Altebra ensures world’s biggest chocolate cache is safe from fire
No fewer than 1,125,000 litres of water are stocked at the new Barry Callebaut site so that any fires can be dealt with quickly. A 65km piping network ensures the water is rapidly available to fight fires in any part of the warehouse. “A huge 700m³ water tank was installed on the site alongside the building. Water can be pumped from there through the pipes to the whole warehouse,” says Altebra project manager Davy Vanden Herrewegen.
Water for 60 minutes
“There is enough water to fight a fire for at least an hour. So our goal is to get any fire completely under control within 60 minutes,” says Vanden Herrewegen. “There are around 22,500 sprinklers, two thirds of the total, in the high-rise. A lot more goods are stored there than in the low-rise and they are stocked very close to each other. A sudden fire, caused by a short circuit, say, could grow very fast. That’s why we’ve installed sprinklers at five different heights – at the four rack levels and in the ceiling,” says Vanden Herrewegen.
International reach
A lot of consultation was needed to ensure the installation of the sprinklers in the high-rise went well, not least with rack builder SSI Schäfer and lead contractor Alheembouw. “A solid timetable was key to ensuring everything went smoothly, as it always is in the construction industry. We had a few exceptional challenges to deal with, what with the height difference between high-rise and low-rise and the additional installation of a cold store. But everything went smoothly, keeping to the timetable. We work with extra safety measures on site and there is much more digital communication than there used to be, but it all went very well.”
“At Altebra we are happy and proud to have been involved in this great project,” says Vanden Herrewegen. “It’s a project that is international in reach and scale and we can be very proud of it as a company.”
