I had a similiar experience some years ago when I worked for a major earthmoving equipment manufac- turer. A 10 inch fire main ran underground and tied the north and south fire main sections together. In-stead of relocating the existing main, which was installed in 1947, around the new (1977) addition that was to be added, they simply left the old main in place and extended the north and south 10 inch mains to the east and added sprinkler risers for the new work. We tried to get the old main rerouted from under the structure and have it relocated to the exterior, but all of our talking and reasoning fell on deaf ears (due to costs)......until 1990.
In 1990, the existing underground fatigued and blew holes in the manufacturing floor, resulting in the flooding of a huge area of production floor space that far exceeded the $1 million per day figure. To top it off, the floors had just been cleaned, new floor block installed, and freshly painted and lined. When it was noticed how much property damage and loss of production had occurred, they now came to me and it was then I had their attention. It cost the facility $80,000 to correct the problem, but they were happy to pay it to eliminate the problem. Just another example of giving advice based on ex-perience, and trying to watch out for the best interests of the company, but the almighty dollar pevailed. My 2 cents. Loren Johnson - CFPS, CET Fire Protection System Consultant The Hitchcock Company Peoria, IL --- "Scott A. Futrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was present when a 10" main running below a > building where manufacturing was more than $1Million > per day broke. The break, under the loading dock, > turned out to be 18 feet deep and backhoes that > could reach that deep could not get into the loading > dock because the doors weren't big enough. You > don't have to know much more to know this was a very > expensive problem because the manufacturing > operation could not run without fire protection! > > Scott > > (763) 425-1001 Office > (612) 759-5556 Cell > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Joe Burtell > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 10:40 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: FW: Fire Mains > > Here is a good example why we don't run fire supply > mains under building > slabs. NFPA has prohibited this for years but I > still Architects and > Engineers design underground fire supply mains under > the slab to interior > mechanical rooms. Fire sprinkler risers should > always be installed at > exterior walls to prevent what just happened at Sky > View High School. Please > pass this along to anyone in your firm who specifics > location of fire supply > mains. > > NFPA 13 2002 > 10.6 Protection Against Damage > 10.6.1 Pipe shall not be run under buildings. > Piping located under buildings is extremely > difficult to repair, which is > one of the reasons that > 10.6.1 prohibits the installation of pipe under > buildings. When buildings > are built over exist- > ing underground piping, the piping should be > rerouted around the new > building. When piping > buildings requires repair, operations in the > building must be curtailed, > equipment may > need to be moved, and the floor must be excavated. > Leaks in the buried > piping underneath the > building can go undetected for long periods, and > they can also undermine the > building support. > The location of system valves in the center of a > building also places the > system controls > in the center of the building, which may not be > desirable during a fire > event. > > http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/11/news/local/25-skyview_g.t > xt > > > > > Joe Burtell, SET, CFPS > Burtell Fire Protection, Inc. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.burtellfire.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > ____________________________________________________________________________________ It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/ _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
