[GSBN] Fire resistance of unrendered straw bales

[August Hasz]

My home caught fire during construction with all bales stacked, the day after windows were set. Time from ignition to total structural collapse on our two story home was roughly 7 minutes. This is indeed a real concern, but like most legitimate concern careful prevention is the key. In our case a halogen lamp was used without a proper stand and the results were instantaneous. Other than proper fire safety, I don’t have any great solutions.

Thanks, August

August Hasz, P.E., LEED AP
President + Principal Engineer
REG
Resource Engineering Group
Direct: 970.713.0984
Office: 970.349.1216
Cell: 970.275.3603
hasz at reginc.com <mailto:hasz at reginc.com> 
www.reginc.com <http://www.reginc.com/>

> On Aug 3, 2018, at 8:14 AM, Pete Walker <P.Walker at bath.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hi
>  
> I am writing on behalf of a leading straw bale builder in UK who has run into concerns from a fire safety consultant concerning exposed straw bales during construction. The consultant is happy to accept the fire performance of load bearing straw bale walls once rendered, but is concerned that the exposed (unrendered) straw bales present too high a fire load risk during construction. To limit this risk the consultant is requiring that the 2 and 3 storey bale walls are rendered in stages as the construction progresses (in sections of around 250 bales per time), rather than all in one go after completion of all the bale walls (around 750 bales in total), as is more usual practice. This will cause significant programming issues for the project.
>  
> Therefore, I am writing to enquire:
> 1)      Has anyone else had similar experiences? If so, how did it work out?
> 2)      Has anyone had experience of straw bale buildings catching fire during construction? If so, how did it work out?
> 3)      What other fire protection measures have you experienced? Are your walls/bale stockpiles covered by a fire protection layer during construction, before rendering?
> 4)      Does anyone have data/information on fire performance of unrendered straw bale walls?
> 5)      Any other words of advice?
>  
> many thanks and best wishes
>  
> Pete Walker
>  
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