Regardless of the age of the building, sprinklers could have been retrofitted at some point in the building's useful lifespan. There are sprinkler systems that are literally 100 years old that through proper maintenance are still functional today. Florida's building code is one of the most-restrictive in the nation. If a new occupancy occurs in a building, the current requirements for life safety systems must be met for a legal occupancy. This could mean a retro-fit of a sprinkler system, new installation of standpipes, extension of an existing system, re-fitted alarm and detection systems, etc.
A big part of our in-service job was going to buildings to test-flow their standpipes and to check the operational capabilities of their fire pumps. Whenever work is performed on those systems, they have to be re-inspected to be put back into service. I was involved in both the plans review for new and existing work involving fire supression systems, as well as the site inspections for work performed, including flow tests. On occasion, if a business wanted to stay open while a supression system required to be operational was out of service, they would pay for an engine company and crew to stand-by to provide immediate supression capacity if a conflagration occurred. You can imagine the cost.
Since the death of the domestic steel industry, most of the fire piping (usually cast-iron for industrial buildings) now comes from China. A problem in the industry is 'microbially-influenced deterioration' of the steel pipes now used in installations. The pipes, which used to last for
many decades (see above) are now rotting-out in less than 10 years, in some instances! Bacteria destroys the piping from the inside-out. Research is still ongoing as-to why this is happening, when it wasn't an issue prior.
The Pompano Beach Fire/Rescue had a structural fire at a vehicle storage and workshop industrial occupancy recently, and it made it on the news because of the action of a firefighter, who was climbing to the roof of the one-story masonry building, its roof being of bar-joist construction. I dunno if it was a male or a female, but the nitwit demonstrated how
not to use a hose line while on a ladder. From the looks of it, he/she was using a 1-3/4" 'hand-line' and was about to emerge above the level of the roof, when they partially-opened the hose, and then did something very stupid. They rapidly fully-opened the nozle valve, and became a lesson in Newton's Law of motion, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." When they opened the nozzle too quickly, they were knocked right-off the ladder, and it collapsed to the ground. News reports said the firefighter wasn't hurt, but if I was their supervisor, I would be drawing up an action plan to re-train this dangerous employee.
Bar-joist roofs are notorious for weakening to the point of structural failure after as-little as ten minutes involvement in a fire. I would never climb onto the roof of a structure w/a bar-joist roof where the fire had vented through the roof. Once one area collapses, it can bring down the entire roof. There is a notorious case-study about a furniture store in Charleston SC where the bar-joist roof collapsed while firefighters were inside, killing them. Here's another:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200318.html
Sadly, the collapse of bar-joist roofs continue to kill firefighters despite the past history of their known deficiencies in a structural fire. This is something that needs to change, and it lies at the feet of the fireground supervisors to effect this change. Firefighters need to stay-out of bar-joist buildings, and off their roofs if the fire has penetrated through the roof.
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