[Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations

[Gegick, Patricia, DCA]

Sarah,
You will  get many answers to this request, I'm sure.  Our fire marshal requires that we keep all of our fluid specimens in the yellow flammable cabinets that were made for storing flammable liquids, not museum collections.  There are no cross bars to prevent the jars from falling off the shelves, the shelving adjustment is minimal and some of the ones ordered by a non-collections purchaser have self-closing doors, which are dangerous and more than a pain in the neck, in my opinion.  Previously, we used metal shelving in metal cabinets specifically designed for fluid specimen storage (which 25 years ago was fine with the fire marshal), but when we moved into the new building, the new fire marshal said that those cabinets were not "flame proof" and we couldn't occupy our building until we obtained the yellow cabinets.  If you plan renovations, be sure that that the fire marshal and your architect are on the same page, i.e., interpret the code the same way with respect to what type of storage facility you are.  This affects all of the issues like wall types, sprinkler density, drains, hood type, etc.  Good luck to you.
Patti

Patricia J. Gegick
Bioscience Collections Specialist
Department of Collections and Research
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
1801 Mountain Road, NW
Albuquerque, NM  87104-1375
Phone:  505.841.2867  Fax: 505.841.2808
email:  patricia.gegick at state.nm.us<mailto:patricia.gegick at state.nm.us>
"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."  Mark Twain

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sarah K. Huber
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 12:18 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations


I might be opening a can of worms here, but I would be interested in hearing what regulations your local fire marshall has put into place regarding your wet collections (I am interested only in collections that store fluid preserved specimens in ethanol or isopropyl, including -80 freezers with tissues in ethanol). Everything from fire suppression systems to allowable jar sizes (jars no bigger or smaller than X). While we have not had any issues with our fire marshall, I would like to know what I might be up against in case we ever have problems in the future. We are also trying to plan for future renovation of our space, so having an idea of what might be required by a fire marshall for a facility such as ours would be helpful.



Sarah K. Huber, Ph.D.
Curatorial Associate, VIMS Nunnally Ichthyology Collection
Office 804.684.7104 | Collection 804.684.7285
skhuber at vims.edu<mailto:skhuber at vims.edu> | www.vims.edu<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.vims.edu&d=CwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=n8gxwVME7doSaIyZccvPGucwIwxIP_mLm1IFg9YND4k&s=A66qs26XZz_U4G_LavMO-wjDelsp0-2XKduWiOBQxfY&e= >
PO Box 1346 | 1375 Greate Rd., Gloucester Pt., VA 23062
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