Fires in car parks

efanton · 17-10-2023 11:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121246581#Comment_121246581

Back in the 1980's when there were no PC servers only mainframes that took up entire rooms or floors of a building I worked as a main frame operator. Every year or so we had the safety drill. It was absolutely imperative that the mainframe room was evacuated within 90 seconds, the target was one minute, I don't thinks we ever had a drill where the place wasn't evacuated in less than 40 seconds and that included a few minor tasks that had to be performed before leaving the building. Training made what appears to be a very short period of time surprisingly long.

Three things to note about those Halon systems (that's the gas they used to extinguish any fire) is first it is extremely expensive, I mean seriously seriously expensive (but obviously far cheaper than a muli-million pound mainframe that it would save). Second, when the fire alarm was pressed the timer started and about two minutes later the halon was released. At best it would knock you unconscious as it literally removes all oxygen from the air within seconds, we were warned there was a possibility of permanent lung damage if you were caught in a Halon release, ( don't know if that was just to scare the bejesus out of us or not), and finally third the pressure at which that gas is stored is crazy, The false ceiling tiles would be ripped from the ceiling and thrown around the room like they were in a hurricane. Once the drill was over and the building was left to ventilate you would come in and it looked like there was a inch of two of snow on the floor, that was what was left of a lot of the ceiling tiles.

There no way they could use such systems in public car parks as they require an enclosed space to operate effectively. even if you could enclose a car park I doubt very much that they would use a gas suppression system as there would be no opportunity to train the general public in evacuation procedures, or that any insurance company would cover any injuries caused by such systems. I'm sure since then they have come up with safer gasses to use but all the same it appear to me to be a very specialised system that's also very expensive.

I suppose a miniaturised system would be possible that enclosed just the car battery inn cars but I would imagine the cost would nerf that idea.

Gumbo · 19-10-2023 2:41pm

I’m at a Fire Safety Conference today and one of the exhibitors have these available.

Another has these, single use versions available. Compatible with Lithium fires also. Might handy for the car or home at €106 but realistically what impact will they have 🤷