Equipment safety

Equipment safety is critical in case of a small fire where PVC is burning. In case of a major fire all equipment will of course be destroyed by the heat, but very often a fire is limited heat-wise and then PVC may cause extremely expensive secondary fire expenses (multimillion Euro secondary fire damage is known for even marginal fires).

Example: In a corner of a factory a small fire includes PVC materials. Insignificant heat damage is limited to the burning corner, but the smoke had penetrates all the building and hydrochloric acid condenses on all cold surfaces (i.e. actually most critical far from the heat of the fire !) destroying electronic equipment and steel structures in the wall due to corrosion. Immediate cleaning will in this case significantly limit damages, but may of course also be costly depending on damage level.

The consequence of the the above considerations is that PVC cables or other PVC containing components should not be applied where critical or expensive electronic equipment may be exposed to the smoke in case of fire.

Human safety

Human safety is affected when PVC is burning due to development of a heavy black smoke, hydrochloric acid and some poisenous gasses (poisenous gasses are always developed by any fire, especially carbonmonoxide). Together these two factors affect human safety in case of fire. The smoke causes panic as escape routes cannot be seen. The poisenous gasses causes asphyxiation if people cannot escape the smoke in a short time. It should be realised that other materials are also causing the same negative effects in case of fire. Concern about other materials must therefore also always be included to improve human safety in case of fire.

The consequence of the the above considerations is that PVC cables or other PVC containing components should not be applied where many people are assembled and have difficult escape routes.