fire protection in entomological collections

[Willem N. Ellis]

Dear colleagues,

Thanks to the many people who reacted to our question about fire protection
of our collection that is at the same time very large, very valuable, and
very inflammable. The main question was to have a sprinkler system
installed or not. I'll try to summarize what I learned.

Of course, everyone agreed that an outpour of water over the collection
would be a  disaster. But not everyone realized that sprinklers are
designed to do their job with a minimum of water. Water is distributed by
them as a very fine spray; and modern systems stop spraying after the
temperature has gone back to normal. Moreover, in the more expensive
systems the overhead tubes are empty, and are filled only when need comes;
therefore the risk of accidental leakage is said to be practically zero.

The main point of controversy is to use either gas or sprinklers. Gas now
only is CO2. In older gas systems halon was used (or is still present)
instead of CO2. Halon is much more effective than CO2, but its use is
prohibited now because it is detrimental to the ozone layer. Because water
in the collection, however little, is clearly to be avoided, gas seemed the
best solution to almost all respondents. I must admit that we had the same
feeling from the outset, and felt only partly convinced by the arguments of
the technical staff of the university against gas (housing space of the
collection too large, walls too leaky, difficult to be sure that no persons
are left behind).

We got only one example of the actual use of gas, and that was rather
shocking. The description (by Laura H Nightingale, Austin) is short enough
to be reproduced in full:
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I know that you have received alot of responses to your query, but here is
my 2 cents-worth.  We recently constructed a new curation space and
installed both compactors and a CO2 system.  The CO2 was a BIG mistake.
After our cabinets were in but before any artifacts were rehoused we
conducted a test of the system.  We set up a video camera in one corner so
we could watch the discharge on a remote TV.  We found that the room (40 x
60') filled in 20 seconds, the gas velocity shredding and blowing loose
paper and plastic all over the room.  In addition, the temp. dropped to 0
degrees F.  After discharge, we found that our purge system would take 24
hours to remove the gas, so we opened both doors and set up fans to vent the
wicked stuff outside.  Altho the ambient RH was only about 30% that day, the
radical difference between inside and out created a fog that condensed all
over the cabinets, walls, etc. dripping onto the floor.  You get the
picture.  I was mortified to think that we would ever experience an
'incident', as they say in fire control, with artifacts in the room.  We can
only cross our fingers and make sure that any cultural material in there is
always inside a closed cabinet.  Needless to say, our open shelving is
essentially wasted space...  Look carefully at dry pipe systems; it should
be your answer.  I don't know if they are available yet, but there are new
delivery systems (heads) that mist the discharging water and can put out
raging infernos with a handful of gallons of water.  The term
'Micromist'comes to mind.
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Maybe the best discovery was a paper by Andy Wilson of the Smithsonian
institution, that was published end 1989. It is too long to reproduce here
but I have it on file, and can send it to whoever likes to see it. The
paper is not so much about a comparision between CO2 and sprinklers, as
about removing a number of misconceptions about sprinklers. Based on an
extensive questionaire ha calculated that sprinkler systems had been in use
for a combined time of over 1200 years. In that "time" only one sprinkler
inadvertently activated; this concerned an atypical sprinkler head with
known defects. But I should add that Brian Pomfret of the Royal  Botanical
Gardens had a bad experience during the construction of a sprinkler system;
when the system was tested, one head blew off and cause considerable
damage. Clearly, it is necessary to be wary untill the system has been
tested and is fully reliable. Anyway, hopefully the system will never work!
Sincerely, Willem

o  Willem N. Ellis (Willem_N_Ellis at sara.nl)                                o
o  Institute of Systematics and Population Biology (Zoological Museum)     o
o  Department Entomology                                                   o
o  Plantage Middenlaan 64, 1018 DH  Amsterdam, The Netherlands.            o
o  Private address (I am retired, most of the time you will find me here): o
o  Jisperveldstraat 591, 1024 BD Amsterdam, tel. (020) 6328080.            o