Where firefighters come to talk training
Standpipe or Not?
We were recently going through a large senior residential occupancy. This occupancy has 7 wings and several different stairwells.
Not all of the stairwells have standpipes in them. Most were typical connections with a valve and 2 1/2 inch connection. As you can see in this picture, this one was not a typical seen in a stairwell.
At the left of riser you can see the standpipe connection. They basically put the sprinkler room in the stairwell.
If you weren’t familiar with this, a person might just start turning valves or just think that there is not a standpipe connection at all.
The point here is that not all standpipe connections are created the same. Nor are all sprinkler rooms in a closet.
Get to know your buildings and the systems that operate in them. You never know when you will need to use them.
Views: 2188
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Barry Harpur on
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looks like a SP/sprinkler combo. How many stories is the complex and whats the type of construction. I might not even go near this thing if I don't have to. Id rather trust the stretch!
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Permalink Reply by John Fischer on
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It would be nice if the plans review / Building and Zoning department would raise an eye brow at this to be on the same page with us, and say: "Hey, we should notify the fire department that they might wanna have their people come out and see this."
Somebody signed off on that inspection.
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Permalink Reply by Steven D. "Smitty" Smith on
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John,
What do you see wrong with the installation?
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Permalink Reply by Gary Strauss on
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This is a duel system, on the left is a normal stand pipe, on the right is a pre-action system.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Hoevelmann on
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The point here is that it is installed right, it is just not "typical." Not typical usually results in something not prepared for. We must get familiar with our buildings.
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Nothing at all Steve. As Jason said below, it's just not typical. What I can liken it to is a Home Depot that was built in our area a few years ago. The building inspector clued us into the fire protection system in the building that included a fire pump connected to a diesel engine that looked like it dwarfed the size of a tractor trailer engine. Connected that, a state of the art system that looked like you had to have a college degree in engineering to figure out how it all worked and was connected to what. I had never seen anything like it in any fire service text book, nor in any of the inspector classes I had ever taken. So, we appreciated the heads up from the building inspector, and the walk thru with the G/C. It's one thing to get out there and look at what's in your area, yet another thing to know what you're looking at. My ego wasn't that large where I couldn't admit that I didn't have a clue as to how that thing was set up, and fully appreciated the private lesson for our crews.
Steven D. "Smitty" Smith said:John,
What do you see wrong with the installation?
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Permalink Reply by Mike France on
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Looks like what is in our Industrial park [ old military depot] Valve Houses
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I see a couple of problems with how this is set up. The shutoff valve that controls the wet sprinkler system also shuts off the 2 1/2 hose valve. The hose valve should be fed from the supply side of the sprinkler shutoff so that it is available when the sprinkler system is shutoff. the photo doesn't show where the waterflow switch for the wet sprinkler system is located; operation of the hose valve may also cause the water flow switch to indicate that there is a water flow on that system. This could create confussion if the hose valve is used for a fire on an upper floor.
This installation does not meet NFPA Standards.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Froelich on
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very interesting picture to say the least.
Without seeing what is above the picture and knowing what the rest of the building looks like I can only guess.
It looks like they branched off at this location with what appears to be a dry system for a specific area in the building. I have never seen a standpipe system included with the sprinkler system - as mentioned by Gordon this is not an approved system.
This picture reinforces the theme of the CFI course I took many years ago - "no surprises for suppression". Always keep suppression crews informed of what you find on inspections. In our department, the suppression crews do 90% of the inspections, so that part is covered, as long as the info is passed between shifts.
I plan on using the cut and paste feature and post this as a training discussion drill - THANKS!
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