Step 1 - Do not send an overnight letter to the fire marshal. Step 2 - Do send an overnight letter to the building owner. Make it simple so you don't do any engineering or make any assumptions about who didn't do what when.
Dear mr/ms owner; on a recent visit i noted the required automatic sprinkler riser pressure is more than the available city pressure showing on your pressure gage. you should look into this matter by contacting your design engineer and/or sprinkler contractor. perhaps your pressure gage is in error, the system hydraulic data is incorrect, or there may be a problem with the water supply. if the pressure gage is accurate and the stated system pressure requirement is correct, your sprinkler system will not operate as it was designed. (My name is below, but use yours instead) Bill Brooks William N. Brooks, P.E. Brooks Fire Protection Engineering Inc. 372 Wilett Drive Severna Park, MD 21146 410-544-3620 Phone 410-544-3032 FAX 412-400-6528 Cell -------- Original Message -------- Subject: system review From: "Garth W. Warren" <[email protected]> Date: Fri, February 27, 2009 9:31 am To: <[email protected]> Question for the lettered members and others with experience and/or an opinion - I recently looked at the riser of a new system installed in my home town. The system requirement according to the hyd. calc. nameplate states 377.9...@75psi. The system gages read 60psi static. When I contacted the water superintendent he stated the installing contractor took the hydrant flow information used to design the system. He also stated that he head been asked to have the standpipe full and to have both Town pumps turned on before the hydrant was flowed. He continuede that it is standard procedure to have a water department employee respond to the water plant for every fire department discharge to turn on the pumps. He stated the standpipe is filled once weekly prior to weekends so that water employees do not have to work weekends then the standpipe is drawn down, filled during the week..... It appears the "best case scenario" was used in taking the hydrant flow making the system suffient only when the standpipe is filled and both pumps are in operation. I do not see anything in 13 which tells anyone how to determine the acceptability of hydrant flow data, however if the gauge states there is 15 pounds less static pressure than what is required residually for the system to operate - then there is a problem. Is there any requirement for engineers or others to apply acceptability standards to hydrant flow data or can the results purposely be slanted? It seems the system will operate properly Thursday 10am through Friday at 4pm....... The local AHJ states he accepted the opinion and acceptance of the engineer hired to review and accept the system. I do not know if this firm or individual has any training in fire protection systems, or if he has provided any such credentials to the AJH. This is in the State of NY. opinions? thoughts? code references? standard references? thanks in advance, Garth retired fitter _______________________________________________ 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) _______________________________________________ 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)
