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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
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While it is never wrong err on being slightly too cautious (no, don't go overboard and lock yourself in a padded room), there is the bit where holding those fountain "sparklers" near anything.
Those things are not your average children's birthday sparklers which, while also getting hot and potentially being able to ignite things, probably pose less risk.
They tied the fountains to bottles and then lifted the bottles to the ceiling. If there is anything flammable you have a good chance of setting it on fire. If not, then there would be a burn mark.
So looks like a case of playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.
Those things are not your average children's birthday sparklers which, while also getting hot and potentially being able to ignite things, probably pose less risk.
They tied the fountains to bottles and then lifted the bottles to the ceiling. If there is anything flammable you have a good chance of setting it on fire. If not, then there would be a burn mark.
So looks like a case of playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.
If you lock yourself in a padded room, and are holding a sparkler to the ceiling, you would still be safer if the padding of the room is flame-retardant. :)
I agree that they were acting stupid, but there is a big difference between starting a fire that mostly smolders and smokes due to flame retardants, and the flashover that actually happened.
I agree that they were acting stupid, but there is a big difference between starting a fire that mostly smolders and smokes due to flame retardants, and the flashover that actually happened.
Very true!
Do you recall what range the flame resistance has? I briefly looked up the temperature range of sparklers and apparently those clock in at at least 1k °C.
It might slow down the spread and reduce the risk of flashover as it can't spread as fast, but I don't know how well the insulation burns once ignited.
So it might have been futile either way with the only proper solution being to clad it behind other materials to limit exposure.
Do you recall what range the flame resistance has? I briefly looked up the temperature range of sparklers and apparently those clock in at at least 1k °C.
It might slow down the spread and reduce the risk of flashover as it can't spread as fast, but I don't know how well the insulation burns once ignited.
So it might have been futile either way with the only proper solution being to clad it behind other materials to limit exposure.
Flame retardants are additives, and can be added to the plastic material in different quantities. Usually they are dosed to reach specific fire protection specs, but those vary by country. More additives increase the price, but even the lowest fire protection class would significantly slow down the spread of the fire to something more akin to smouldering. The highest concentration leads to a material in which the fire doesn't propagate without an external flame.
Better yet, outlaw non-flame retardent foam being sold at all. We outlawed flammable mattresses and other household items a long time ago so why are products that are likely to lead to this kind of failure being sold for use in homes?
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