Tom, You are right, a number of insurance carriers prefer to use FM Data Sheets, because a- now they are freely available, b- most of the employ ex-FM people who bring in their experiences and explain why they prefer FM Data Sheets c- they know FM actually did a lot of testing on current themes like flammable liquids, combustible insulation materials, and hanging garments to name a few.
Dave, the last point is the answer to your question: FM actually did some fire testing on hanging garments while I was working for them, and the NFPA densities were inadequate, and by testing they found much higher densities are required. Cheers Jack Kilavuz -----Original Message----- From: Tom [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, 7 January 2010 7:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Storage of Hanging Garments Dave, Reach out to the insurance carrier for the owner they may have adopted the FM Data Sheet. I work for an insurance carrier, not FM, and we have used the FM Data Sheet for several years. I know other carriers are doing the same in particular since the FM Data Sheets are now on line for free. As others have said I do not think NFPA 13 covers this type of storage. Tom --- On Wed, 1/6/10, David Bitton <[email protected]> wrote: From: David Bitton <[email protected]> Subject: Storage of Hanging Garments To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 1:45 PM Hello, I am developing the protection criteria for a warehouse for hanging garments on typical pipe racks and wondering about the huge discrepancy between the requirements of FM Data Sheet 8-18 and NFPA 13 (I found nothing in NFPA 13 that prevents me from treating this as a Class IV rack storage with 4 ft. aisles). As an example, for 12 ft. storage, one option in the FM Data Sheet is a density of 0.60 gpm/sq. ft. over 3,500 sq. ft. whereas for a Class IV Commodity, NFPA 13 calls for 0.31 gpm/sq. ft. over 3,000 sq. ft. using high temperature heads. Does anyone have any insights to explain the huge discrepancy between these requirements? David Bitton, Eng. Quest Loss Control Services Inc. Les services de prévention des sinistres Quest inc. 5100, rue de la Savane, Suite 200 Montréal, QC H4P 1T8 Tel.: (514) 341-4545 Fax: (514) 341-8228 www.questlosscontrol.com _______________________________________________ Sprinkler Forum 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)
