Tiny Fire on Southend Pier

Although it was only a small fire in the planks, it was prevented from growing by a guy peeing on it while his girlfriend called the fire brigade.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-45018213

The council gave a predictable response which shows them up for the morons they are.
For their sprinkler system to put a fire out it first has to be triggered, yet it clearly wasn't triggered when the fire was visibly burning.
Just how big would it have to be for the detection equipment to kick in? Perhaps so big a lot of damage would have been done.
The council spokesman has obviously never seen a real fire or experienced how quickly it can grow and become out of control.

I suggest relighting the burning plank and standing well back to see what happens.

A great quick thinking job I say, lucky for him it wasn't an electrical fire.

Now that is the efficient use of water. wish the water companies would be as efficient in their stoppage of leaks.
Volty , you probably know more about this than me, but in the outside air, particularly if it was windy, wouldn't fire detection systems be rathee inefficient?

Mike, I studied the photograph and couldn't decide if the planks were indoors or out.
Given that the pier was supposedly deserted, one would assume the people were outside but we still don't know whereabouts they were on the pier, which is hardly surprising as the story on the BBC appears to have been copied from the Sun newsrag.

If it was outside then, as you say, smoke and heat detectors wouldn't be any use, they require a concentration of smoke or heat, which would be dissipated outside even if it wasn't windy.
Optical sensors would work.

What really interests me is how big does a fire have to be to trigger the sprinkler system, and how many separate areas of protection are there are over the mile and a bit of pier.
How many sensors do they have? Does the whole pier get a soaking or just the affected area?

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