[Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections

Thu May 10 20:22:42 EDT 2012

Hi Gali and all,

Yesterday we signed off on a new fire suppression system in our spirit store (see the attached PDF). The old system was a nitrogen charged, low pressure water mist/foam suppression setup - it was expensive to maintain and had several other problems. We now have a high pressure water mist suppression system, run by electrical pumps and hooked into our emergency generator backup. The advantages for us are that while the system was quite expensive initially the ongoing costs are minimal, it uses only water so there are no clean up issues and there are no potential OH&S problems like you'd have with oxygen depleting systems.

Our spirit house is a purpose built, stand alone building - rated fire doors/walls, underground containment tank (although not large enough to hold the entire fluid contents), high turnover aircon, ethanol vapour detection and ultraviolet flame detectors. Andy's advice is right on the money.

Cheers,
Gavin

Gavin Dally
Senior Collections Manager Natural Sciences

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
GPO Box 4646
Darwin NT 0801
Australia

phone 08 8999 8247

-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Brian Sidlauskas
Sent: Friday, 11 May 2012 7:02 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Sprinklers in wet collections

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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