I have had fire code officials request removal of sprinklers or to disable sprinklers in electrical rooms in the past.
But I digress. The old FMDS 2-8N used to call for sprinklers in electrical rooms with the same allowed omission text as NFPA 13. I’d get mixed responses out of various FM reps as far as whether to provide sprinklers or not. Look at FMDS 5-19, Oct 2014 Section 2.2 for protection in rooms with Switchgear Look at FMDS 5-17, Apr. 2014 Section 2.2 for protection in rooms with Motor Drives. These are the typical uses for electrical gear rooms, MCC and Switchgear. Now if all they have is some breaker panels in a closet, that’s not the same thing as an “electrical room”. Plus they have to comply with all the other NFPA 13 and IBC/IFC construction and alarm requirements. Also, fire department access can play a factor into whether it’s acceptable to leave a room unprotected. Owners tend to forget that an unprotected room will have more destruction than a protected room and even though you may be providing fire rated separations, when that equipment is a total loss, you are out of business. When a room is located in an area not easily accessible from the exterior, it may take more time for the FD to setup and access the area and commence their attack. Time is not something that can be wasted. Craig L. Prahl Fire Protection Group Lead/SME CH2M 200 Verdae Blvd. Greenville, SC 29607 Direct - 864.920.7540 Fax - 864.920.7129 CH2MHILL Extension 77540 [email protected] From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Normand Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 11:26 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: FM Global Electrical Room Fire Protection [EXTERNAL] My experience with this has always been - the Fire Department wants to have sprinklers and the electric utility doesn't want the sprinklers. They can fight it out but usually the utility wins. Only applies to dedicated electrical rooms/transformer rooms for high rises and such. On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Reed A. Roisum, SET <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: We have consulted the code authority in which I was able to reference the IFC and NFPA 13 standards. We are also going to work with the FM Global Rep but I wanted to have references to the FM Data Sheets if there were any. Reed A. Roisum, SET | Karges-Faulconbridge, Inc. | Senior Fire Protection Designer | Fargo, ND | direct: 701.552.9903 | mobile: 701.388.1352 | KFIengineers.com<http://www.kfiengineers.com> From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Ed Vining Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2017 6:49 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: FM Global Electrical Room Fire Protection This is one which should include decisions by the FM representative and the code authority On Sat, Apr 22, 2017 at 9:23 AM, Reed A. Roisum, SET <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: The owner on a project is wondering if they can avoid installing fire sprinklers in the electrical rooms. I gave them the IFC and NFPA 13 references that allow not sprinklering certain spaces. This is an FM Global insured property and I looked through the Data Sheets but couldn’t find any references to allowing removal of sprinkler protection in electrical rooms. Anyone know if FM addresses this or can you point me to which Data Sheet might speak to it? I’m not looking for a discussion on whether we should be sprinklering these spaces or not, but just if FM has any references to the topic. Thank you. Reed Roisum Reed A. Roisum, SET | Karges-Faulconbridge, Inc. | Senior Fire Protection Designer | Fargo, ND | direct: 701.552.9903<tel:(701)%20552-9903> | mobile: 701.388.1352<tel:(701)%20388-1352> | KFIengineers.com<http://www.kfiengineers.com> ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org -- Ed Vining 4819 John Muir Rd Martinez CA 94553 925-228-8792 Cell 925-787-0465 ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
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