Monitoring Waterflow in Sprinklered Warehouses -- Varied Perspectives

W27
Monitoring Waterflow in Sprinklered Warehouses -- Varied Perspectives
Steven Sawyer, NFPA Richard Gallagher, Zurich Services Christina Francis, The Procter & Gamble Co

This session will provide a three different perspectives on fire response to a sprinklered warehouse incident using new incident command technology. The application has been piloted by P&G to help gather "real time" data during a fire event. Each speaker will explain how to apply this data within their field of expertise to reduce overall property loss and reduce fire fighting risk. Some questions they will address: How long do we wait? When can we turn off the sprinklers? When can we enter the racking system? What should we do when the fire growth exceeds the riser hydraulic demand or the fire pump demand? What does the data mean to incident command?

Presented by:

Steven Sawyer, NFPA
Steven Sawyer has been active in the fire service for over 40 years. He obtained the rank of Deputy Fire Chief in his town's fire department and also served as the town's Deputy Director of the Emergency Management and District Forest Fire Warden. For 8 years, he was Deputy Fire Marshal at Yale University where he was responsible for the fire prevention, fire inspection, maintenance and testing, public education, fire engineering, and fire investigation programs at the university. He was an industrial fire fighter with the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics for 5 years. He was a Senior Fire Service Specialist/Executive Secretary for IFMA and the Fire Service Section in the Public Fire Protection Division, where he was on the Organization and Deployment of Career and Volunteer Fire Department and Fire Prevention Technical Committee and the Fire Service Training and Community Risk Reduction Technical Committee. He was also Senior Fire Protection Specialist in the Building and Life Safety Department and was Staff Liaison for NFPA 1 and 101.

Richard Gallagher, Zurich Services
Richard Gallagher is "Line of Business Director - Property" for The Zurich Services Corporation Risk Engineering department, where his primary responsibilities include development of technical knowledge, policies, and procedures for the property line of business. He has over 35 years of experience in the loss control industry and has a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. He is a member of NFPA, an alternate member of the NFPA technical committee on Sprinkler System Discharge Criteria, a member of the NFPA technical committees on Fundamentals of Combustion Systems Hazards and Single Burner Boilers, and presently chairs the NFPA technical committee on Ovens and Furnaces.

Christina Francis, The Procter & Gamble Co
Ms. Christina Francis serves as Fire Protection Engineer for P&G and her experience includes design, construction management, and loss prevention on a variety of industrial projects throughout the world. Her primary responsibilities include development and management of P&G's Global Fire Protection Program, which includes overseeing 140+ global manufacturing sites and technical centers. Ms. Francis has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University, is a registered professional engineer in Fire Protection, and is a Certified Fire Protection Specialist. She is a member of SFPE, NFPA, Industrial Fire Protection Section (past chair), and an active board member of the FPRF.