Storage facilities, warehouses and distribution centers are among the most challenging occupancies from an overall fire safety perspective and many variables must be considered when designing fire protection systems for such facilities. This two-day, in-person event will discuss design challenges of storage facilities that interfere with fire suppression and fire alarm systems.

An outstanding panel of experts comes together to share their knowledge and best practices so fire protection engineers, designers, manufacturers, facility owners and managers, and first responders can have confidence that a fire event will be managed properly by applied fire protection systems and fire service response. Topics covered during the event will focus on automated storage, protection of multi-row racks, cold storage design considerations, challenges with sloped ceiling design and protecting storage of special commodities. The speakers will also discuss controversial topics on the newer editions of the prescriptive codes related to storage as well as the challenges from the fire service perspective and the final suppression and extinguishment approaches. Day 2 will start with a large-scale fire test at the nearby Underwriters Laboratories Inc. in Northbrook, Illinois, and then the day will continue with discussions on changes and challenges associated with installing fire protection systems in such facilities and the challenges associated with fire alarm system.

Several panel discussions are incorporated into the agenda to allow speakers to answer audience questions and offer different perspectives on topics discussed.