[Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations

Wed Jun 22 12:34:02 EDT 2016

I have heard that standard refrigerators and freezers generate sparks and
are not safe for storing flammable materials.  Manufacturers do make
flammable-safe freezers.  Here is an excerpt from a UC Berkeley document
that is available online if you search on "flammable safe freezers" (as are
a lot of sites selling them).  I didn't realize that it's not possible to
get ultracool freezers this way??? Worth further investigation.

"It is unsafe to store flammable liquids in domestic refrigerators or
freezers. Explosions,
injuries, and costly laboratory fires have resulted from this dangerous
practice. . . . Flammable material refrigerators and freezers are designed
to prevent ignition of
flammable vapors inside the storage compartment and should be purchased
whenever
a refrigerator is needed to store flammable liquid. . . .The refrigerators
must be U.L. Listed as Flammable Material Storage Refrigerators. Ultra low
freezers (less than -40˚F) generally cannot be approved for storage of
flammable materials."

This could obviously be a problem for a lot of genetic samples!

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 12:01 PM, <nhcoll-l-request at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

>
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 18:17:52 +0000
> From: "Sarah K. Huber" <skhuber at vims.edu>
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations
> To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> Message-ID:
>         <7CE771B434EF9746B5E88386824839645F20ACEE at mboxes2.campus.vims.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> 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 | www.vims.edu
> PO Box 1346 | 1375 Greate Rd., Gloucester Pt., VA 23062
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:40:23 +0000
> From: "Gegick, Patricia, DCA" <patricia.gegick at state.nm.us>
> Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Fire Marshall Regulations
> To: "Sarah K. Huber" <skhuber at vims.edu>, "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu"
>         <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> Message-ID: <3380be6bdba8428e831d6fac4543b9a1 at MBXCAS002.nmes.lcl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> 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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