[AT] sprinkler systems

[Dan Folske]

I appreciate your comments Steve. I am Assistant Chief of our small 
volunteer department. It takers very little water to put out a fire when it 
is small and if it doesn't put it out it can at least give a family time to 
get out and not become casualties. I live 3 1/2 miles from the firehall and 
it is about 20 miles north or south to our district boundaries so we're 
often looking at 30 minutes or more. I'm usually calling mutual aid as I 
leave the firehall. Unless a fire is reported before actual flame is visible 
most of our work is simply to stop it before it reaches adjacent buildings 
and maybe to shut it down while there is enough left to make the fire 
investigation easier.

Dan Folske

-----Original Message----- 
From: Steve W.
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 5:11 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] sprinkler systems

Richard Fink wrote:
> I agree with what insurance is for. I have wondered what would be done in
> areas like where i live, [rural] if the well pump is not running there is 
> no
> water. And from what i have seen the fireman cut the power as soon as they
> can at a fire. I don't think they are that big a safety item. I would say
> comon sense will work better in a lot of fires. some are acidental no
> dought, but the wood burner installed wrong , i think that is the biggest
> cause in our area. JMO
> R Fink
> PA

The problem is that you are wrong in your assumption of what residential
sprinklers are for.
They are meant to stop the small fire in the kitchen/bedroom/wherever
BEFORE the FD is even called or on scene.

The way most systems are set up involves either a standing tank of water
with a connection to your normal home water system that fills it OR a
booster pump and connection to a well or town water supply. Which is
used depends on initial design and water availability.

These are usually triggered on by simple thermal items on the sprinkler
heads themselves. Only in the area where the heat is high enough to melt
the links.

Now IF the fire does get to the point where the FD is actually fighting
it we will cut the power ASAP. However if it has gotten to this point
the power being cut to the sprinklers is the least of your problems. The
fire has spread to the point where those sprinklers are not going to
help anyway.

Most residential systems don't even have FD connections on them.

Take my area for instance. We are a typical rural FD with all volunteer
members. I am a Captain in the dept. I can see the station from my front
window. if I called 911 right NOW and reported that my house was on fire
and left to grab a rig it will be at least 3 minutes before I can get to
the station, put on my gear and respond with one engine. This is getting
just the engine and ME to this fire. Many members work out of the area
and won't be available to assist. So I will also start a mutual aid
response from the next closest two departments (who also have very few
members who work local)
So from the initial call to the time I can start dumping water on the
fire = at BEST 5 minutes
A typical R&C fire (room and contents) fire will double in size every
minute.
Care to guess how much of my home will be left when I get back? How
about the wait for more water which will take about 15 minutes.

However if I have residential sprinklers they would go off when the
temperatures get to ignition point. This will dump a lot of cooling
water in that area and 99% of the time stop the fire in that room. This
takes about the same amount of time that it will take me to call 911 in
the first place!!! The fire is OUT. The FD response is then to kill the
power (precaution in case of wiring issues) and clean-up and salvage as
needed.

As for the cause of most fires - The common failure that starts fires is
electrical,  then accidental (cooking, forgetting that they left a heat
generating device on), next is things like stoves/fireplaces and the like.

The reason electrical is so high - How many on this list have gone
through the house and pulled the outlets, switches, fixtures and
tightened them to remove the clearance that gets caused by the constant
thermal cycling., To remove any corrosion or bad wires. As well as
insuring that the wiring is correct.  Now add in the folks who plug in a
couple high draw items and cause even more problems. Or the lovely
rodents who enjoy climbing into panel boxes or chewing on wires.

We had a fire about two years ago that started in the front corner of
the house right next to the door. When we were done with the
investigation the cause was determined to be a shorted doorbell
transformer that caused the stud it was mounted on to smolder and ignite.


-- 
Steve W.

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