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YOU CAN TRY THIS AT HOME: Novec 1230 fire protection fluid looks and smells like water but evaporates 50 times more quickly.

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Novec sends fires running but is not harmful to humans.

The GCC has been hit by an alarming spate of fires recently and construction sites are not immune. Jamie Stewart discovers an environmentally-friendly fire protection fluid that sends fires running.

It could be something to do with the time of year, as the weather heats up and contractors prepare for the mid-day work ban. Or it could have something to do with the plethora of construction sites sprouting up across the region.

Either way, the GCC has been hit by a worrying series of fires of late, a fact which has prompted action from local civil defence teams. In the Dubai emirate, Dubai Civil Defence (DCC) have launched what has been described as one of its largest ever inspection campaigns.

In the emirate, home to one of the largest concentrations of construction sites on the globe, more than 300 fires have broken out in the first five months of this year, 5% of which have been major incidents.

Major General Rashid Thani Al Matroushi, director of DCC, said that among this spate of massive fire accidents, warehouses, factories and, of great concern to the construction industry - labour camps, are areas that have been prone to blazes.

Against the backdrop of this trend comes Novec 1230 fire protection fluid. Novec was designed and manufactured by 3M as an environmentally friendly alternative to halon gasses.

As Schome Bag, 3M marketing specialist, explains: "By 1993, halons were substantially banned because of their depletion of the ozone. The original product, Halon 1301, had serious problems. While Halon 1211 was an improvement it was still unacceptable, and halon was phased out."

The environmental credentials of Novec are one of the major selling points that the manufacturer is keen to communicate.

The fluid does not deplete ozone, has an atmospheric lifetime of just five days, and has been given a global warming potential (GWP) of '1' by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

This GWP figure is put into context when compared against Halon 1301 and Halon 1211, which have GWP of 6,900 and 1,300 respectively.

Halon was in popular use for many years due to the fact that it did not damage machinery or electrical goods when administered, which is another property boasted by Novec.

The fluid can be discharged in either liquid or gas form which is good news for any construction site.

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