Report: Features Caused Rapid Spread of Fort Detrick Fire

March 16--A welder's torch may have sparked a fire that caused $10 million in damage at the world's largest high-security research lab, still under construction at Fort Detrick, according to a report prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The two-alarm blaze started Aug. 14, 2013, at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases' new home. Two people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and released the next day. About 300 others were safely evacuated from the 800,000-square-foot building.

The Frederick News-Post obtained the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' report Tuesday via a Freedom of Information Act request.

In the Oct. 15 report, investigators from the Army Corps of Engineers' Baltimore offices released their findings:

--The labs' safety features may have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.

--An epoxy coating on the labs' walls, ceiling and floors fueled the fire.

--Workers did not have the appropriate permits for work with an open flame at the site.

The fire spread "extremely quickly" through the airtight lab block, according to the report. The research rooms are sealed off to prevent potentially fatal airborne contaminants and organic materials from escaping.

The fire alarm system had not yet been activated in the building, though its occupants were able to evacuate within 15 minutes, the report states. Matthew Nawn, an Army Corps resident engineer, said periodic fire drills on-site helped everyone get out quickly.

A high-security environment

The fire began in the building's Biosafety Level IV research lab, which was about 95 percent complete at the time, according to the report.

The Biosafety Level IV classification requires the highest possible safety standards. About 20 labs in the world that hold this classification are equipped for researchers to handle "dangerous and exotic agents" that pose a high risk for infection, or diseases that are frequently fatal and have no vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lab was built with multiple rooms to hold primate and rodent test subjects, a necropsy room and chemical showers. No animals were present in the building when the fire started.

The sealed design of the lab requires many stainless steel fixtures to be embedded in the walls, ceiling and floor. According to Nawn, the green-tinted windows between the high-security labs and the hallways are built to withstand ballistic impacts.

Even while under construction, the high-security research block was off-limits to all but a select group of workers.

"Entry to the BSL-4 lab area was generally limited to the best qualified tradesman," the report states. Workers were required to swipe a card at an access point before entering.

The welder who was closest to the fire when it started was on the list of authorized personnel for the lab area.

A 'highly combustible' substance

A welder employed by SSM Inc. was working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases' construction site with a fire blanket and fire extinguisher when a fire started in an epoxy-coated room he had left just minutes earlier. He saw soot, then fire coming from a supply air duct nearby.

Fuel for the rapidly spreading fire may have been a slick epoxy coating on the walls, ceiling and floor of the research labs. The "biocontainment coating" was sprayed on to create a smooth surface on top of the concrete, minimizing the spread of chemicals or organic material, according to the report.

Contractors working on the project had performed welding operations in the building multiple times before the fire, but the epoxy coating had only bubbled or become charred if heated.

"There is no indication that anyone ever knew or communicated that the biocontainment coating system ... was highly combustible in its cured state," the report states.

The two finishing coats that were sprayed over the walls were likely the primary fuel source and the first substance to ignite, according to the report. The institute's project team chose the "Dudick Steri-Seal HB Coating System" for the labs after its first choice, installed in another government facility, began to show tiny cracks under repeated ultraviolet radiation exposure.

The documentation for Steri-Seal notes that its fumes are flammable, and open flames should be kept away from any place where the material is being mixed or applied.

After months of cleaning, the once-white walls of the Biosafety Level IV labs are yellowed by soot in some places and burned down to the concrete in others.

Tom Dudick, president of Ohio-based Dudick Inc., said his company's finished product poses less of a fire risk than common construction materials such as wood, drywall and cardboard, which were also present when the fire started.

"In our 44 years of business, we have never had an incident similar to this, and we fully stand behind our product," Dudick said in an email.

The Steri-Seal documentation notes that typical applications for the product are for walls and ceilings in clean rooms, food and beverage processing facilities, wastewater treatment plants and research facilities.

At the National Institutes of Health's Bethesda research labs, there are no known cases where epoxy coating contributed to or accelerated a fire, according to the agency. A spokeswoman said the National Institutes of Health has facilities that include Dudick products.

The agency operates one Biosafety Level IV lab in Maryland.

Lack of oversight

The Army Corps' report also found workers at the site did not have the appropriate permit for "hot work," or the welding operations. A hot work permit had not been requested or issued that week, though the Army Corps' records show consistent weekly permits for months of work before the fire.

Representatives of SSM Inc. did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Dudick said the facility's requirements for a hot work permit and fire watches "clearly demonstrate that flammability is always an issue." At the time of the fire, a watch was not conducted.

Army Corps Deputy Chief of Construction Denis duBreuil said the fire watch "did not work as it was supposed to."

Since the damage from the fire totals more than $2 million, it is considered a "Class A" Army accident. Other disasters in that classification include destroyed or missing aircraft or a fatality, according to Army documents.

Preventing future disasters

The cause of the fire is still officially undetermined.

"Since no one actually observed that the welding operations started the fire, the Fire Investigation Report could not state definitively that welding was the cause of the fire," the report stated.

The Army Corps, which is managing the construction of the building, continues to assess the damage to the building and how to bring the labs back to a clean state. Army Corps spokesman Clem Gaines said the corps is working on a plan for repairs.

Nawn, the engineer, said the walls of the rooms near the fire's source may be blasted with an abrasive to get down to the concrete before reapplication of any coating.

"It's been a very extensive effort, getting rid of all the soot," he said.

The report's recommended actions include requiring a fire watch for all welding operations, reassessing the risks of the current wall coating system and reviewing safety hazard awareness with construction teams every month.

Future Biosafety Level IV labs should be constructed with different materials and redesigned so that welding can be completed before any coating is applied on room surfaces, the report states.

"We want to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again," Gaines said.

The Fort Detrick Fire Department and the Army Corps' investigators have come to a "tentative agreement" that the wall coatings will not pose a significant fire hazard after the building is complete.

A spokeswoman for the National Institutes of Health said the agency generally reviews information from other lab incidents to improve its own safety procedures, but did not comment specifically on the Fort Detrick fire.

DuBreuil said they are working out the cost of the repairs.

"Eventually, there will be litigation," he said.

The completion date for the $680 million U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases building had been pushed back from 2014 to May 2015 after the fire. Gaines said that date may change once the project team has updated its remediation and construction plan.

Staff writer Courtney Mabeus contributed to this report.

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Copyright 2014 - The Frederick News-Post, Md.