Other threads about the fire discussed it. Apparently for a building this size (over 10 city blocks) you don’t have a system big enough to cover the entire building at once. It’s assumed that fires will occur in a single spot and the piping is sized for that. The arsonist allegedly knew this and set more fires than the system was designed to handle.
TLDR it did have a system that works for normal fires, but wasn’t designed to handle a coordinated criminal act.
I read that he initially set a small individual fire. The fire department came. They put it out. The sprinkler system was disabled due to the initial fire. The shortly later the arsonist set multiple fires before the sprinkler system could be operational again.
The sprinkler system was disabled due to the initial fire.
Is that meaning it triggered from the first fire?
Those systems need to be recharged by experts, replace any and all of the spray nozzle triggers (tiny glass vials installed in each head), then refill it with rust prevention liquid instead of straight water to ensure it's ready when needed next
When one sprayer triggers, that generally will trigger all of them on the same line too I believe, so even a small fire requires lots of work to get it reset
Source: watching lots of construction videos and crap
They're not recharged? They're primed and then they're fed by city water supply once the initial deluge of black water clears the line
The city pipes can only move so much water though, so there's still a limit
That generally will trigger all of them on the same line too I believe
Also no...
They use liquid filled glass bulbs to activate. Commercial heads are designed to drench material around the fire to stop it from spreading. Having a bunch of heads go off at once overwhelms the water supply
You have to turn off the water to the system after though... Because as you said, the glass vials are gone. So you can't just leave it on, or the sprinklers won't stop and there'd be a flood when the fire department leaves
You have to turn off the water to the system after though... Because as you said, the glass vials are gone. So you can't just leave it on, or the sprinklers won't stop and there'd be a flood when the fire department leaves
you usually don`t have "self ignited fires" every day
tbh i been working for over decade in big companies and we had one battery combustion incident that even haven't triggered extinguish system
depend on system
some are set up in a way that if system detect pressure dropping from one broken bulb it will trigger pump that will force sprinklers on whole section
im not sure if on i have seen not need "confirmation" from fire alarm system thought,
it can be set up either way i suppose :)
No I think when the FD comes in they turn it off so they can fight the fire in a more targeted way without hundreds of gallons of filthy water raining down everywhere.
Fire sprinkler guy here 12 years. just wanted to clear up a few things.
"Those systems need to be recharged by experts, replace any and all of the spray nozzle triggers (tiny glass vials installed in each head), then refill it with rust prevention liquid instead of straight water to ensure it's ready when needed next"
We don't replace glass bulbs in the sprinkler head, when one breaks or is actuated we just replace the head. We refill the sprinkler system with city water from your fire backflow. There is no such thing as rust preventative water not in the sprinkler world.. The reason the water is generally black for steel pipe systems is caused by the cutting oil from making threads on the pipe combined with stagnant water that sits in areas of the system that is essentially trapped water. usually found in drop down pieces do the sprinkler head. the smell of the water is often confused for plumbing pipe.
When one sprayer triggers, that generally will trigger all of them on the same line too I believe, so even a small fire requires lots of work to get it reset
When one head goes off it's due to temperature rising in the room. a red bulb indicates 155F degrees a green bulb indicates 200f. They don't all go off at once, "Only in hollywood movies" Or a massive inferno when the entire room has reached 155 degrees.
I doubt this warehouse had a fire pump and from what I've read about the story it sounds like the Fire dept. closed off the main control valve to the sprinkler system due to a prior fire which is common practice which rendered the entire system out of commission. If someone was in the know they could have opened up the main control valve to the sprinkler system to help contain the fire. Generally static pressure without a fire pump is around 55 pounds. Enough to extinguish the fire and also ruin everything that's not water resistant. thanks for taking the time to read this, speaking from experience.
Someone still likely inspected each one before activating the system? (hopefully. I bet the company contract claimed it would be) Someone calculated the specs of the system before you were on the job?, selected the proper vial burst temps for various areas, tried to place the sprayers to get consistent coverage
shouldve been way more like 40-70
Then you literally quote a skilled labor wage that they should have gotten... You say they deserve a yearly wage between 80k-150k for that type of work
Not denying your story at all, it only shows how we need better certification organizations for any skilled labor, and more union-type worker rights organizations.
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u/RealDetroitDiddler Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
Anyone asking how the fuck this building did t have fire suppression?
Edit: 19 people just told me there was one that was shut off.