MANAGING COMMERCIAL FIRE RISK

In 2021 NZI suffered a number of large losses due to spontaneous combustion of laundered material. It’s a common cause of fire across some industries – particularly laundromats, cafés, restaurants, etc. The fire starts through a chemical process where residual oil on items, like tea towels, oxidises and creates heat, if the heat cannot escape, the material ignites.

Unfortunately the risk is not well known. I worked with Fire and Emergency NZ to produce some videos to raise awareness and ran a campaign particularly targeted towards laundromats where we see most of our claims. The campaign involved collateral for NZI’s risk consultants to leave at businesses, stickers to affix to machines, a targeted social media campaign, an internal competition for internal awareness and advertising in industry publications.