2012hot topics - brooks equipment · pdf filein this issue of hot topics, you’ll find...

Hot TopicsAn Update for Our Customers2012

Message From the President

3rd QuarterVolume 11, Issue 3

Events

Inside

8 0 0 . 8 2 6 . 3 4 7 3 • w w w. b ro o k s e q u i p me n t . c o m • w w w. f i re ex t i ng u i s h e r. c o m

Dear Valued Brooks Customer,

With the onset of summer, Brooks has been looking for new ways to help you heat up your business—offering new savings avenues and promotional opportunities—all through our New Brooks Rewards Program.

Many of you are already receiving the benefits of our new program, whether it’s through account overview product savings or special pricing via our product an-nouncement e-blasts and Brooks’ e-light classes. If you haven’t already enrolled, this is just some of what you

are missing out on. Make sure to visit brookequipment.com or call your Account Manager today to start taking advantage of these great benefits and more.

In addition to the above mentioned benefits, members receive discounted rates on First Choice Catalogs and free access to our personalized flyers plus free Com-pliance Guides for registered technicians. The personalized flyers include your customer information, key product descriptions, pictures, and code-compliant information you need to increase your sales reach. Log in to the Brooks website and place an order today, and see how these flyers manage the selling for you.

As you know, Brooks works hard to be an industry leader in fire equipment education. In this issue of Hot Topics, you’ll find articles covering both technical and practical aspects of our industry, including Theft Prevention for Campus Fire Extinguishers and What’s New in the 2012 edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Fa-cilities Code? Utilize it as a great industry resource for you and your employees.

And congratulations to Brook’s own Director of Engineering, Chuck Kimball! He was recently appointed as Secretary to the NFPA Technical Committee on Por-table Fire Extinguishers by NFPA 10 committee chairman Nathaniel Addleman. For more about Chuck’s appointment, see page 7 of this issue.

Feel free, if you have questions, comments, or anything about this publication or otherwise, to contact us at 800.826.3473 or at [email protected]. We welcome your feedback and look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,

Tim Foughty President

“The “Rewards Program” is yet another reason why we consider Brooks an industry leader. No better way to assist our field technicians, than with the unlimited “find-it” access and code updates. Great program!”

– Gabe Garcia, SimplexGrinnell

E-Light SeminarsJuly19th - Denver, CO19th - Philadelphia, PAAugust23rd – Seattle, WA23rd – Chesapeake, VASeptember20th – Salt Lake City, UT20th – Charleston, SCTo register, visit www.brooksequipment.com

NFPA Standard for Sprinklers ........2

Theft Prevention for Campus Fire Extinguishers .............3

NFPA99, Health Care Facilities Code ...............................4

Employee Spotlight .......................6

A Chief’s Perspective..................... 7

NFPA 10 Tech. Committee News .....7

Product Gallery .............................8

Feature

SHC12

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contact your account manager for more information. *Non-Rewards Members pay $39.99 per flyer.

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New Storage Chapter in NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems

Prior to 1999, NPFA had several standards addressing fire protection of storage, such as NFPA 231 Standard for General Storage, NFPA 231C Stan-dard for Rack Storage of Materials, and NFPA 231D Standard for Storage of Rubber Tires.

For the 1999 edition of NFPA 13, the fire sprinkler system design and instal-lation requirements from the storage standards were made part of NFPA 13 and contained in one Chapter. When this material was added to NFPA 13, the old storage standards were withdrawn from the NFPA revision process. The other general requirements for storage were incorporated into a new standard NFPA 230 Standard for the Fire Protec-tion of Storage. Later, the sprinkler re-quirements were broken up into sepa-rate Chapters (Chapters 12–20) in NFPA 13 and the general storage requirements from NFPA 230 were moved to NFPA 1, Uniform Fire Code. At that time, NFPA 230 was withdrawn.

The proposed 2013 edition of NFPA 13 has many changes with regard to

storage. There is a new storage Chapter 21, Alternatives to Storage Methods Out-lined in Chapters 12–20. The new Chap-ter 21 allows the performance based design for sprinkler systems around a specific commodity and a specific storage arrangement.

According to the Report on Propos-als (ROP Proposal 13-411), the intent of the new Chapter is to allow protection options for the commodity hazards and storage arrangements outlined in Chap-ters 12–20 and based on sprinkler char-acteristics (K-factor, orientation, RTI rat-ing, sprinkler spacing type, temperature

By Mark Conroy

rating, and using a design format of a number of sprinklers at a minimum operating pressure.) The protection op-tions offered in the new Chapter will be based on the results of full-scale fire testing while incorporating a minimum 50% safety factor into the number of sprinklers provided in the design. The intent of the new Chapter is to offer protection options, using sprinklers having a nominal K-factor of 11.2 (160) or higher.

The Storage Chapters, 16 and 17, were modified to make them more user-friendly and to include all the in-rack and ceiling sprinkler requirements in the same section, since they are essen-tially tied together anyway.

The 2013 edition of NFPA 13 is ex-pected to be available in the Fall of 2012. There will be an update to the NFPA 13 handbook that will elaborate on these updates and provide some of the com-mittee rationale for the changes. F

Mark Conroy is an engineer in the Boston, MA office of Brooks Equipment Company. Copyright © 2012, all rights reserved.

By Mark ConroyFeature

3rd Quarter 2012 • 3

A major safety problem at colleges and universities is the theft, misuse, or vandalism of building safety equipment, in-cluding portable fire extinguishers. A new technology has been developed in the form of an extinguisher removal alarm device that helps deter abuses of these critical fire fighting tools. Very simply, the technology sounds an audible alarm when the extin-guisher is removed from its designated location.

College and university administrators are now taking steps to prevent the theft, misuse, or vandalism of portable fire extin-guishers by having these extinguisher removal alarm devices installed at each extinguisher location. With the installation of this cutting edge technology, the problem at higher education institutions has been nearly eliminated.

At most colleges and universities, portable fire extinguishers are installed, inspected, and serviced in accordance with NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers. Normally multi-pur-pose, stored pressure, dry chemical extinguishers are installed throughout classroom buildings, administrative buildings, sup-port buildings, dormitories, or other housing facilities. Addition-ally, Class K extinguishers are installed in cooking areas, such as in the kitchens of cafeterias. Where portable fire extinguishers are not required by law, college and university administrators are having extinguishers installed throughout for the protection of persons and to reduce property damage.

Portable fire extinguishers are required by NFPA 10 to be main-tained in a fully charged, operable condition and kept in their designated locations at all times. Any extinguishers reported to be missing, damaged, or empty must be replaced immediately with an extinguisher of an equivalent size and rating. Although abuse of extinguishers is rare in administrative, support, and classroom buildings, it was common, until recently, for extin-guishers in student housing buildings to be stolen, misused, or vandalized.

Typically, all college and university administrators collect a dam-age deposit for each student in campus housing facilities. If there is no damage at the end of the school year, the deposit is returned to the student. But when there is damage to school property, and the amount of the deposit is exceeded by the cost of the actual damage,

The main purpose for installing extinguisher removal alarm devices is to provide an audible alarm to deter theft and vandalism.

students are charged. Despite the com-mon sense advice in student housing policies (see below) and despite the con-sequences of property damage charges (see page 7), some malicious students are inclined to destroy property in the com-mon areas of student housing.

Unfortunately, one common safety device that is stolen or vandalized is the portable fire extinguisher. Since the problem of extinguisher theft, abuse, and misuse can’t be prevented by reasoning with students or threat-ening them with penalties, college and

Theft Prevention for Campus Fire Extinguishers

CFAW

Continued on page 7

STUDENT HOUSING POLICYCommon statements regarding

safety and extinguishers in student housing policy

documents:• Youractionscouldaffectthelife

and property of other students.• Fireextinguishersshouldbeused

only in the case of emergency.• Tamperingwithafireextin-

guisher or any other fire safety equipment could result in a fine.

4 • HOT TOPICS

By Mark Conroy

Feature

What’s New in the 2012 Edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code?

The 2012 Edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code was issued by NFPA last year with an effective date of August 31, 2011. Although it be-came effective, it may not be adopted locally. Even if adopted, the process, in many jurisdictions, is very slow, and it may be some time before the 2012 edi-tion goes into effect. Since the manner in which health care is administered has evolved and routine procedures are now conducted in clinics or doc-tor’s offices, it might be prudent for the local authority having jurisdiction to allow the use of the 2012 edition of NFPA 99 rather than enforcing an outdated version with antiquated re-quirements. Even for large hospitals it makes sense because of the new logi-cal approach to risk assessment intro-duced for the new edition of the code. The 2012 edition of NFPA 99 revamps the Systems Chapters based on a new risk-based approach to fire protection, provides a new requirement for porta-ble fire extinguishers, and introduces a new definition for defend-in-place. For today’s health care facilities, NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, 2012 is most appropriate.

Risk-Based ApproachTraditionally, much of health care

was administered at a hospital. Today, many of those medical procedures are done at outpatient clinics or even at the doctor’s office. The new risk-based approach, introduced into the 2012 edition of NFPA 99, is intended to ad-dress the risk to patients and caregivers and allows more latitude based on the risk. This approach requires analysis of building systems and equipment rela-tive to the patient risk. The 2012 edi-tion recognizes that during a medical procedure, patient risk is the same and independent of whether it is conducted

of reliability, but short downtime of sys-tems is permitted because the equipment downtime could possibly only cause mi-nor injury to patients or caregivers.

Category 3: Non-critical equipment is permitted to fail.

Equipment not critical for life support and equipment not immediately impacting pa-tient care is permitted to fail. This non-critical equipment is permitted to fail be-cause the failure is not likely to cause injury to patients or caregivers.

Category 4: Failure of any building system has no impact on patient care.

The limited systems in these facilities are not critical to patient care and failure of any building systems has no impact on patient care.

From a patient care standpoint, facility systems are categorized as Category 1–4, where failure of the equipment would likely have the following impacts:Category 1: Cause major injury or

death to patients or caregiversCategory 2: Cause minor injury to

patients or caregiversCategory 3: Not likely to cause injury

to patients or caregivers, but can cause patient discomfort

in a hospital or a doctor’s office. The risk-based ap-proach makes sense for any hospital, medical clinic, or doctor’s office where medi-cal procedures are per-formed or medical services are rendered.

A new chapter titled “Fundamentals” man-dates an analysis or risk assessment of building systems based on critical-ity in order to categorize facility systems. Risk as-sessment is normally part of a facility’s risk management program and is based on risk identification, se-verity of consequences, and the prob-ability of consequences occurring. The probability and severity of the conse-quences occurring will help facility management determine which catego-ries the facility systems fall into. When using the new NFPA 99, the user of the code must start with “Fundamentals” (Chapter 4) and determine the critical-ity of the building systems and equip-ment before applying the Systems and Equipment Chapters 5–11. The catego-ries are also used somewhat in Chapter 12, Emergency Management.

Building System CategoriesFrom an availability and reliability

standpoint, the criticality of the systems and equipment is categorized as follows:

Category 1: Systems are expected to work and be available all the time.

Failure of the equipment could cause major injury or death to patients or caregivers.

Category 2: Short downtime of sys-tems is permitted.

Systems are expected to have a high level


What’s New in the 2012 Edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code?

in accordance with NFPA 14, Standard for the Installation of Standpipe and Hose Systems”. This means they are not mandated but where standpipe and hose systems are installed, they must be in accordance with NFPA 14. With regard to fire extinguishers, the new paragraph 15.9.1 simply states “Porta-ble fire extinguishers shall be selected, installed, inspected, and maintained in accordance with NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers”.

In reviewing the reports for the 2012 revision, the Report on Proposals (ROP) reveals very little with regard to the background or rationale for Chapter 15, Features of Fire Protection. The proposal containing Chapter 15 was submit-ted by the Fundamentals Committee, which is also responsible for the new Chapter 4 categories. The substantiation states, “NFPA 99 is being reformatted to address levels of protection based on risk”. It also lists some of the topics cov-ered in Chapter 15 but provides little in the way of rationale.

The second report, the Report on Comments (ROC), indicates that the com-mittee specifically looked at paragraph 15.9.1, addressing fire extinguishers. The wording in the ROP didn’t have the word “selected”. This word was added by comment 99-338, submitted by Southern Regional Fire Code Develop-ment Committee (representatives of the fire service). The substantiation states:

“It appeared that the word “se-lected” may have been unintention-ally left out of the provision. The selection process is the most critical initial step in the use of NFPA 10. This is especially true for health care facilities, which have fire risks that are often more varied and complex than any other occupancy.”

It appears the committee was very deliberate regarding this requirement as both reports contain information about it (introduced in the ROP and re-viewed and updated for the ROC).

The first sentence of the annex mate-rial in A.15.9.1 emphasizes the need for extinguishers and states the following:

“The selection of portable fire ex-tinguishers for health care facilities is a vital step in preparing the facil-ity to effectively deal with a fire in its incipient stage.”

Facility Fire Plan and Defend-In-Place

Every health care facility is expected to develop and maintain a facility fire plan. The plan is the document, which will contain important information for facility staff to understand and utilize fire protection equipment during a fire emergency. Meeting with facility staff will provide insights for proper selec-tion and distribution of fire extinguish-ers based on when and where extin-guishers can be expected to be used.

Understanding the need for a facil-ity fire plan, an incipient fire response, and the defend-in-place concept are important in the use of NFPA 99. Many health care facilities are not routinely evacuated like other buildings in the

Category 4: Have no impact on patient care

Examples of the categories are:

Category 1: Reconstructive surgeon’s office with general anesthesia

Category 2: Outpatient facility with a procedural sedation site

Category 3: Dental office with no gen-eral anesthesia

Category 4: Typical doctor’s office (See Summary Table)

The criticality assessment is intended to apply to the systems and equipment addressed in Chapters 5–11. The four systems categories apply to the systems and the equipment addressed in those chapters, and some mention of how the categories apply within the chapter.

Chapters 12–15 cover emergency management, security management, hyperbaric chambers, and features of fire protection respectively. Since they don’t address building systems and equipment like Chapters 5–11, they are not tied to the four new categories of systems and equipment; although Chapter 12 contains some minimum requirements pertaining to categories outlined in Chapter 4.

Portable Fire ExtinguishersChapter 15, Features of Fire Protection

is interesting in its approach to mini-mum requirements for fire protection. The first paragraph states that “This Chapter shall apply to all new and exist-ing health care facilities, as specified in Section 1.3”. Many of the paragraphs have caveats, such as “unless such in-stallations are approved existing instal-lations, which shall be permitted to be continued in service” or in the case of standpipe systems, “where provided, standpipe and hose systems shall be

Continued on page 6

Summary TableCategory System/Equipment Reliability System Failure Impact Example

Category 1 Must work all the time Major injury or death Surgeon’s office

Category 2 Short downtime permitted Minor injuries result Outpatient’s facility

Category 3 Non-critical permitted to fail Injuries not likely Dentist’s office

Category 4 Failure has no impact No impact or injuries Doctor’s office

6 • HOT TOPICS

Employee Spotlight

6 • HOT TOPICS

Meet Zach Rudegeair – Production ArtistHave you ever wondered who creates the cus-

tom artwork and sets up the logos to be applied to products, or who makes sure stock levels are ideal for products, such as stock tags, gauges, and flag seals? For the past seven years, at Brooks, these behind-the-scene workings have been han-dled by Zach Rudegeair. As a Production Artist, he not only creates custom artwork for submis-sion to our printer, but he helps to maintain ideal levels of stock for these products so that you get what you ordered and on time.

When Zach arrives each day, he typically starts by receiving the morning’s custom orders. Then he logs them into the sys-tem and creates custom artwork for each one. Once he receives your approval, he modifies the art to meet vendor’s specifica-tions and then adds it to the list of orders to be processed and

submitted for the next deadline. Two days a month he sends deadline orders to our printer which in-volves a spreadsheet, purchase order, and artwork burned to a CD.

In addition to his daily involvement with custom orders, Zach analyzes sales spreadsheets to forecast fu-ture sales, enabling the purchasing team to maintain necessary stock levels; expedite orders; and promote custom products by designing and processing custom-ized artwork for our sales reps. As a Production Artist for Brooks, Zach’s job is truly all about the details.

In Zach’s free time, he and his wife volunteer with the Hu-mane Society boarding puppies too young for adoption. They also tend to a vegetable garden, a strawberry patch, blueberry bushes, and a fig tree. Other interests include playing guitar, with acoustic bluegrass and solo jazz being his favorites. F

event of a fire. It is essential for all facilities to have a written fire plan and any unwanted fire be controlled or ex-tinguished during its incipient stage.

The defend-in-place concept in-volves an operational response to an emergency in a building where the ini-tial action does not involve evacuation of the building occupants. It includes moving building occupants from an area of immediate danger to a safe loca-tion within the building and contain-ment of the fire. Typically, it will also address the confinement of smoke and heat from a fire by requiring the clos-ing of doors, which also isolates the fire area. The facility fire plan will address when and where portable fire extin-guishers can be used and how they can be used during a defend-in-place op-erational response.

Since an automatic evacuation of the building will not occur, it is critical building staff understands the use of portable fire extinguishers must be in accordance with the facility fire plan. Where extinguishers are used, notifica-tion of building occupants must also be accordance with the facility fire plan. Facilities employing a defend-in-place

operational response will only under-take a complete facility evacuation as a last resort.

Adoption of NFPA 99, 2012The adoption process in many ju-

risdictions is very slow and it may be some time before the 2012 edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code is adopted. It is always a good idea to stay ahead of the adoption process and study and comprehend the provisions of the latest NFPA codes and standards. Understanding the new systems cate-gories and the latest minimum fire pro-tection requirements contained in the new Chapter 15 will provide you with an understanding of how to protect to-day’s health care facilities.

Since many of the medical procedures that were previously conducted only at hospitals are now being done at outpa-tient clinics, doctor’s offices, and facili-ties, never thought of 10 or 15 years ago, it makes sense to recommend consider-ation of the 2012 edition of NFPA 99. As the technical committees responsible for revising NFPA 99 have recognized, the facilities already exist. It only makes sense that the fire protection community

should not wait for the code adoption process to recognize the hazards and provide reasonable solutions to mini-mize the risk to patients and caregivers.

ConclusionThe new 2012 edition of NFPA 99

should be of particular interest to ev-ery health care provider and authority having jurisdiction because the facili-ties offering health care services have already evolved. The updated standard introduces a new risk-based approach that necessitates analyzing the building systems and equipment relative to the patient and caregiver risks. The NFPA now recognizes the risk to a patient is independent of whether a procedure is conducted in a hospital or at a doctor’s office. The new risk-based approach in NFPA 99 makes sense for any hospital, medical clinic, or doctor’s office where medical procedures are performed and medical services are rendered. Only NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, 2012 is a match for modern-day health care facilities. FMark Conroy is an engineer in the Boston, MA office of Brooks Equipment Company. Copyright © 2012, all rights reserved.

Continued from page 5Feature


A Chief’s Perspective

“In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.” ~ Proverbs 14:23

Did You Know?

Brooks works hard to make sure the right products get to you right on time. We track shipping, and coordinate our holiday schedule with that of UPS to minimize disruptions in the products and services you depend on us for.

PROPERTY DAMAGE CHARGESCommon statement for property damage charges in the common

areas of student housing:

• Whereindividualsresponsiblefor damage to common areas are identified, only those persons will be charged.

• Whereindividualscannotbeidentified for damage to common areas, all residents will be charged.

university administrators are taking the additional step of installing special ex-tinguisher removal alarm devices. The two most common and economical ex-tinguisher removal alarm devices in use today are the STI® Fire Extinguisher Theft Stopper and the Brooks Fire Ex-tinguisher Cabinet Alarm.

Each unit is powered by a common 9V alkaline battery and emits a 105 dB audible alarm when the extinguisher is removed from its designated location. The main purpose for installing the ex-tinguisher removal alarm devices is to

provide an audible alarm to deter theft and vandalism. It has been reported where extinguisher removal alarms are installed that theft and abuse of extin-guishers has essentially ceased.

The Brooks Fire Extinguisher Cabinet Alarm is intended to be in-stalled in a portable fire extinguisher cabinet. The STI® Fire Extinguisher Theft Stopper is installed with an ex-tinguisher on an extinguisher hanger.F

Mark Conroy is an engineer in the Boston, MA office of Brooks Equipment Company. Copyright © 2012, all rights reserved.

Continued from page 3

Mr. Chuck Kimball, Director of Engineering for Brooks Equipment Company, was recently appointed to serve as the secretary of the NFPA Technical Committee on Portable Fire Extinguishers by NFPA 10 committee chairman Nathaniel Addleman. He replaces outgoing secretary Richard

Fairclough (Rick) who recently re-tired from Brooks Equipment Com-pany. Rick served as secretary to the committee for the 2002 and 2007 edi-tions of the standard. Chuck’s first official duty was to record the min-utes of March 28-29, 2012 committee meeting held in Orlando, FL. F

Chuck Kimball Appointed as Secretary to the NFPA 10 Technical Committee on Portable Fire Extinguishers

By Darrell W. Harguth

I attended a meet-ing before the March NAFED Meeting in Las Vegas. This was a meeting of 12 State As-sociations that oversee fire and life safety in their respective states. The Associations are made up of portable and system fire protec-tion service companies throughout each state, whose specific function is to provide a professional and educational organization dedicated to improving fire protection services to the customer, while adhering to the proper requirements for the installation, main-tenance, and testing of fire equipment.

It’s important for states, with-out Associations like these, to consider the value organiza-tions like this can bring to the industry within the various states. Not only can members learn from each other and share industry information, but they can also learn the advantages of meeting and interacting with local Authorities Having Juris-diction (AHJ’s) in their areas.

Communicating and sharing ideas with each other can only benefit and improve the level of service provided to the cus-tomer. Starting an organization creates a platform where members can be educated on current state regulations and discuss issues of interest or concern to them.

Some issues to discuss are: • Appropriateservicevehiclemarking• Licensingcompaniesandtechnicians• Educating the consumer about code

compliance and life safety regulationsWe have got to find a way to protect

the consumer, business owner, and oth-ers by making sure they are educated and aware of the most up-to-date knowl-edge in the industry. By encouraging fire protection companies to form and/or join in a State Association, this enables them to move toward that goal.

I think Organization, Education, and Professionalism could do a lot to shine a bright light on our efforts and our work-ers as well. FDarrell W. Harguth is a former Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal in Contra Costa County, CA

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For more information on these featured products, visit brooksequipment.com.

Protect your sensitive documents and valuables from water and fire with Honeywell’s BRIGADE SERIESFIRE&SECURITYSAFE.It has a four number combina-tion dial to be used in conjunc-tion with a key entry, keeping contents safely secured. And it’s double wall steel construction

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FireTech™ Fiberglass Cabinet

Smoke Detector Tester

Smoke Centurion is a new aerosol SMOKE DETECTOR TESTER for checking the func-tionality of smoke detectors. Designed to test the widest possible range of smoke detec-tors, it offers efficient testing in a simple-to-use format, either hand-held or with use of a dispenser. Tester provides more tests per can with fast detector activation. It is also silicone free with no CFCs or GWP. UL/ULC listed.

Non-Magnetic Carbon Dioxide Fire Extinguisher

Linkage Pliers

Brigade Series Fire & Security Safe

SMK2

Make changing links fast and easy with LINKAGE PLIERS from Brooks. No more scrunching fingers and busting knuckles trying to release ca-ble pressure on those difficult scissor brackets. Simply place the specially curved jaws in the bracket holes and squeeze for fast, effortless link re-placement. Steel con-struction. A must for Ansul and Amerex system maintenance personnel.

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A major step up in fire extinguisher storage and protection, the FireTech™ FIBERGLASS CABINET is designed to ward off salt air, chemicals, moisture, dust, insects, temperature extremes, and other harmful elements. This durably constructed cabinet features a door-sealing method that shuts out most anything and an easy-view window and corrosion-resistant handle for extra convenience. It comes standard with a full-length stainless steel hinge, rivets, and latches for added peace of mind. Available in UV-resistant high-visibility red.

Badger’s™ NON-MAGNETIC CARBON DIOXIDE FIRE EXTINGUISHER is an effective, clean gaseous extinguishing agent that leaves no residue to clean up or damage electrical equipment. Features include a large, easy-to-pull stainless steel ring pin; stainless steel handle and lever; and chrome-plated brass valve assembly. Ideal for Class B and C fires in MRI rooms and on other energized electrical equipment. FGC26

TL915

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