Smatticus
Active Member
A post by JR Clancy on Facebook about NFPA 80 and the requirement to keep a fire safety curtain in the closed position at all possible times has spurred much discussion. There have been some, in my opinion, unnecessarily heated and judgemental reactions regarding the, again in my opinion, unrealistic expectation that this be done if you have an unpowered hand crank winch system.
Please see this YouTube video for context. We timed the raising of our fire curtain by hand cranking using 3 operators taking turns. It took 12 minutes 25 seconds, which included a few brief pauses. The total average speed was 1.6 ft/min for a 20 foot proscenium opening.
Based on the above, and a review of ANSI 1.22-2016 Fire Safety Curtain Systems, I have some questions:
Please see this YouTube video for context. We timed the raising of our fire curtain by hand cranking using 3 operators taking turns. It took 12 minutes 25 seconds, which included a few brief pauses. The total average speed was 1.6 ft/min for a 20 foot proscenium opening.
Based on the above, and a review of ANSI 1.22-2016 Fire Safety Curtain Systems, I have some questions:
- Does ANSI 1.22-2016 not permit hand crank winches? It does not say this explicitly but it seems to be implied... It says an unpowered system is allowed for proscenium openings less than 925 square feet. It says that non-emergency operation must be possible with 1 person in 3 minutes. Based on real-world use, the expectation that 1 person can hand crank a curtain in 3 minutes seems pretty unreasonable. The expectation that this also be done nearly every day compounds the issue. Is the standard therefore implying that if a system is unpowered it must be, for example a 1:1 hand-line based system where 1 person can actually operate the curtain in under 3 minutes?
- How has NFPA 80 and ANSI 1.22 evolved on issues related to hand cranked systems over time? What are the grandfathering rules when it comes to compliance with the expectations concerning these issues?
- What are the compliance expectations related to hand crank systems and keeping the fire safety curtain closed as much as possible if your venue is not even required to have a fire safety curtain in the first place? (Per industry building and life safety codes) I'm assuming if your venue has a fire safety curtain which it is not required to have, then all aspects of the standards applying to it must be adhered to.
- Fire safety curtain systems with grandfathered asbestos curtains are still out there but this does not seem to be addressed in ANSI 1.22. I do not know if it is addressed in NFPA 80. Should it be recommended to keep an asbestos fire safety curtain in the closed position as much as possible when doing so puts it at much greater risk of being disturbed and thus creating an asbestos fiber hazard?