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Residential Fire Protection Sprinkler Systems

Dec24
usfaIt is the official position of the U.S. Fire Administration that all Americans should be protected against death, injury, and property loss resulting from fire in their residences. All homes should be equipped with smoke alarms and automatic fire sprinklers, and families should prepare and practice emergency escape plans.
U.S.F.A. – D.H.S.According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), fires in residences have taken a high toll of life and property. In 2007 there were:
  * 414,000 residential fires
  * 2,895 civilian fire deaths
  * 14,000 civilian fire injuries
  * $7.5 billion in property damage
Source: National Fire Protection Association Fire Loss in the U.S. 2007.

Residential Fire Protection Sprinkler Systems
You protect your family with fire alarms, but how about protecting your property, valuables and your home memories with a Residential Fire Protection Sprinkler system (RFPS)? It’s like having a fireman standing guard in your house 24 hours a day. While you’re waiting for your local Fire Fighters to arrive, your own home can already be fighting any fire and limiting the damage to your property. A properly installed RFPS system can potentially extinguish a fire before the Fire Department even arrives.

Why would you install fire sprinklers in your home? Because you want them safe.

If you live in a rural area, the dangers of major destruction from a home fire are greater. Most rural areas have limited water supply for homes and buildings that spread out over large areas. Additionally there maybe limited access to county fire hydrants for fire truck hook up. This requires fire fighters to bring larger fire tankers carrying enough water to supply their efforts to put out a fire in your home or residential buildings.

In a recent home fire of singer/actor Jimmy Dean in Richmond, Virginia, Firefighters drafted water through a large hose from the James River into tanker trucks. They then drove those tanker trucks all the way to the blaze, and pumped water into other fire engines. Emergency personnel could then pump that water through other hoses onto the fire. Continue reading →

How A Fire Sprinkler Works

Dec23

What is a Fire Sprinkler?
A fire sprinkler is one component of a fire sprinkler system. The sprinkler itself is commonly called a ‘sprinkler head’ or just the ‘sprinkler’. The sprinkler head is tied to a network of pipes that delivers a fire retardant onto a fire. Water is the most common type fire retardant used in commercial and residential systems. There are two primary types of sprinkler heads, Automatic fire sprinklers and Open head sprinklers.

How Does A Fire Sprinkler Work?
headAn Automatic fire sprinkler is held in a closed state by a glass bulb or a two-part metal link. These ‘links’ or ‘bulbs’ use pressure to hold a cap in place which acts as a plug in the system. These links are designed to break at a specified temperature. When heat from a fire rises to a set temperature, the metal link will melt or the glass bulb will break. This releases the cap and allows water to flow through the opening onto the deflector which sprays the water over the coverage area.

The glass bulb is usually filled with a fluid consisting of a non-toxic proprietary glycerin solution. The size of the air bubble within the glass tube determines the heat level needed to break the glass bulb and release the plug.

The color of the bulb helps identify the level of temperature needed to break the bulb and activate the sprinkler head. Continue reading →

Finding a Qualified Fire Protection Contractor

Dec22

How to be Safe and Not Get Burned
Commercial, industrial and multi-residential buildings all require fire prevention sprinkler systems. Recently there has been a push by fire marshals, fire fighters, and fire protection professionals to include residential homes in that requirement status as well. No matter where you are during the day, a fire protection system affects your life. Whither you’re at work, in a high-rise building, or you have kids in school, a fire protection system is resting overhead and hopefully will never be needed.

installFire sprinkler contractors are generally listed in the Yellow Pages under “Fire Sprinklers,” or “Sprinklers”. It is always better if you know someone who has recently installed sprinklers in their building and can refer you to a contractor. If you are starting from scratch, general caution is in order.

This article has been written to prepare a building owner or property manager with information necessary to evaluate fire prevention/protection contractors. By knowing a few basic questions you can ensure a fire protection contractor has the proper background, experience, qualifications and certifications for designing, installing, maintaining and inspecting a fire sprinkler system in your building.

One of the most critical decisions for a building owner or property manager is hiring a skilled, qualified and certified fire protection contractor. If the sprinkler system fails or does not adequately suppress a fire, the results can be devastating, from the loss of human life to a great financial impact. Continue reading →

Fire Protection Sprinkler Systems

Dec21

What is a fire sprinkler system?
sprinklerA fire sprinkler system is a method to limit the damage to life and property by fire. A sprinkler system does not prevent fire, but rather works to suppress a fire. Fire suppression isn’t fire prevention, it’s fire protection.

A fire system uses pressure and flow rate of water or approved designated chemicals through a pipe system to suppress a fire upon activation. At specified spaced intervals on these pipes, sprinklers (also called sprinkler heads, or just heads) are placed to disperse the fire-retardant. Water is the most common type of fire-retardant used in commercial and residential systems.

Contrary to the Hollywood depiction, most sprinkler systems do not use a single sprinkler head to set off an entire system. Most systems used today require a single head that activates independently and as needed. This method limits damage to property that is not affected by fire, and helps to maximize the available water pressure over the point of the fire’s origin. So you can’t just hold up a lighter to one sprinkler head and expect the entire system to activate. Continue reading →

The History of Fire Protection

Dec20

The History of Fire Protection/Suppression Systems

The History Of Fire Protection

Patented 1910

Patented 1910

A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply system, providing adequate pressure and flow rate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected.

The fire prevention system is a good deal order than you might think. In 1806 Englishman John Carey developed the idea of a heat-operated devise that would distribute water through a system of perforated pipes to extinguish a fire. It is generally accepted that the world’s first sprinkler system was installed in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the United Kingdom in 1812. The system was designed by Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet was covered in a patent dated the same year. The system consisted of a cylindrical airtight reservoir of water, fed by a 10 inch water main which branched to all parts of the theater. A series of smaller pipes feed from the distribution pipe were pierced with a series of 1/2 inches holes that poured water onto the fire.

By 1852, yes that’s before the Civil War, perforated pipe systems were commonly used in various industry buildings for fire protection in the United States. These early systems relied on manual interaction and did not automatically turn on when a fire was detected. It wasn’t the best system, but it was better than nothing. Continue reading →