[Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections
Cahawks
cahawks at aol.com
Fri May 11 08:46:47 EDT 2012
Rob makes an excellent point. If you do not work closely with local fire protection specialists and have input from a fire protection engineer conversant with the pertinent codes, there is a real risk of making mistakes that are difficult and usually, expensive to rectify.
There is an excellent chapter on fire protection, including fire protection for fluid collections, in Health and Safety for Museum Professionals. You might want to look at your collection using the risk factors discussed in the chapter.
Cathy
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Waller <rw at protectheritage.com>
To: nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Sent: Thu, May 10, 2012 8:06 pm
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections
Hi Gali,
ou have received much good advice and by now you will see there are a number of
articular options that depend on local codes (and sometimes the even more local
nterpretation of codes). Codes in most developed countries have developed to
e both effective and usually cost effective. Cooperating fully with your local
ire code authority is not only the path of least resistance but likely the best
pproach for the preservation of your collection.
ob
Robert Waller, PhD, CAPC, FIIC
resident and Senior Risk Analyst
rotect Heritage Corp.
22 Simoneau Way
ttawa ON K4A 1P4
mail: rw at protectheritage.com
hone: 613-883-2707 (Canada)
hone: 303-872-9739 (USA)
kype: rrwaller
nd,
esearch Associate,
anadian Museum of Nature
----Original Message-----
rom: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu]
n Behalf Of Paul J. Morris
ent: May-10-12 3:16 PM
o: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
ubject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections
Unfortunately not quite that simple.
While ethanol as a polar solvent is miscible in water, an ethanol-water mix is
till flammable down to about 10% ethanol. With the amount of ethanol now
raveling by train and truck, large ethanol fires are currently a very active
opic for training and discussion in the fire service - and it is clear that
hey are harder to extinguish than gasoline fires. Pouring something less than
00 gallons of water on 55 gallons of ethanol might well spread the fire for you
ather than putting it out. A single sprinkler head might typically deliver
round 25 gallons per minute, so there is a good bit of potential for spreading
burning ethanol spill before it is diluted enough to be extinguished (thus
aised door thresholds and ramps might be a good idea, though they might
ncrease the risk of a spill or be more of a trip hazard than a benefit).
Sprinklers in a alcohol collection might still be quite effective at supressing
fire through their usual methods of breaking down the fire tetrahedron through
ater removing heat as it vaporises and the resulting large volume of steam
isplacing oxygen in the air.
Preventing fires is much better than extinguishing them, so the three pronged
pproach Andy describes makes good sense to me (noting that absolute ethanol's
lash point is closer to 55°F, so even lower temperatures might be advisable for
collection with substantial amounts of 95% ethanol, and noting that building
odes are also likely to call for electrical fixtures and devices rated for
xplosive atmospheres).
I don't know that either the collections community or the fire service has a
eally good understanding of what the tradeoffs are in fire protection for wet
ollections, so there is probably a funding opportunity in here for someone....
-Paul
On Thu, 10 May 2012 14:11:36 +0000
aul Callomon <callomon at ansp.org> wrote:
> As Andy points out, there's a major difference between a fire
involving ethanol and one fueled by, say, gasoline - ethanol is
diluted by water, not carried by it. You won't spread an alcohol fire
by spraying large amounts of water on it, you'll put it out.
PC.
Paul Callomon
Collections Manager in Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and
General Invertebrates The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel
University 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19103
callomon at ansp.org Tel. 215-405-5096 ansp.org Follow us:
Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/AcademyofNaturalSciences>
| Twitter<http://twitter.com/#!/AcadNatSci> Join us as we celebrate
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The Nature of Discovery. www.ansp.org<http://www.ansp.org>
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
[mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Bentley,
Andrew Charles Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 9:45 AM To: Gali Beiner;
nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet
collections
Hi Gali
I think the issue with water sprinklers spreading a fire are a little
overblown personally. Her at the University of Kansas, Biodiversity
Institute we had a new facility for our wet collections built in the
mid 90's and we went with a three pronged solution:
1. Lowered temperature - 65°F - below the flash point of 70%
ethanol which is 70°F
2. HVAC system that replaces air every two hours in the facility
to prevent vapor buildup, and
3. A sprinkler system and smoke detectors.
Personally I think the potential hazard to people of any gas
replacement system (CO2 or otherwise) and the additional cost (very
expensive initially and to maintain) far outweighs any potential issue
with a sprinkler system. 70% ethanol would be diluted so quickly that
it would have very little chance to spread dramatically within a
facility in the event of a fire.
Hope that helps
Andy
A : A : A :
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V V V
Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
USA
Tel: (785) 864-3863
Fax: (785) 864-5335
Email: abentley at ku.edu<mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu
: :
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From:
nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale
.edu> [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Gali
Beiner
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 1:06 AM To:
nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu> Subject:
[Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections
Dear Colleagues,
We are currently dealing with a proposal to install water sprinklers
in our wet collection storage facilities as part of the general fire
hazard measures. It will be very helpful to know what kind of
fire-extinguishing measures have been installed in other facilities
holding jars and containers with alcohol / formalin / other
preservative fluids. Were there any particular considerations your
institute took into accound, given that preservation fluids tend to be
so flammable?
Many thanks for your thoughts on this subject,
Gali Beiner (ACR)
Conservator, Palaeontology Lab
National Natural History Collections
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Berman Building, Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat Ram Jerusalem 91904,
Israel Fax. 972-2-6584741
galib at savion.huji.ac.il<mailto:galib at savion.huji.ac.il>
Look into our National Natural History Collections
<http://nnhc.huji.ac.il/default.asp?PageID=8> Website!
-
aul J. Morris
iodiversity Informatics Manager
arvard University Herbaria/Museum of Comparative Zoölogy mole at morris.net AA3SD
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