Dear Forum members, I had a case of quick coupling failure in a 27 floors office tower.
The bolt holding the 3" coupling endured prolong corrosion (looks like several years, that consumed 90% of the bolt section area. There was no water dripping, just egress of a very small amount of water from the joint that was enough to cause the failure, but not enough to be detected "as a spreading wet stain on the ceiling elements. It is possible to raise the ceiling element and observe the corrosion on the coupling, but the maintenance contactors do not actually observe the piping above the suspended ceiling. Referring to NFPA 25, Items 5.2.2.3: Pipe and fittings installed in concealed spaces such as above suspended ceilings shall not require inspection. A.5.2.2.3 Examples include some floor/ceiling or roof/ceiling assemblies, areas under theater stages, pipe chases and other inaccessible areas. It is stated elsewhere in the standard and the responsibility of the owner is to afford accessibility. So, non-accessible areas cannot be inspected. However, if the interpretation of the standard calls for total exemption for inspection in areas above suspended spaces, it means that as far as I'm concerned the most hazardous spaces are inspection free. In this particular case, the water supply for the tower was completely out of action for 90 mins. The electrical supply was on. That means that the flooding water could have started a fire in any lower floor with catastrophic consequences. I would appreciate any response. Dan www.riskmanage.com M: +972 (052) 6611337 T: +972 (04) 8243337 F: +972 (04) 8243278 Mail: [email protected] _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
