Fire Suppression Systems Association

Additional resources include the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the Society for Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), Fire Suppression Systems Association (FSSA), and the American Petroleum Institute (API). Refer to the References section of this Guideline for specific resources. 

The unique combination of properties associated with certain fluonnated methanes and ethanes has led to their widespread use in fire suppression systems The three halogenated fire suppression agents in general use today are bromo-trifluoromethane (CF Br, Halon 1301), bromochlorodifluoromethane (CF2BtCl, Halon 1211) and, in small volumes, primarily in the republics of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European nations, 1,2-dibromotetrafluoroethane (BrCF2Cp2Br, Halon 2402)... 

If a fire occurs in a process plant, the consequences can be devastating. Therefore, even though the main focus is on preventing fires, some attention must be paid to controlling and suppressing fires as well. There are many types of fire suppression systems in use in the chemical process industries, so decision making is necessary. One must decide between water-based and nonwater-based systems, between automatic and manual systems, or between wet pipe and dry pipe systems. How to make these decisions is beyond the scope of this entry however, the National Fire Protection Association s Fire Protection Handbook and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Handbook of Fire... 

Flare smoke suppression system consisting of an air duct mixing section, air nozzle ring header and associated duct work from ground level to fire tip. 

Ideally most oil or gas incidents will be controlled by the process shut down systems (ESD, depressurization, drainage, etc.) and hopeful the fire protection systems (fireproofing, water deluge, etc ), will not be required. However these primary fire defense systems may not be able to control fire incidents if previous explosions have previously occurred. Before any consideration of fire suppression efforts, explosion effects must first be analyzed to determine the extent of protection necessary. Most major fire incidents associated with hydrocarbon process incidents are preceded by explosion incident. 

There are requirements for entire rooms as well. Inside storage rooms have design criteria that must be met. Inside storage room design and amounts may be found in 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.106. For example, storage rooms must have a ventilation syston that accomplishes six air exchanges per hour (29 CFR 1910.106(d)(4)(iv)). This may also go beyond OSHA requirements and be based upon the fire suppression capability of the protective system. Your liability insurance company will inspect and provide requirements usually based upon National Fire Protection Association or factory mutual standards. 

The fire protection system (FPS) and the fire hazard analysis (FHA) are presented in Chapter 9.5.1 and Appendix 9A of Reference 4.4 respectively. The FPS has been designed to provide appropriate fire detection and suppression in line with the nuclear safety implications of fires in specific areas of the plant it has been designed to take consideration of the fire hazard analysis, to make sure that safety-significant SSCs required for safe plant shutdown or to prevent significant releases of radioactive material can maintain functionality. It is not however required to ensure nuclear safety in the event of a fire. A full suite of safety functions associated with the FPS is specified in Chapter 6 of this PCSR. 

Accident-sequence development was discussed in Section 2.6.4. The major differences in this step for external events as contrasted with traditional internal events are the addition of external event-caused failures to the fault trees and the increased likelihood of multiple failures of safety systems due to correlations between component responses and between component capacities. There are additional considerations when determining core damage frequencies associated with fires. These considerations include the availability and effectiveness of automatic and manual fire suppression, and the locations of vital equipment with respect to potential fires. Coincident failures of fire protection systems and other systems are also considered. Only a small fraction of the fires that could occur in a nuclear power plant would be expected to lead to core damage. 

The discipline of engineering that applies scientific and technical principles to safeguard life, property, loss of income, and threat to the environment from the effects of fires, explosions, and related hazards. It is associated with the design and layout of buildings, industrial properties, structures, equipment, processes, and supporting systems. It is concerned with fire prevention, control, suppression, and extinguishment and provides for consideration of functional, operational, economic, aesthetic, and regulatory requirements. 

In the built environment, several systems and approaches to fire prevention and protection are employed. There are two basic categories of systems that are employed passive systems and active systems. Many of these systems are invisible to the untrained eye and remain unrecognized for their contribution. Others make their presence very evident once they have functioned, and either alerts occupants to an emergency or functions to suppress a fire. Also of great importance is fire prevention, which incorporates a combination of education of the occupants, as well as conscientious choices about how we interact with fuel, heat, and oxygen. It is important that any person responsible for the fire and life safety of a school obtain a copy of the Fire Protection Handbook from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This is a primary resource for fire and life safety in the built environment and has chapters on almost every topic related to fire prevention and suppression. 

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