What could be better than starting your morning with an in-person greeting from Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland? It must have had some effect on the Fire Protection Devices Committee because we covered a lot of subjects, but only briefly.

SPRINKLERS IN ELEVATOR SHAFTS

Last month, I reported that new regulations would require that power to an elevator be shutdown prior to activation of sprinkler protection in the elevator shaft. There will be no opportunity to override the controls, and the purpose is to protect fire fighters. This issue may become a moot point, as Ed Saiz and Scott McMillan reported that their fire fighters only use the elevator for medical emergencies. If your city has a different policy, we would like to hear about it.

PREACTION VALVE SIZE

Terri Leyton reported that the smallest preaction valve manufactured is 4-inch. She stated there is such a limited demand for smaller sizes that it is unlikely new equipment will be designed and manufactured.

SPRINKLER CLASSES

Steve Hart, responding to a question from Scott, informed that the Hayward labor union group regularly schedules classes covering fire sprinklers.

TITLE 19 VS NFPA 25

Cal Lewis asked what the status is for combining NFPA 25 and Title 19. There are several items that conflict. Someone said Jim Feld made a comparison. If so, I will try to get a copy and include it in next month's minutes.

PULL STATION FOR SPRINKLER WATER FLOW SYSTEMS

Ed questioned the usefulness of the manual pull for sprinkler water flow systems required by NFPA 72 3-8.1.2, 1996 Edition. Typically, when a system is down, it is down! Any signal sent to a central station will probably be ignored. The code formally required a manual pull for automatic fire alarm systems (See NFPA 725-9.1.2, 1993 Edition), but it appears this requirement was dropped from revised Section 5-8.1.2 for the 1996 Edition. Ed may contact Hugh Council to discuss a California amendment.

CSPC'S NEW SURVEY

Terry asked whether we would support a joint letter from NorCal and SoCal to the Consumer Safety Products Commission concerning the information they are requesting in their Fire Sprinkler Systems Project. Information about this new project was presented at the June NorCal meeting. The survey does not address such things as reduced water pressure for systems that may have been installed a few years ago or storage protected by improper densities. We will gladly to assist in preparing this letter.

HIGH RISE EVACUATION SIGNAL

Terry asked if we would support a possible code change suggested by a person in SoCal. The change would eliminate voice announcements and return to audible signals. The concern is that people stop evacuating to listen to the voice message. Scott believes more persons take action because of the voice announcement. There was no significant interest in this proposal.

"ZERO-BASED" SPRINKLER ORDINANCES

Ed is requesting background information from fire departments that have ordinances that require sprinkler protection for 5 or more apartment units with interior corridors. The Daly City ordinance addresses apartment buildings that are 3 or more stories. Recently, they had 2 fire deaths in a small apartment unit. This led to a discussion of two fires where sprinklers protected the corridor: The 1958 Chicago school fire and the "Dorothy Mae" fire in Los Angels in the early sixties. Apparently, sprinklers protected the corridor, but steam from the water on the fire hurt the school children. In the other fire, 10-15 persons died suggesting corridor sprinkler protection did not help. (Please contact me if you have information about these fires.)

JUSTIFICATION FOR 6000 SQUARE FOOT SPRINKLER ORDINANCE

Scott finally let us all know how most of us wound up with sprinkler ordinances that start with 6000 square feet construction. (I thought it was a number pulled out of a hat by our former assistant fire marshal, Curt Hambrick.) San Jose's ordinance is actually based on 6200 sq. ft. from Table A-III-A-1 of the California Fire Code. Here you can see a Type VN building, sized between 4801 and 6200 sq. ft., requires 2000 gpm, and that is considered the flow available from a single hydrant. Any building that is larger would require more equipment and response time.

SAFETY PROCEDURES FOR SCHOOLS

Bill Green mentioned he was asked to review some revised procedures for school safety that included reports of bombs and guns. The procedures follow the shooting deaths of students in Colorado. One procedure called for using the pull station to activate the alarm system. Bill pointed out that they could not use the fire alarm system for this purpose, and besides, it could send the students out into the line of fire.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER NO LONGER SOLD

Steve Hart informed us that the Office of the State Fire Marshal directed Home Depot to remove Kiddie fire extinguishers that were not UL listed. They had a European rating of 8A:70B, which sounds pretty good, but is equivalent to a 1A:5B (no C) rating under our system.

VOLTAGE DROP CALCULATIONS

This was not discussed at our meeting, but Jim Feld is trying to arrange a meeting with persons from NFPA, UL, fire departments, fire alarm manufacturers, and fire alarm contractors, to clarify requirements for voltage drop calculations. Several years ago, we attempted to standardize an acceptable voltage drop and how it would be calculated. We could not agree, but now the issue has come up again, partly due to open communication on the Internet. We will have better results if we have the support of NorCal, and I will be contacting board members. Anyone wishing to see the well-defined proposal can send me his or her E-mail address, and I will forward this information to you.