scope:

Description of Driving Event:

A roof fire occurred in Cell 23 of Building 35. An Accident Review Team concluded that the cause of the fire was the inoperability of the water quench system used to cool the hot combustion gases exiting the test section. The problem was that the ACROMAG Transmitter was not plugged in and had remained closed. It did not regulate the appropriate amount of quench water for a given hot exhaust temperature.

The quench water system had facility alarm and shutdown meters which monitored exhaust gas temperatures downstream of the quench spray station. The high limits for these meters were set too high (800 and 860 degrees F, respectively) and should have been set at 650 degrees F. These meters were designed to monitor the exhaust gas temperatures and shutdown the fuel system if the limits for the exhaust gas temperatures were exceeded.