My only experience was a rural mint oil facility near Yakima, WA. They used the community pool as the fire water source (or used the need for fire water as a reason to install community pool).
I know that there are safeguards that MUST be put in place to prevent the potential of a swimmer being stuck against an intake - others have touched on some of those - but it is a real problem and there are documented cases of people being hurt in that manner (see Steve's post). Remember also that we need to protect against injury during annual testing, where the contractor may not be aware of the water source or the presence - or lack thereof - of such safeguards. As side note - the mint oil facility has a major water demand that would easily lead to harm of swimmers if precautions were not taken. Hopefully, this light hazard/residential facility has small enough demands to make safeguards that much easier. Mark A. Sornsin, P.E. | Karges-Faulconbridge, Inc. | Fire Protection Engineer | Fargo, ND | direct: 701.552.9905 | mobile: 701.371.5759 | http://www.kfiengineers.com -----Original Message----- From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of rongreenman . Sent: Monday, March 7, 2016 11:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Pool as Firewater Source So a residential facility? Or at worst light hazard? So you wouldn't have a huge GPM demand in either case. Or does12,000 gal translate to 120gpm for an hour? What I'm thinking is that a weir and a large supply side pipe could mitigate against a fast suction in the pool. Then pre-fill the system with fresh water if the treated water from the pool is a consideration for the piping. Shut down power to pool pumps when the fire pump kicks in. This does not sound like an unsolvable problem and I've seen high rise hotel pools of upper floors used as secondary fire water. On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Richard Mote <[email protected]> wrote: > This project is an existing building (church) in the middle of nowhere > being converted to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. Since > there is now going to be people living in the building, the AHJ is > requiring the facility be sprinklered. We have quoted both an > underground tank and above ground tank for the water supply. We only > need around 12,000 gallons for a water supply. The owner now is coming > back and saying "for the price of either tank arrangement I can put in > a therapy pool". The last one we did had signs all around the pool, > that when the alarm sounded they were to exit the pool immediately. We > would also make it clear in our proposal that if they convert to salt water > all warrantees are void. > > Richard L. Mote CET > Rowe Sprinkler Systems, Inc. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Sprinklerforum [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Joe > Sent: Monday, March 07, 2016 11:54 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Pool as Firewater Source > > Just something for an owner to think about: I saw one of these in a > huge resort in the middle of nowhere. All of the sprinkler lines had > issues in all of the buildings. > > Over time, the management and the engineering staff had changed > loosing knowledge of the systems. The chlorine pool became a salt > water pool and this cycle changed a few times. All of this did appear > to add to the sprinkler line issues. > > Replacement of all the sprinkler lines in a finished was a bit costly. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkl > er.org _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkl > er.org > -- Ron Greenman Instructor Fire Protection Engineering Technology Bates Technical College 1101 So. Yakima Ave. Tacoma, WA 98405 [email protected] http://www.bates.ctc.edu/fireprotection/ 253.680.7346 253.576.9700 (cell) Member: ASEE, SFPE, ASCET, NFPA, AFSA, NFSA, AFAA, NIBS, WSAFM, WFC, WFSC They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626) A problem well stated is a problem half solved. -Charles F. Kettering, inventor and engineer (1876-1958) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. 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