It is realized that warehouses generally are passively safe to workers
because of their relatively long smoke filling times.
But, fires in pallets, and even more extreme, plastic pallets, will
accelerate EXTREMELY fast.
FAST. LIKE. 60 to 180. SECONDS. FAST to top of storage after established
burning.
And because they are self-shielding, they are hard to extinguish...unless
they are thermoplastic, in which case these pallets melt and drip on and
burn other commodities.
Probably able-bodied workers could get out of the warehouse if a fire
occurred in these pallets, but that is a very rough guess, not knowing the
area intended for storage.
Workers with a late evacuation start, or located up on a mezzanine or floor
above grade, might have to double-time it, to get out.
-----
Having said that
1. How much area are we talking about? If it is one door fitted for one
container truck / lorry with area < 200 sq. ft, then this is not SO bad,
but still consider the following below.
If this area is bigger than 200 sq. ft (Section 1.0, pp.5 line 5),
then read FM DS 8-9 carefully.
2. It appears your pallets are plastic, though you did not mention this
key fact, if indeed they are.
FM DS 8-24 (Idle Pallet Protection) :Jan 2015, Section 2.2.2.1
requires sprinkler protection per uncatroned, unexpanded plastic if
pallets are plastic and not FM approved.
It requires protection per DS 8-9
3. If these pallets are not on "typical racks" which provide vertical
stanchions at regular intervals, what is to prevent the tight packing and
elimination of flue spaces.
If there is no way to insure flue spaces, then design as if
solid-piled storage..
4. Freeboard, or limiting the storage height substantially below the
ceiling, is NOT A DESIGN OPTION for FM guidelines. Mr. Fire does not
listen to promises by owners.
Too many instances where storage went UP TO THE CEILING. So, FM
designs as if storage were up to a level 3 ft below the sprinklers.
5. Do not interpolate on storage height. Go to next higher increment.
If it were my client, I would recommend painting a 1-yard/ 1-meter high
horizontal RED stripe on the wall indicating maximum storage height allowed
by sprinkler design. The top of this
RED stripe would be 1 yard/ 1 meter below the sprinkler deflectors.
Scot Deal
Excelsior Risk & Fire
gms: +420 606 872 129 (GMT +1)
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 9:19 PM James Crawford <[email protected]>
wrote:
> We are working on a project where the tenant wants to store pallets above
> the overhead loading doors to a height of 6’-0” in the loading dock area..
>
>
>
> The project will be using Factory Mutual data sheets, so I went to DS8-24
> Idle Pallet Storage and because they are on racks it send me to DS8-9 and
> 8-9 tells me to use rack storage for Un-cartoned, un-expanded Group “A”
> plastics Table 10.
>
>
>
> Based on the height of the building (40’-0”) I would need ESFR K25
> operating at 60psi to protect 6’-0” of wooden pallets, this seems a little
> excessive.
>
>
>
> So if we add a level of in-racks sprinkler heads and use Table 13 we would
> have 5’ to 10’ storage above the sprinkler and 10’ to 20’ clearance above
> the top of the pallets. So this tells me to use the 15’ storage from Table
> 10 or ESFR K25 @ 25psi plus 1 level of in-racks. Still seems a little
> excessive.
>
>
>
> Am I reading this right?
>
>
>
>
>
> Thank you
>
>
>
>
>
> James Crawford
>
> Phaser Fire Protection Ltd.
>
> Phone 604-888-0318
>
> Fax 604-888-4732
>
> Cel 604-790-0938
>
> Email [email protected]
>
> Web www.phaserfire.ca
>
> org
> <http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org>
>
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