Remember for this building they are coming with probably a few thousand gallons of water on board. If the pump starts there should be minimal to mop up with the on board water only. If the pump doesn't start, well at least they have some more water for the surround and drown operation. I think this isn't a big deal for fires in this building from the perspective if they use on board water and all 15,000 gallons something else has gone very wrong and the building is a total loss. Even if they come with only 500 gallons on board something ain't right if they use it all. Don't follow the red herring of life safety if the sprinklers don't work in the first few minutes there isn't much anyone can do with that issue.
What you should be concerned with is the building down the street that is not sprinklered. Or a car fire in the parking lot of this building. What happens when they use this water for that building? They will if they can. There's a can of worms. They have a certain tactical discretion immunity if they were to some how cause damage to your building while dealing with another problem. Even if that included no water left and a fire starts in your building. I'll admit it was done once on something I was involved with. I raised an objection but the owners rep who is very fire wise went along. I sleep well though, stats are on my side nothing will happen and it's recorded I disagreed. Chris Cahill, P.E. Fire Protection Engineer Sentry Fire Protection, Inc. 763-658-4483 763-658-4921 fax Email: [email protected] Mail: P.O. Box 69 Waverly, MN 55390 Location: 4439 Hwy 12 SW Waverly, MN 55390 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Todd Williams Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: draft line from suction tank. I am working on a project with a small pump and a buried suction tank. The design was based on sprinkler demand alone since there are no hydrant connections on the system. Now the local AHJ has come back and says he wants a draft line on the tank. The sprinkler system will take approximately 11000 gallons in the 15000 gallon tank. He claims he would only use it if the pump failed to start. Being this is a rural department in an area with no public water supply, I have a bit of a problem believing this. If I had to include a hose demand from a draft line on a tank, would the standard hose demand be practical? The building is all LH and the hose demands would be 100 gpm. Todd G. Williams, PE Fire Protection Design/Consulting Stonington, Connecticut www.fpdc.com 860.535.2080 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.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) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.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)
