Poor water pressure at Graduate pub fire could have put lives in danger.

Run_to_da_hills

I saw the fire at the Graduate pub in South Dublin yesterday and noticed the fire service struggling with a trickle of water at times. A water tanker eventually arrived about two hours into the blaze. What if this had been a nursing home instead of a vacated pub where it would have been more difficult to clear the place?

Could much of the pub have been saved had the water pressure been up to scratch, was there a sprinkler system functioning in the pub orwas that also useless without the water pressure?


http://www.herald.ie/opinion/editorial-water-crisis-at-blaze-is-a-real-worry-1774933.html

civdef

What matters at a fire is flow rates, not pressure in the main, the big red lorries have pumps to add all the pressure that is required.

The fact is that an awful lot of municipal water supplies do not provide adequate flows for firefighting. This is improving gradually, but needs to be taken account of in planning where new buildings go. Insurance companies often require owners of high risk buildings to provide their own water storage tanks for firefighting, fire officers will do the same when consulted on planning applications for areas with poor water supplies.

Sprinklered buildings have their own pumps and water tanks so aren't really affected - though sprinklered pubs are very rare indeed.

trad

I'm surprised they had water pressure problems. There is a resevoir in Ballinclea Heights, less than 1 km awway

Paulzx

civdef wrote: »

What matters at a fire is flow rates, not pressure in the main, the big red lorries have pumps to add all the pressure that is required.

.

I agree completely with you when you say flow rate at the branch nozzle is what counts when firefighting and this is controlled by the pump on the truck. However, would you not agree that inadequate supply to the pump from the main will restrict you?

If the flowrate in the main is too low due to low pressure then the pressure in the main does have an effect on the amount of water you get on the fire.demand will outstrip supply.

Obviously the diameter of the pipe in the main has an effect too ie you could have 10 bar pressure in the main but if the pipe is only 1 inch your flow rate is severly restricted.

Its a long time since i studied any of the maths for this so i'm trying to remember it off the top of my head.

There are huge problems throughout all of Dublin with mains water supply. For any prolonged incident making down with suction to open source is always going to be the best way of supplying large amounts of water but is not always possible and takes time during the important initial attack on the fire

brayblue24

That was my watering hole:(:(

(No pun intended)

civdef

Obviously the diameter of the pipe in the main has an effect too ie you could have 10 bar pressure in the main but if the pipe is only 1 inch your flow rate is severly restricted.

This is it,you can have good static pressure and crap flow - which won't be enough to feed the pump. If you have a good flow and only just enough pressure to get the water into the pump, the pump will do the rest.

Have you heard any talk of more water carriers in Dublin? The trend in more rural areas is to have as many tankers as possible.