Fire hazards in parking garages are evolving, particularly with the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles. However, most involve vehicles with internal combustion engines. This column proposes alternative design criteria for garage fire protection systems.

Using water mist to protect items from fire consumes less water than traditional fire sprinkler systems. To achieve the small droplet size, however, the system requires a high pressure water supply. Brian O’Connor from the National Fire Protection Association explains these systems and their various applications. 

Changes are unavoidable in the built environment, even during the construction phase. Communication is critical between fire protection designers and life safety system installers.
 

Are you familiar with firefighters’ air replenishment systems (FARS)? While this technology is not new, its adoption is rapidly growing.

A building’s fire protection system may require fire pumps and associated equipment. Engineers should follow these planning and design best practices to protect against various risk factors and ensure reliability during emergencies.

When specifying pilot-operated automatic control valves for a fire sprinkler system, make sure to correctly calculate the friction loss. You’ll also need to determine if the automatic control valve should be configured for redundancy.

These devices are used to shut portions of the fire sprinkler system off for maintenance or repair work without taking the entire system offline, endangering building occupants in case of fire. While not required in all circumstances, they should be considered as another fire safety mechanism.

Design criteria for storage fire protection systems must consider a substantial number of variables: what is being stored and how, the height of the planned storage, how high the ceiling is above the storage, and what the water supply is.

As the built and to-be-built environments increase in complexity, speed and efficiency, fire protection professionals must work together to protect people, property and the environment. A professional panel discusses this issue and other challenges when working on projects with delegated design clauses. 

How fire sprinkler piping is arranged affects the system through water flow changes, system calculations and components used. Installation requirements for any sprinkler system can be found in NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems.