[Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations

[Ann Pinzl]

This discussion is out of my normal realm, but  as for testing under fire
conditions . . .  I recall an AIC workshop I attended on Disaster Response
held at a  federal fire testing station, where we 'burned' a storage
facility and the fire put out & then we responded.  I don't know if that
facility would be available to assist in what you would like to test.

Ann

 

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
[mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Callomon,Paul
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2016 1:41 AM
To: John E Simmons; Sarah K. Huber
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu; Resnick, Joseph
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations

 

The various local regulations and codes that make up a sort of "unwritten
constitution" for alcohol collection fire management are based on a common
scenario: that all the fluid in the room is suddenly and uniformly
imperiled. A major fire adjacent to an alcohol room might indeed bring that
about, but once a collection is beyond a certain physical size this becomes
less likely. Any event that caused all the fluid in our wet collections at
the Academy to catch fire and run into the drains, for example, would most
likely also destroy the building.
One aspect of the matter that seems to get less attention and that I feel we
could usefully discuss here is the effect on the scenario of average
container size. I would guess that the larger the number of containers (and
thus the smaller the average container) the safer the collection is. There's
a huge difference between breaking a gallon jar and breaking a 6-dram vial,
both in terms of the volume of vapor released and the burn duration of the
contents. 
In addition, each container has its own thermal characteristics. If the room
gets hot, my guess (again) would be that jars with larger-diameter lids will
fail first as (a) their pressure-bearing flat surface is larger relative to
the height of the threads and (b) the vapor pressure is higher. Ranged
against this, however, is the fact that smaller jars will heat up more
quickly.
As Andy has suggested, these are matters that would most efficiently be
investigated by a series of tests using real containers and fluid, and
perhaps some of us at SPNHC could begin designing such tests and looking for
a suitably creditable firm or agency (such as Underwriters' Laboratories) to
stage and observe them.

 

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General
Invertebrates

  _____  

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170

 

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