[Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections

Sun May 13 03:33:37 EDT 2012

Dear all, 

First, I'd like to thank all the people who responded to my original query: Dirk, Nigel, Andy Bentley, Deb, Paul Calomon, Charles, Andrew Stewart, Brian, Paul Morris, Rob, Colin, Gavin, Cathy - I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, please pardon me if I have - Your input is highly valued! 

I'm also adding that our academic curator of invertebrates, Dr. Chipman, is presenting the situation very correctly. As it is, I believe in the saying "knowledge is power" - we need to understand our options and, above all, to understand the levels of risk. I was very interested in Paul J. Morris' comments regarding the difficulties posed by large ethanol fires and the information possibly gained from issues concerning solvent transport. That could be a good issue to raise with local fire-fighting authorities. Other than that, the various fire prevention systems installed in different collections present a very insteresting mosaic of current approaches, from sprinklers to foams, and including different combinations of inert gas systems along with lowered temperatures and physical fire barriers. 

In all, I found the discussion fascinating. Thank you again, all writers and participants! 

Gali    

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

Look into our National Natural History Collections Website!
________________________________________
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Ariel Chipman [chipman at cc.huji.ac.il]
Sent: 13 May 2012 08:50
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections

Hello,

Many thanks to all those who have commented on this issue. A few points to clarify Gali's question and focus in a bit. I am one of the academic curators in the Jerusalem collection where Gali is conservator. Our collection is a fairly old university collection, and is house in a regular room in a regular building, with no special measures for fire protection. The health and safety department of our university are extremely unhappy about the very existence of such large amounts of ethanol in an enclosed space. Joint pressure by the H&D department and our director finally convinced the university to allocate funds for fire control, which involves installing sprinklers in the spirit collections, as a first step. However, our fear is that this decision was taken without sufficient thought about the pros and cons of such a system. There have been some concerns voiced about the wisdom of such a system, as there are fears - also raised by some people here on the list - that sprinklers will spread the fire rather than extinguish it.

What we mostly wanted is to hear what other people have done, so that we have some information to present to the H&D department. I suspect that there are no specific fire regulations about alcohol storage of this kind in Israel (but this is something we will have to check), so any official guidelines from other places are greatly appreciated. Given our situation and limited budget, we will clearly not be able to set up an optimal fire protection system. The main question is whether sprinklers will actually cause more damage than help, and I see that opinion on this is split among the people who replied. My personal preference would be to push towards a prevention system (improved air circulation and lowered temperature), but I don't feel that I know enough to promote this preference.

Al the best,

Ariel

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Dr. Ariel Chipman
Senior Lecturer
Academic Curator of Aquatic Invertebrates
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Givat Ram Campus
Jerusalem 91904
Israel

Office phone: ++972-2-6585816
Lab telefax:    ++972-2-6585809
ariel.chipman at huji.ac.il

On 11 May 2012, at 21:24, Brian Sidlauskas wrote:

> Dirk,
>
> Fascinating information on the Brussels collection. That does sounds
> fairly similar to the system that we just installed at Oregon, and it
> seems to be a shame to be replacing it just for the sake of replacing it.
>
> With respect to the electrical issue, I should mention that all the
> lighting in the OSU collection is spark and explosionproof, and there
> are no electrical outlets or lightswitches in the room.  The lighting
> controls are outside the collection in the hallway.  The compact
> shelving system is fully manual.
>
> Thanks for sharing!
>
> -- Brian
>
> On 5/11/12 12:50 AM, Dirk Neumann wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Brian's comments are very interesting - and basically describes a
>> system, installed in the Brussels collection in the early 1920! The
>> amazing about this system is, that it was originally designed to work
>> completely without any electric devices (and electronic sensors, of
>> course), allowing the system still to operate in case of power failure.
>>
>> The alcohol collections are subdivided in low chambers (approx. 2.20m),
>> branching from a central corridor to the left and right. Each of the
>> small chambers (approx. 3 qm) are guarded with firedoors, which are
>> triggered with a thin fuse wire. Once triggered, strong springs close
>> the firedoors and trap a potential fire inside the respective chamber
>> and cut the room from air circulation (supplied via the central
>> corridor) simultaneously. The fully brazen (!) shelves&  perforated
>> boards will withstand the heat from emerging fire without collapsing
>> (breaking even more glasses fueling the fire). Burning ethanol dropping
>> from the shelves escapes via a well designed canal system inside each
>> chamber, additional grooves on both sides of the firedoors&  canals in
>> the central corridor prevent any (burning) ethanol from spreading via
>> the central corridor. Each corridor has an emergency exit at its end
>> (the collection is a very scenic 20 or something story building above
>> ground), allowing trapped staff to escape&  climb down at the inside of
>> the front of the building.
>>
>> However, new fire safety regulations (assuming that all glasses will
>> burst at once in case of fire) will replace theis ancient concept from
>> the early 20ies of the last century because they are ... outdated. Not
>> to mention that all electric installations inside the fluid collections
>> are originally designed to be explosion safe ... surely outdated, too ...
>>
>> Think many museums would be happy if they would have such an elaborated
>> and well designed system.
>>
>> Dirk
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Am 10.05.2012 23:32, schrieb Brian Sidlauskas:
>>> Hello Gail, Andy and others,
>>>
>>> Very interesting discussion.   With the cooperation of the local fire
>>> marshal, Oregon State University just moved our ichthyology collection
>>> to a new facility that seems to be closely in line with Andy's
>>> suggestions.  Our sprinklers are also water-based, and the room has its
>>> own HVAC system that replaces the air every two hours.  This system is
>>> controlled separately from the HVAC in the rest of the building.  The
>>> metal shelving in the compact shelving units is perforated.
>>>
>>> Other features of the room include two-hour firedoors and firewalls,
>>> placement on an external wall of the building (can be broken down by the
>>> fire department to gain access in an emergency), and the construction of
>>> a large reservoir under the building that can accommodate the entire
>>> fluid volume of the collection, plus two hours of sprinkler output.
>>> This last has perhaps more to do with earthquake safety than fire
>>> safety, and was designed to handle the unhappy incidence of every jar
>>> and tank breaking simultaneously.  Perish the thought.
>>>
>>> I hope that this helps.
>>>
>>> -- Brian
>>>
>>> On 5/10/12 6:45 AM, Bentley, Andrew Charles wrote:
>>>> 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  :
>>>>   }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
>>>>      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
>>>>
>>>>                             :                 :
>>>>      A  :             A  :             A  :
>>>>   }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
>>>>      V                V                V
>>>>
>>>> *From:*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
>>>> *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!
>>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> ***************************************
>
> Brian Sidlauskas
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
> 104 Nash Hall
> Oregon State University
> Corvallis, OR 97331-3803
>
> Voice: 541-737-1939
> Fax: 541-737-3590
> Email: brian.sidlauskas at oregonstate.edu
> Web: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~sidlausb/
>
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