We came close to that in my community with a mill fire. If the wind
had been the prevailing southwest instead of a very unusual strong
easterly, we would have lost the entire southern half mile of the
peninsula. I can think of a lot of historic communities in New
England with close spaced wood-frame buildings that are in a similar
situation. It's a real problem.
At 03:26 PM 2/2/2007, you wrote:
This comes from Larry Miles and Tim Knisely; our Bellefonte (PA) Fire
Prevention Task Force has been working on the same problem up here.
George Church
Rowe Sprinkler
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101
980.html?referrer=emailarticle
Historic Charm Up in Smoke?
Some Fear Annapolis's Downtown Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen
By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 2, 2007; Page B01
Visitors to Annapolis bask in the 300-year-old city's historic ambience. But
some locals have come to eye nervously the state capital's downtown -- with
its century-old buildings, charming shops and cozy restaurants -- as a
tinderbox ready to go up in smoke.
After a holiday-season fire at a downtown business in December, the second
in as many years, city officials are seeking increased fire safety standards
that would require more sprinklers and asking for more help burying power
lines to forestall a doomsday scenario.
A Dec. 18 fire at Chesapeake Trading Co. was the third serious fire along
the historic district's Main Street in less than a decade.
In that nightmarish vision, a fire -- much like those that damaged buildings
in the past two years and another that swept along Main Street in 1997 --
would be sparked by faulty electrical wiring, igniting an upper-floor of a
downtown business. Unimpeded by sprinklers, the flames would rip quickly
through dry old wood, then engulf the entire building.
Strong winds blowing off the Chesapeake Bay would fuel the fire as it
quickly spread to one building, then another, then to the businesses and
historic homes along a web of narrow streets with low-hanging utility wires
that impede firefighters.
"It's the downtown economy. It's the capital of the state. It's the Naval
Academy. It's the harbor," said Alderman David H. Cordle Sr. (R-Ward 5).
"There are potential catastrophic issues."
The fear that Annapolis could be the scene of a debilitating downtown fire
is fanning a furious debate about what needs to be done.
Cordle introduced legislation last month that would require all commercial
buildings in the city to install sprinklers with any change of use or during
major renovations, but that standard is already in place for the historic
district. The bill also would require sprinklers in new buildings and homes.
Alderman Julie Stankivic (I-Ward 6) would take it a step further with
legislation she is developing to make sprinklers mandatory in all commercial
businesses in the historic district. That legislation, she said, would be
tied to a wider initiative to upgrade water mains and other infrastructure
in that part of the city. Stankivic said she has reached out to business
owners through the Chamber of Commerce and hopes to include tax credits to
help them install the sprinklers.
"We can't afford to lose another building," she said.
A similar proposal was advanced after the 1997 fire that destroyed two
century-old buildings and took almost eight hours to extinguish. But many
business owners balked at the costs: Adding sprinklers to a single building
could cost $35,000 or more and require digging up the streets to upgrade
water lines, city officials estimate.
Larry Vincent, owner of Laurance Clothing at 232 Main St., said business
owners know that losing a historic building is "irreplaceable," and that
"with each little building we lose, we lose some of our marketing appeal."
Vincent said he has "done everything short of sprinkling to ensure the
safety of our property," but said he thinks the city should look for less
expensive sprinkler systems or help merchants pool together to get a cheaper
price from a contractor. The city has developed a loan program, but few
businesses have taken advantage of it.
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
Todd G. Williams, PE
Fire Protection Design/Consulting
Stonington, Connecticut
860-535-2080
www.fpdc.com
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
