New coatings cut risk of a dorm fire

A Massachusetts company that makes protective coatings for uses ranging from automotive airbags to the Pathfinder vehicle that NASA sent to Mars has found a new niche in producing fire-resistant paint for college dormitories.

"Dormitories are repainted every year, and some of these dorms are 20 or 30 or 40 years old, so we've got paint that's built up and is a natural source of fuel for a fire," said Bob Pliskin, vice president of sales for Bradford Industries Inc. of Lowell.

Bradford Industries was founded in 1967 as a supplier of polymer coatings and synthetic leathers for shoes and furniture. Pliskin said that the company's PyroTarp can cover layers of old paint so they don't easily turn into fuel for a fire.

Since 2000, 109 people have died in fires in dormitories or off-campus student housing across the nation, according to Campus Firewatch, an online newsletter.

Campus Firewatch's publisher, Ed Comeau, said a January 2000 fire at Seton Hall University in New Jersey drew attention to the perils of fire on campus. A common area in a Seton Hall dorm caught fire after two students ignited a banner from a bulletin board. The fire quickly spread to furniture and killed three students and injured 58 others.

In response, New Jersey passed a law mandating sprinkler systems in colleges, universities, and fraternity and sorority houses in the state.

When students live in close proximity, "a single incident can impact a large number of students," Comeau said.

Intumescent coatings or paints were first introduced in the 1980s. Intumescent substances swell as a result of exposure to heat, which can provide a measure of fire resistance, for example, when coatings contain water, because they tend to keep the objects they cover at the boiling point of water.

Bradford Industries' PyroTarp is a second-generation, white-colored intumescent coating that comes in acrylic or water-based acrylic. The company said PyroTarp requires one thin application, equivalent to the thickness of a business card.

The company says the lightweight, durable paint can resist water, salt spray, jet fuel, and de-icing fluid. PyroTarp will generate about 1 percent of Bradford's estimated sales in 2007 and 5 to 10 percent of sales at the end of 2008, said Richard Satin, president. Satin declined to release sales or revenue figures.

Bradford Industries isn't the only producer of fire-protective paints. International Fire Resistant Systems Inc. in California, for example, helps buildings meet fire codes by painting ceilings and wood beams with their intumescent coatings. International Fire Resistant Systems recently painted the ceiling and wood beams of Sagamore Towers, a condominium complex in Quincy, to meet fire-code standards. Contego International supplied its latex intumescent primer to coat a portion of polyurethane foam used in the Big Dig.

Pliskin said that Bradford Industries' coating goes on thinner than competitors' coatings and that a single layer of PyroTarp is able to resist heat up to 2,000 degrees. During a fire, a chemical reaction takes place where PyroTarp is applied, producing a char-like barrier that retards further combustion.

Bradford decided to target the college market because executives believe that school administrators are increasingly interested in taking extra steps to improve the fire protection of campus buildings.

This summer, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell purchased Bradford Industries' fire-resistant coating for its athletic facility, the Costello Gym, and the corridors and ceilings of Concordia Hall, a dormitory. The university has also painted an office in the Pinanski Energy Center, which houses a radiation lab.

Bradford Industries said 15 other universities and colleges, including Middlesex Community College and Northeastern University, are considering purchasing PyroTarp.

UMass-Lowell hasn't had any major fires since the early 1900s, when a fire damaged Coburn Hall. But many of UMass-Lowell's historic buildings have a heavy timber frame, and some buildings lack sprinkler systems, said Richard Lemoine, director of environmental health and safety at UMass-Lowell.

Laboratories harboring flammable materials are another place Lemoine sees a risk, and he hopes to apply the coating there in the upcoming academic year.