Sept 2024 Fire Report: The Neverending Summertime Spike and Engineering Innovation

In August, the industry experienced 44 fires, 20 of which occurred in waste, paper and plastic operations, 15 in metal operations, three in organics operations, two at a rubber operation, two at a construction and demolition operation and two at electronic recyclers. Eight of these events were considered catastrophic. Based on the National Waste & Recycling Association’s definition from its report earlier this year focused on single-stream materials recovery facility fire losses, $400,000-plus is considered a catastrophic loss. During August, Fire Rover successfully responded to 250-plus confirmed fire incidents at our clients’ facilities.

During the past eight years, we have experienced a summertime increase in fires, which I have referred to as the “summertime spike.” While we still see a spike caused by increased heat and dryness in the warmer months, this spike is not due solely to an uptick of lithium-ion batteries in the waste and recycling streams. However, they are responsible for the increased fires we have seen since 2016. In the past eight years, the trend of increased fire incidents has traditionally let up during July, but not this year. This year, we are seeing elevated records of fires through August.

When I highlighted just the four months from May to August, it is clear we are seeing the highest 120-day total in our history. As I have mentioned so many times previously, the scariest part of the increase in reported fires is if you estimate the percentage of materials recovery facilities, transfer stations, and scrap metal facilities, which the Environmental Research & Education Foundation estimated to be about 10,000 in 2013, at Fire Rover, we are protecting more than 7% of the waste and recycling industry and growing. Additionally, we typically protect our clients' highest volume and revenue-producing assets. Yet the numbers for the industry at large are still increasing.

We do not know whether the increase in fire incidents in July 2024 is a trend or an aberration. However, assume the rest of the year aligns with past years' historical average of 26 fires from September to December. In that case, we are still trending the highest number of reported facility fires in the U.S. and Canada in historical terms.

If we stay on trend, accounting for fewer total fire incidents typically reported in the back half of the year, we are still on pace to have the highest year ever for fires. Add to this the fact that battery end-of-life numbers have skyrocketed. So, we are in the perfect storm with increased hazards in our waste and recycling streams and very few solutions on the horizon to do something about it. However, when we do look at solutions, they need to move the needle and drive a positive ROI to warrant the investment.

Innovation is built into our fabric.

I was recently surprised when one of the editors of the Fire and Safety Journal of the Americas recently released an article titled, The Engineer of Innovation, in which they told the story of Fire Rover and our commitment to changing the way the world fights its fires, using and early detection and smart monitoring, versus the tried and true way we have been fighting fires of 100’s of years, with our “water, water, water” approach.  I want to be clear that “engineering innovation” is not necessarily inventing a new product or a solution. It is working with all of our stakeholders to bring the right people to the table to help solve a problem.

Our founders and original inventors of Fire Rover, Brad Gladstone, Pete Marry, and Jeremy Dusing, led the idea and initial development work. They built a team of individuals to make their dream a reality, resulting in our utility patents for our solution, which the USPTO granted in 2019 and 2022.

That innovative mentality was critical early in the growth and development of ideas from whiteboard to commercialization. We have always been fortunate that our early clients understood that we were learning during the initial days of the lithium-ion battery infiltration in our waste and recycling streams.

One of those early supporters was Mike Csapo, GM, for The Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC). Mike’s facility had a significant fire in 2014. We were fortunate that the newly built facility was located in close proximity to our team.  Mike was involved early and helped us test and come up with innovations, like our infeed conveyor solution that has been successfully catching and stopping fires early along with shutting down the conveyors, keeping the fire incident confirmed to one location versus the horror stories we used to see with a fire running through the full conveyor line of a MRF. 

Without the early adaptors like Mike and a few other large organizations that worked with us early on, resulting in the performance we see today, we would never have been able to fast forward today with results that were shared in last month’s waste360 article, August 2024 Fire Report: July was the Worst Month Ever for Reported Fires!

Over our first ten years, we have continued to build a team of innovators who work to solve problems as they rear their ugly heads at our clients' 700+ facilities, which we currently protect from across the globe.

Introducing the Fire Rover Mobile OnWatch for Hot Works

In 2020, I was approached by one of the largest paper manufacturers in the world, asking if we had a solution for “hot works.”  My client was dealing with an age-old issue of paying a guard to do a “fire watch” during a “hot work” event. The guard was also required to remain after the “hot work” activities commenced for two hours (OSHA requires 30 minutes after completion) to ensure no embers got away from the scene.

Traditionally, hot-work fire watch guards have a pretty unsavory reputation. Just search “fire watch” on TikTok, and you will see meme after meme of how “boring” the job is, along with things to do to occupy your time while on guard. The reality is we are asking a human being to stand at attention with a hand-held fire extinguisher just in case the fire gets out of hand. The guard is responsible for fighting any small/incipient stage fires but evacuating if there is any chance of danger.

If ever there was a “task” that would be better suited to an outsourced solution, this would be the role. So, we all got together at Fire Rover to develop a mobile OnWatch solution that would replace a guard. Better yet, our solution not only replaces the guard, but it also can sit for an unlimited timeframe, never needs a break for meals/bathroom, always is at 100% attention, and, best of all, can fight any sized fire without putting your employees at risk of potentially dangerous fires and any fume emitting from the event.

So, our patent pending Mobile OnWatch early detection remote suppression unit was born. Thank you to my team at Fire Rover, including Will, Jeremy, Pete, Adam, Peter, Josh, Alex, and myself, who spent the past three years making this mobile unit a reality.

Conclusion

“We are the cause and solution to all of our problems.”  I believe this wholeheartedly. As an industry, we are facing unprecedented contamination in our waste and recycling streams that are causing fire incidents across the globe. Our patented Fire Rover solution has been on the front line fighting these fires, but based on the numbers, it seems that we need to double down on our efforts to protect every one of our clients from the hazards that seem to be lurking behind every pile, corner, and conveyor. We will continue to evolve our solutions until we stop the bleeding and ensure that there are no catastrophic losses at our clients’ facilities, no matter what hazards they face, especially since these hazards are being dropped on their doorsteps without much thought from those putting them there.

Ryan Fogelman, JD/MBA, is a partner at Fire Rover. He is focused on bringing innovative safety solutions to market, and two of his solutions have won the distinguished Edison Innovation Award for Industrial Safety and Consumer Products. He has been compiling and publishing the “Reported Waste & Recycling Facility Fires in the US/CAN” since February 2016 and the “Waste & Recycling Facility Fires Annual Report.” Two of Fogelman’s companies have made it to the Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies in the US; Most recently, Fire Rover was listed at 1517 in 2024 with a 3-year revenue growth of 341%. Additionally, Fogelman is on the National Fire Protection Association’s Technical Committee for Hazard Materials. (Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanjayfogelman or email at [email protected])