Robert Evans, Stockton Fire           Fred Benn, Advanced Automatic Sprinkler
Bruce Lecair, Woodland Fire          Linda Brandelius, Roseville Fire
Ed Saiz, Esq., Daly City Fire           Rebecca Lauricella, Hillsborough Fire
Larry Larson, NFSA                        Darrel Harguth, FEMA
Lynn Trickle, Napa Fire                   Ben Lehr, Sacramento Valley Alarm
Bill Sallee, System Sensor              Greg Hoeger, City of Sacramento Fire
Ed Tolentino, San Jose Fire            Mark Hollan, Fairfield Fire
Luis DaSilva, San Jose Fire            Elaine Clark, City of Sacramento/Building
Bruce Becker, Redding Fire           James DiGrazia, US Consumer Product
Steven Prisk, EMS                           David Downing, Millbrae Fire
David Secoda, Bay Alarm Co.        Todd Larson, Geo. M. Robinson
Steve Hart, NASIP                           Will Weber, City of Vacaville
Joel Brick, City of Vacaville             Kimberly Korff, City of Vacaville
John Gililan, CAFAA                        Tom Bednar, Lund-Pearson-McLaughlin
Shane Clary, Bay Alarm Co., Inc.

We discussed a variety of issues during our meeting at Anheuser-Busch Brewery, located in Fairfield.

ELECTRICAL BOXES

Electrical boxes required by NFPA 70 300-15 (or the California Electrical Code) do not apply to systems under 30-volts. Shane Clary, Bay Alarm Company, however, indicated his company makes a practice of using these boxes for connecting smoke detectors and visible appliances.

BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL CODE

We were asked, and discovered that the requirement for a fire alarm company to have a C-10 license and a sprinkler contractor to have a C-16 license comes from the Business and Professional Code. More information is available on their web site at www.cslb.ca.gov.

MAKING PLANS AVAILABLE

We discussed the requirements that restrict giving plans out to other contractors for modifications to a system or for tenant improvement work. Linda Brandelius, Roseville, provided a copy of the language from the Health and Safety Code Section 19851, which states that an official copy of plans must be maintained by the building department and made available for inspection on the premises of the building department as a public record. Copies cannot be duplicated without written permission of the building owner, and a number of exceptions followed, too many for these minutes. Please send a fax request to (209) 937-7087, if you wish to have the full text. We are aware that a number of departments freely loan out sprinkler or fire alarm plans for remodels in order to ease the burden of work for everyone.

We also discussed licensing requirements. As a reminder, a California registered, licensed Mechanical, Civil, or Fire Protection Engineer can design a sprinkler system for any licensed C-16 contractor. A C-16 contractor may not design for another C-16 contractor. I believe the same holds true for C-10 contractors, except fire alarm design would be permitted for California registered Electrical and Fire Protection Engineers.

MID-MONTH MEETING

A mid-month meeting is planned for May. We will announce the day and location at the next meeting and on the Internet minutes for April. The purpose of the meeting is to develop a budget, brief the new co-chairs on the past years objectives, and to identify 2 to 3 objectives for the remainder of the year.

ELEVATOR ISSUES

One of our objectives for this year is to resolve this matter. Robert Evans reported that one State Elevator Unit inspector required both smoke and heat detectors at the top of the shaft of elevators equipped with sprinkler protection and also smoke, and heat detectors in the machine room. This conflicts with the ASTM 17.1 standard. Shane Clary, President of the California Fire Alarm Association promised to support our efforts.

SPRINKLERS WITH O-RING WATER SEALS

A variety of Central Sprinkler Company Model GB series fire sprinklers with o-ring water seals have been found leaking. Also some of these sprinklers do not open at design test pressures according to the UL news release attached to these minutes and available at www.ul.com, then, go to "What's New," if you are reading these minutes on the Internet at the NorCal web site. Central Sprinkler Company's response is also attached. Roseville Fire Department has banned all o-ring sprinklers. Stockton Fire Department has issued a letter recommending these sprinklers not be used on new projects until this matter is resolved.

EZ DROP

Bill Sallee promised to obtain some information on a new UL listed product called EZ Drop. Apparently, this is flexible piping that makes armovers easier to install. Without any information, there isn't much we can say, except to watch true lengths and internal diameters when using this with hydraulically designed systems.

LISTING FOR RESIDENTAL SPRINKLER HEADS

Fred Benn, Advanced Automatic Sprinkler mentioned that NFPA, UL, and FM will be meeting to agree on testing procedures for residential sprinklers used in 13D and 13R design. They have agreed that a .10 density is a minimum standard that will be met. Issues relate as to how the tests will be conducted. For example, are the "foam chairs" touching the wall or moved away from the wall. For your information, real foam chairs are not used in the tests. Instead foam is stapled or glued---this has to be agreed upon---to plywood and made to look like a chair. (For those of you who attend the NorCal meetings, this is what we sit on in Stockton.)

On another matter, Fred mentioned that fire and building inspectors are making conflicting calls for some of his installations. We can only suggest that he document the conflict well and attempt to see both the Fire Marshal and Building Director with education and resolution in mind.

FREE TICKETS

Larry Larson is going to obtain free passes for all of us to the National Fire Sprinkler Association Exhibition in San Francisco during April 2001.
 

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ROBERT EVANS, CO-CHAIR FIRE PROTECTION DEVICES COMMITTEE REE:dac Attachments		BRUCE LECAIR, CO-CHAIR FIRE PROTECTION DEVICES COMMITTEE

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