Interesting story - I have recently had 'discussions' with a consultant who has undertaken a 'fire engineering study' for an education dept in England which concluded that sprinklers were not needed in a new school (despite a presumption issued by the Government Department responsible for schools which states that all new schools should be sprinklered).
******************* Does not the demand for sprinkler depend on what the need for the sprinklers are? Most forum members want a fire reduced society, and full employment. But is it really cost effective to require sprinklers in all occupancies? For instance, in Type I and Type II schools? It depends on what the need is. Is the need to maintain life safety and egress of occupants in a Type I or II school? If that is the need, then sprinklers need not be part of the plan, probably. Is the need for sprinklers to help justify man-down policies at fire departments? Touchy, but one that needs to be faced front forward. Is the need for sprinklers to prevent business interruption? An arguably justifiable need. But to just say, they need sprinklers, is selfish of our industry, without us stating what the sprinklers provide. In a few cases, not much, or more importantly, not what is needed. Frankly, I believe if we simply put sprinklers and a slightly more-than-prescribed number of exits in the design, we would not need me, FPE's expertise or their fees on 85% of our building inventory. That is not being greedy or dumb or lazy, that is being good to society and efficient at cutting excess fat out of the job... something every worker should try to do. scot deal excelsior fire engineering _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
