www.Tobold.com
Tobold@GMail.com
A blog with my thoughts regarding games I am playing and other stuff in life. Please read my Terms of Service
RSS Feed
Monday, January 12, 2026
Plastic foam safety warning
In view of recent events, I would like to give some home improvement safety advice, based on me having worked in plastic material science. On January 1st, 40 people died in a bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and 116 others suffered burn injuries. The investigation quickly found out that the fire started when sparklers were held too close to the ceiling, which was covered with noise absorbing plastic foam. It later turned out that the owner of the bar had bought that noise absorbing foam in a home improvement store and installed it himself, and there had been no safety inspections for years.
Basic plastic foam of the cheapest variety is incredibly flammable. But you can also buy only slightly more expensive versions with increasing amounts of additives that prevent the foam from catching fire or hinder the fire from expanding quickly. If the owner of the bar had just paid a little bit more for his noise absorbing foam and taken a flame-retardant one, the fire would have been much slower, and a lot more people would have been saved.
So if you are thinking of doing any home improvement for heat or noise insulation that involves plastic foam, please buy a flame-retardant version, even if it is slightly more expensive.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:43 AM Permanent Link
