Snail Scott on mon 20 feb 06
This morning, in the kiln room/glass hotshop where I work, a fire sprinkler
apparently malfunctioned and deluged the room with a few hundred
gallons of water. Fortunately, no equipment was operating at the time,
but the sprinkler (which sits above an exhaust hood, so I never knew
it was there) was directly above the site of the former glassblowing
gloryhole, and not far from the soda kiln. It seems to have mainly
drenched the electric annealers in that area, (which are not our only
ones,) so we got off pretty lightly so far as we can tell at this point.
I am horrified to think of what could have happened if this had occurred
last spring when the gloryhole was still running. or even if a kiln or
annealer had been on.
Those of you in institutional or industrial settings: What fire suppression
systems are in use in your kiln rooms? What would be safe and effective?
Water just seems like a Very Bad Idea, right now.
-Snail
Snail Scott on tue 21 feb 06
The postmortem on our fire sprinkler flood is in:
it froze. Apparently it had been frozen all weekend,
and Monday morning it got warm enough to let loose,
just when I happened to be watching.
The coincidence of no kilns being used at all on
the coldest weekend of the year was what did it
in. The glassblowing gloryhole had been running
24/7 for many years, providing the only continuous
heat source for that room, so ironically (but
fortunately), its removal is what led to the
Great Fire Sprinkler Deluge. (Monday mornings
used to be glassblowing class time.)
-Snail
Arnold Howard on tue 21 feb 06
A fire sprinkler flood can cause a fortune in damage. It has happened to
schools in Texas. A reminder:
In the kiln room, position the sprinkler heads in the ceiling away from the
kilns. If the sprinkler head is too close to a kiln, it can turn on the fire
alarm.
Consider using a higher temperature sprinkler head in the kiln room or the
type that senses smoke rather than heat. You could also install a
Vent-A-Kiln vent hood, which will lower the temperature around the kiln.
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Snail Scott"
> The postmortem on our fire sprinkler flood is in:
> it froze. Apparently it had been frozen all weekend,
> and Monday morning it got warm enough to let loose,
> just when I happened to be watching.
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