NORCAL FPO

FIRE PROTECTION EQUIPMENT AND DEVICES COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

Napa, CA

September 26, 2003

Attendees:

George Blind- Sunnyvale DPS

Jim Bollier- Sprinkler Fitters 483

David Dewey- Daly City F.D.

Maurice Dong- So. San Francisco F.D.

Steve Hart- NASIP

Jim Clancy- Rolf Jensen

Sam Husoe- NFSA

Dave Secoda- Bay Alarm

John Morgan- Bay Alarm

Mike Mentink- San Ramon Valley FPD

Robert Evans- Stockton F.D.

Loralyn Davis- Sacto. City F.D.

Lisa Beaver- Sacto. City Fire /Bldg

Russ Blair- Sac. Metro Fire

Jim Feld- Feld Engineering

David Hodge- Sacto. Control Systems

Tom Horton- Sac. Metro Fire

Allen Sigl- Sac. Metro Fire

Luis Da Silva- San Jose F.D.

Tony Santana- Sprinkler Fitters 483

Shane Clary- Bay Alarm

Jim Chamberlain- Bay Alarm

Randy Dysart- Cal Safe/Beacon Fire Safety

NFPA 25/Title 19 Workgroup- Jim Feld reported on the workgroup meeting on September 24^th. A number of issues were discussed.

• They worked on the adoption process and timeline and felt it would be easier to adopt NFPA 25 into Title 19 and then move most of the requirements of Title 19 into the Fire Code.
• They discussed the potential impact of the California Air Resources Board’s revised standards on diesel engines in fire protection applications. According to Jim, the new standards should have little or no impact.
• They had a long discussion on whether the State should adopt or delete the requirements in Chapter 7 (Private Fire Service Mains). It requires annual inspection, lubrication and flowing of all private fire hydrants (for at least one minute) and fire flow tests of underground mains on a 5-year frequency. Some of the workgroup members were concerned about cost and potential water run-off problems. There was also a discussion of requiring private mains and hydrants to be tested more often than water purveyors require or cities are currently testing public systems. Jim asked that we have a mid-month meeting to discuss these issues.

UL 300 Systems – Randy Dysart and George Blind reported that a workgroup of the Automatic Extinguishing Systems Advisory Committee has proposed Building Standards to the State Fire Marshal that would amend the California Fire Code and require all fixed extinguishing systems protecting commercial cooking equipment to be UL-300 compliant by January 1, 2006. The State Fire Marshal’s Office has published a draft of the Initial Statement of Reasons and Express Terms.

Elevator/Fire Alarm Interface – Shane Clary reported that at a recent CAFFA meeting a field inspector of the Elevator Division of DOSH said there were still a lot of problems with elevator/fire alarm system interfaces. He (the inspector) made a generalization that fire alarm technicians didn’t seem to know what to do about elevators.

FE-25 – George Blind made a comment regarding the use of Dupont FE-25 (HFC-125) extinguishing agent. Fike Corporation staff announced that they will be marketing this product as ECARO-25 for use in new systems as well as for replacement of Halon 1301 in existing systems.

There is information regarding HFC-125 in the 2000 edition of NFPA 2001.

Permits for Title 19 Testing – Jim Bollier asked if any cities were requiring permits for Title 19 5-year tests. He only knew of one city that required any kind of permit (Daly City requires an annual permit).

Mid-Month Meeting: A mid-month meeting will be held on October 16 at the Sprinkler Fitters Local 483 training facility in Hayward – 23312 Cabot Blvd – at 9:30 A.M. Contact Jim Bollier if you need directions – 510-782-9483 or e-mail George Blind or Dave Dewey. We will be discussing our recommendation concerning Chapter 7 of NFPA 25.

 Respectfully Submitted,

David Dewey, Co-chair