenburg. They had a lot of fire resources on the spot, primarily working from the outside. They have saved some parts of the building. There is a big part of the building that is not safe to enter and they have not been able to search it. They have not been able to fully search for the missing person.

The construction company (NCC) head says. Their thoughts and prayers are with those close to the man who is missing. They are working to investigate what has caused the fire. (This was very short)

Liseberg CEO is very saddened by the events. Their first focus has been to take care of employees and guests who have been affected by the events. Their thoughts and prayers are with those close to the man who is missing. The second focus has been to help the fire services and they are very thankful of their work. They do not know what will happen in the future. They do not have an overview of the project and legal consequences. Liseberg's focus is currently not on the business but the people who have been affected.

From questions:

Do you know if the missing man is alive? We do not know. We have searched where it is safe to search and we havent found anything.

Where did the fire start? In the beginning we observed a fire on the external waterslides, but we can not answer that now.

How can a construction site be so flammable? Construction sites can be flammable due to the activates that take place. It's to early say what construction activities have taken place.

How will this affect Liseberg's operation? It is not really our focus right now. In the future, we will have a dialogue with the insurance company and others.

 

[Christian]

So it's taken out the main pool building too, surely that's going to require a full rebuild and not just the slide tower.

From another interview with the fire chief. The slide tower and main water hall are completely gutted, some parts have collapsed in on themselves. Changing rooms, cafes, staff areas and some technical spaces have been saved.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I will try my best to transcribe that press conference. It really doesn't say much, the whole thing seems very clouded and badly produced.

The head fireman says that the fire had a very gaseous explosive fire progression, which meant that the firemen had to retreat and instead work at limiting the fire spread instead of extinguishing it. They got the alarm at 10:06 AM. It caused a lot of smoke over Gothenburg. They had a lot of fire resources on the spot, primarily working from the outside. They have saved some parts of the building. There is a big part of the building that is not safe to enter and they have not been able to search it. They have not been able to fully search for the missing person.

The construction company (NCC) head says. Their thoughts and prayers are with those close to the man who is missing. They are working to investigate what has caused the fire. (This was very short)

Liseberg CEO is very saddened by the events. Their first focus has been to take care of employees and guests who have been affected by the events. Their thoughts and prayers are with those close to the man who is missing. The second focus has been to help the fire services and they are very thankful of their work. They do not know what will happen in the future. They do not have an overview of the project and legal consequences. Liseberg's focus is currently not on the business but the people who have been affected.

From questions:

Do you know if the missing man is alive? We do not know. We have searched where it is safe to search and we havent found anything.

Where did the fire start? In the beginning we observed a fire on the external waterslides, but we can not answer that now.

How can a construction site be so flammable? Construction sites can be flammable due to the activates that take place. It's to early say what construction activities have taken place.

How will this affect Liseberg's operation? It is not really our focus right now. In the future, we will have a dialogue with the insurance company and others.

Thanks Christian. So ultimately now, the focus is on finding that missing person and caring for anybody affected, as well as making the site safe for whatever comes next. Understandable really. I hope that they find him, alive and well. One of those situations where you hope he just never turned up for work that day, and that fact went unnoticed, but I expect even construction sites have a site register. :/

The hotel is still taking bookings, so that looks positive.

From another interview with the fire chief. The slide tower and main water hall are completely gutted, some parts have collapsed in on themselves. Changing rooms, cafes, staff areas and some technical spaces have been saved.

Yes, that picture you posted does not look good, I fear that, if those areas saved are still part of that main structure, the decision may be taken to pull it all down, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Thermal expansion in a fire can be nasty for a steel structure, even if it is left standing afterwards. At certain temperatures the steel may even undergo some chemical/structural changes on the material level, which makes it really uncertain whether it retains its intended strength. I doubt the structural engineers will readily guarantee the legal conformity of the remaining structure after this, so I suspect it will be pulled down and rebuilt from scratch. Nobody wants a repeat of this disaster where the building collapses one snowy night in five years because the fire left a flange weaker than expected.

 

[Christian]

An update. At this point there is still fire in the building, 30 hours after it started. Though the fires are fully contained.

The water slide tower and the whole main indoor section are at a risk of collapse and the fireservices do not allow unnecessary access to them. The main roof beams of the main hall are made of wood, two of them have already collapsed towards the south side of the building. A wall (I do not understand which one) has been moved multiple meters by the explosion and is also at risk of collapse.

Here is a drawing of the beams.



I guess the wood beams that have collapsed are where we see the roof looking "deflated".



It really doesn't sound too structurally safe. Wonder what will be kept of it.

 

[Christian]

I just took a look towards Liseberg, Oceana is burning and smoking again.

I found this picture with a better view than I have. My apartment is one of those lights you can see behind the fire. Source: GP

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I just took a look towards Liseberg, Oceana is burning and smoking again.

I found this picture with a better view than I have. My apartment is one of those lights you can see behind the fire. Source: GP

View attachment 29831

I hadn't realised it was timber framed, I thought it was steel for some reason. This is so sad, but to be expected if the firefighters cannot enter the building, all it takes is some embers that can't be seen left glowing for too long.

Also, I don't like how close my favourite woodie looks in that photo... I know it's not, and is an illusion, but I find myself hoping the wind doesn't carry too many embers it's way!

 

[Christian]

GP just published an article including an interview with a fireengineer who worked on the fireplans for Oceana. He says that most of the fire systems were not yet in use, including fire alarms, sprinklers, various barrier techniques, passive fire prevention, etc. He says that this fire could never have happened if the water park was fully finished and in use. It was caught in the unfortunate state of being almost finished with a lot of flammable and dangerous construction activities going on, but without a proper fire system yet activated.

To me this sounds really weird. If the construction stage is more dangerous than the operational phase, then why in the world could it go ahead with a lot less fire equipment than the operational stage?

Därför fungerade inte Oceanas brandskydd

”En händelse som satt den tekniska lösningen ur spel”

www.gp.se

 

[Nicky Borrill]

GP just published an article including an interview with a fireengineer who worked on the fireplans for Oceana. He says that most of the fire systems were not yet in use, including fire alarms, sprinklers, various barrier techniques, passive fire prevention, etc. He says that this fire could never have happened if the water park was fully finished and in use. It was caught in the unfortunate state of being almost finished with a lot of flammable and dangerous construction activities going on, but without a proper fire system yet activated.

To me this sounds really weird. If the construction stage is more dangerous than the operational phase, then why in the world could it go ahead with a lot less fire equipment than the operational stage?

Därför fungerade inte Oceanas brandskydd

”En händelse som satt den tekniska lösningen ur spel”

www.gp.se

I have no idea... But I'm going to give you a theory anyway...

Wiring, control points, detectors, buzzers, pipework, sprinklers etc etc were all installed, but not commissioned. I wonder if all of the final risk assessments and fire planning is best done when everything is properly finished and in place, so that any oversights can be addressed in snagging, and until this is done, maybe the equipment is not commissioned fully.

Definitely a massive shame that it wasn't commissioned though, whatever the reason is.

 

[Dar]

Something doesn't quite sit right with me about the engineer's explanation. Were they constructing the whole project with no fire protection or suppression equipment? Was there no ventilation in the building to prevent the gases building up? Obviously this was a catastrophic accident, but were the contractors doing everything could/should to prevent it happening?

At this point I'm starting to wonder if they accidentally built it on a natural gas vent

 

[Lord-Summerisle]

GP just published an article including an interview with a fireengineer who worked on the fireplans for Oceana. He says that most of the fire systems were not yet in use, including fire alarms, sprinklers, various barrier techniques, passive fire prevention, etc. He says that this fire could never have happened if the water park was fully finished and in use. It was caught in the unfortunate state of being almost finished with a lot of flammable and dangerous construction activities going on, but without a proper fire system yet activated.

To me this sounds really weird. If the construction stage is more dangerous than the operational phase, then why in the world could it go ahead with a lot less fire equipment than the operational stage?

Därför fungerade inte Oceanas brandskydd

”En händelse som satt den tekniska lösningen ur spel”

www.gp.se

Mainly as those systems wont have been commissioned as yet.
For instance - if your wiring up the fire alarm system, you can't have the system live as it would be dangerous connecting and running the wiring which are live wires.
A sprinkler system wont be pressurised with water until all parts of the system are in place & the completed system tested - last thing you'd want is to accidentally smash the glass in the sprinkler head while installing a ceiling. and have the entire contents of the system dump itself on the area below.

In the same way when the lifts are installed into a building the lift installers wont commission the lift (IE Certified for use) until the very end of the project as part of the hand over of the building to the Client.

During construction fire prevention protocols are set up: for instance if "Hot Works" are required e.g. using a gas torch to heat the bitumen roofing strips to make them tacky so one strip will fuse with another then Fire Marshals will be posted to keep an eye on the area of works, as there is a possibility of there being a heat build up or something starts to smoulder during the works which is undetected while work goes on, but becomes issue hours later.

For example: there was a massive fire at a Center Parcs in 2002 which was started after workers where repairing the flat roof, and something within the roof build up started to smoulder from the worker's use of a gas torch, it wasn't spotted and by the time the flames where spotted it was too late, and it took 200 fire fighters 4 hrs to put out the blaze.

I know subsequent to the investigation findings Tesco banned the use of bitumen roof products on their buildings, specifying "single ply" projects which are sealed using mechanical fixings, adhesive or using a hot air gun. Thus the fire risk can be either eliminated or massively reduced.

The construction industry remains one of the most dangerous industries remaining, hence why there has been such a massive drive for Health and Safety over the last 40 years. Fires are rare, but do happen unfortunately. An architect's I worked at a few years ago, one of their projects burnt down during construction
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/fire-destroys-fairhursts-designed-university-lab

 

[Christian]

In the same way when the lifts are installed into a building the lift installers wont commission the lift (IE Certified for use) until the very end of the project as part of the hand over of the building to the Client.

In that example a temporary construction lift will be installed until the actual lift is installed and commissioned. Don't fire systems work in the same way. Until the permanent one is installed a temporary one is brought in?

Another example. I am the chairman of my student housing, we just dug up one of the roads to fix a water leak, we had to build a temporary gravel road on the side for emergency access. A road that was used for less than a week and then removed.

Seems very weird that they put a bunch of construction workers doing flammable activates, without a fire alarm, without sprinklers, without full ventilation, without completely function fire sections. The government has launched a criminal investigation into it.

 

[Lord-Summerisle]

In that example a temporary construction lift will be installed until the actual lift is installed and commissioned. Don't fire systems work in the same way. Until the permanent one is installed a temporary one is brought in?

Another example. I am the chairman of my student housing, we just dug up one of the roads to fix a water leak, we had to build a temporary gravel road on the side for emergency access. A road that was used for less than a week and then removed.

Seems very weird that they put a bunch of construction workers doing flammable activates, without a fire alarm, without sprinklers, without full ventilation, without completely function fire sections. The government has launched a criminal investigation into it.

Yes they will. There will be method statements for all of the construction elements which will set out how works will be done and what risks are foreseen and what mitigation is going to be employed to reduce those risks. There will be contractor's fire extinguishers placed around the site all the way through the build, there will be a need for fire marshals to be on watch during and after certain works, There maybe some automatic systems put in on a temporary basis, but a sprinkler system, highly unlikely.
It is scary how quickly a fire can develop, and even a sprinkler system is not going to prevent all fires from becoming serious. a standard 15kg Fire extinguishers is only good for very small fires.

Often, the fire strategy methodology is to reduce the spread of fire and contain it for enough time to evacuate a building: it's the maximise the survival rate of the occupants.... not the saving of the building.
For instance: Fire Doors are rated to last structurally between 30mins and 60mins. Walls can be between 30mins and 2hrs. depending on construction. where services pass through fire walls, they will have fire dampers (i.e. some form of closure which closes the duct to prevent smoke (the biggest killer in a fire) and flames getting through) When a building is completed, a fire escape stairwell maybe be pressurised to a slightly higher air pressure by the ventilation system to prevent smoke entering the stair... but during construction, this wont be running, as the system will still be being commissioned.

 

[Lord-Summerisle]

The authorities launching an investigation is standard practice: especially where it looks like someone may have died.

 

[Christian]

Here is a picture of one of the collapsed beams. More structural parts keep collapsing and the fire is not yet extinguished. I'm no engineer but this really dosen't look salvageble.

It looks like laminated timber to me.

 

[VonRolland]

How long has the project taken up to this point? Looking like gonna have to restart