Warehouse Fire Hazards: Part 3 – Cold Storage Warehouses (Continued)
Last week, we started to scratch the surface of fire hazards in cold storage warehouses. This week, we’ll look at a few more unique fire hazard challenges, as well as two loss examples that highlight the unique challenges found…
Warehouse Fire Hazards: Part 3 – Cold Storage Warehouses
In a three-part blog series over the last few months, we’ve been exploring the many fire hazards commonly present in warehouses beyond the obvious presence of high combustible loading from rack and palletized storage arrays. In…
Warehouse Fire Hazards – Part 1: High Intensity Discharge Lighting
There are many fire hazards commonly present in warehouses…
Warehouse Fire Safety Considerations
Earlier this year in Brooklyn, firefighters responded to a small fire in a storage facility with 1.1. million cubic feet of storage. According to an article in The New York Times, responders shut down the sprinklers—which had…
Fire Code Requirements for Rack Storage and Atriums
Did the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) over your project recently reject your design due to improper smoke control in your building? Do you need to calculate proper exhaust and convince the AHJ your structure will meet or…
Fire Protection Considerations With New Or Updated Buildings
When it comes to warehouse fire prevention, not just any sprinkler system will do. As I point out in my Fire Protection Engineering article, “Lessons Learned from Understanding Warehouse Fires,” a facility’s sprinkler design…
San Antonio Fire Investigation of Idle Plastic Pallet Fire Reveals Code Violations
An August 17th warehouse fire that burned for six hours is being investigated by the San Antonio Fire Department. The fire shot flames and smoke into the air in a warehouse that stored approximately 35,000 plastic pallets.…
A Top Cause of Warehouse Fires that Might Surprise You
NFPA has compiled statistics on structure fires in storage properties.1 There were an average of 22,900 fires in storage occupancies for the period from 1994 – 1998. The leading cause of these fires was intentional fire setting…
Distribution Centers – Part 2: Smoke Venting Solutions
By Jeff Harrington, CEO and Founder of Harrington Group, Inc. October 1997 Part 1 of this series provided an overview of the confusing and possibly fallible code requirements regarding smoke venting in sprinklered buildings…
Distribution Centers – Part 1: Smoke Venting and the Art of Confusion
By Jeff Harrington, CEO and Founder of Harrington Group, Inc. June 1997 One thing most distribution centers have in common is storage of goods to heights exceeding 12 feet. A fire in such a facility can generate significant…