Kevin Lee Truss Fire
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techieman33
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Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
Well, that looked like dry powder, rather than CO2; I hope not too many people got it all over themselves and inhaled it -- it's probably going to trash all the adjacent movers, too...
CO2 is about 3 times as much money, and worth every. Friggin. Penny if you have an electronic rig to protect.
CO2 is about 3 times as much money, and worth every. Friggin. Penny if you have an electronic rig to protect.
CO2 is an great extinguishant in a confined space you are not in.
It works by being heavier than air and so displacing oxygen. If it can dissipate, as in an open space, that displacement is short lived, and smoulders reignite, rendering it mostly useless.
No CO2 extinguisher I've ever known had a rating for flammable solids, only for flammable liquids, so in most general applications, it's not rated for surrounding ordinary hazard class. If that hazard class is being addressed by water extinguishers or sprinklers and you have a flammable liquids risk, by all means go ahead...
I've always been of the opinion that yes, powder is messy, but fire has already caused a mess and I'd prefer to have something that I was more confident would actually put the fire out.
As always though, please defer to a competent professional, holding any licences required in your jurisdiction, for local, situation specific fire safety engineering advice...
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
Absolutely.
Specifically if your trusses are too high.
That said, without my input, the datacenters and booths I've worked in have generally had CO2 hand extinguishers, and my comments above were based on input from the extinguisher guys who -- while not firefighters or AHJs -- could presumably be expected to have some knowledge of the topic.
Specifically if your trusses are too high.
That said, without my input, the datacenters and booths I've worked in have generally had CO2 hand extinguishers, and my comments above were based on input from the extinguisher guys who -- while not firefighters or AHJs -- could presumably be expected to have some knowledge of the topic.
Yep, racks are a great example of a confined space you're not in and you can starve a fire pretty quickly with CO2 displacement
Most often data centres and the like mostly use gas systems. Sometimes it is CO2, especially popular in indoor electrical substations, or more exotic gases like the trade name Inergen system, I think Nitrogn gets a look in sometimes soon. There's a fair bit of science in getting the dispersion so that it knocks down fires quickly while giving humans a chance to escape or survive if their caught...
Water mist can also work, the very fine droplets disrupt the ability of the stream to conduct electrically so is reasonably safe for shock. Equipment damage can be another matter...
Firewalls don't always run software in data centres
@porkchop ; "Halo" as an abbreviation for 'Halon' can I assume, or am I misinterpreting?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
techieman33
Well-Known Member
Halon production was banned in the 90's. There are probably still some existing systems using it but since those systems are all 20+ years old odds are there aren't many of them around. Maybe Halo is one of the many alternatives that came after it was banned.
My guess is that @porkchop might be referring to Halotron, seemingly a Halon replacement product: http://www.halotron.com/products.php
Halons have an ozone depletion rate something like 10 times that of CFCs. One kilogram of Halon can destroy 50 tonnes of Ozone...
As such, at least in Australia, its use is restricted to certain essential uses where the fire risk poses a danger to human life and no acceptable alternative exists, in general meaning one of 3 circumstances:
We do end up going on such interesting tangents some days...
Halons have an ozone depletion rate something like 10 times that of CFCs. One kilogram of Halon can destroy 50 tonnes of Ozone...
As such, at least in Australia, its use is restricted to certain essential uses where the fire risk poses a danger to human life and no acceptable alternative exists, in general meaning one of 3 circumstances:
- International Maritime Vessels - for engines fires, certain cargo fires, suitable alternatives exist and this use is towards the end of being phased out
- Defence applications - explosion suppression, fire containment etc
- Aviation - private, commercial and defence, in portable extinguishers, engine fire protection and cargo suppression.
We do end up going on such interesting tangents some days...
EdSavoie
Well-Known Member
That was a little odd...
My guess is that since the techs didn't pull any kind of alarm and they just dealt with it, there wasn't really any cause for them to be terribly worried.
Plus, it looks like the flames themselves might be hardly visible from the audience's view point.
On the bright side, I may have some cannon fodder to keep the school board from replacing our Source Fours with cheap chinese imports a local shop is "certifying". Ha ha!
My guess is that since the techs didn't pull any kind of alarm and they just dealt with it, there wasn't really any cause for them to be terribly worried.
Plus, it looks like the flames themselves might be hardly visible from the audience's view point.
On the bright side, I may have some cannon fodder to keep the school board from replacing our Source Fours with cheap chinese imports a local shop is "certifying". Ha ha!
DavidJones
Well-Known Member
porkchop
Well-Known Member
Halotron yes, although there are some recycled Halon clean agent extinguishers out there that can still be purchased for similar purposes.
CO2 is significantly more well known. AHJ's primary focus is rarely pyro so it is much easier to just use what they're familiar with. Also in a practical sense CO2 is much cheaper and easier to replenish so you're more likely to have a greater amount of extinguishing capability if those are what you've brought for fire safety. That's also why water cannon style type A extinguishers are popular for shows where the pyro is most likely to start a class A fire (trash, wood and paper). I used to have both water and CO2 at my firing position.
On a touring rig I would put a halotron near the dimmer and audio racks and have more standard extinguisher elsewhere. For a reasonably contained fire like what's in the video you would have time for the lighting guy to say "no use this one".
CO2 is significantly more well known. AHJ's primary focus is rarely pyro so it is much easier to just use what they're familiar with. Also in a practical sense CO2 is much cheaper and easier to replenish so you're more likely to have a greater amount of extinguishing capability if those are what you've brought for fire safety. That's also why water cannon style type A extinguishers are popular for shows where the pyro is most likely to start a class A fire (trash, wood and paper). I used to have both water and CO2 at my firing position.
On a touring rig I would put a halotron near the dimmer and audio racks and have more standard extinguisher elsewhere. For a reasonably contained fire like what's in the video you would have time for the lighting guy to say "no use this one".
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DavidJones
Well-Known Member
porkchop
Well-Known Member
Proven fact
