Politically and ultimately, the answer depends upon your reviewer.
I have met some government reviewers
(not in San Diego, though) whose secondary mission of getting out of
their office interferes with the primary work mission, which is protecting
assets.
Performance-wise, the problem is not how much water you put on this fire,
it is simply getting water there early enough to save anything. Sure, you
will need more than OH-2, but do you think there will be much of any
parachutes remaining by the time the first sprinkler at 77 ft AFF
activates? I don't think so.
I think your best option is to:
1. take stock of mission strategics. Is there enough redundant
inventory for the client to achieve their mission if you lose
an entire tower of inventory. If there is enough back up
inventory, then even if there is one fire, then they still
can achieve the mission.
2. compartmentalize the hanging tower with a hanging, noncombustible
curtain, or drywall wall... so that if a fire occurs in one part of
the
tower, the inventory in the other area
is still safe.
Consider using the performance-based plea/option that is allowable in the
UFC 3-600-01 and apply to the AHJ's sense of logic, and maximum
foreseeable loss. If that AHJ just wants to prioritize " doing
the minimum...", which more than a few working in government do
(not talking about you, Rahe), then your assets are covered by writing
your
letter to explain the possible outcomes of ' designing to the
prescriptive
code instead of designing to the realities of the fire'.
If the AHJ is interested in really contolling fire losses, perhaps a good
system that is reasonably priced and very fast acting is a VESDA smoke
detection system.
I would try to insert VESDA detectors low in the tower so as to avoid
the dwell time from smoke rising 77 ft during any smoldering phase.
If you interlock the VESDA to a ( gulp)... deluge valve, you will have
fast
response for valve opening....but I would put the valve high in the
tower (in an easily
accessible and facilitative place to conduct testing and repairs [ like
the roof]),
to remove water-fill time. If the VESDA false-trips (which they
rarely do, but if it does), the parachutes are going to be Halloween
ready, with
orange rust stains and black oil goo coloring).
Oooorah Airborne!
Scot Deal
Excelsior Fire
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