"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On 10 Nov 2004 21:08:06 GMT, (Gould 0738) wrote:

We're on the verge of losing a lot of the covered moorage in our area. As
a
result of some of the fires you can see at this link:

http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/fire/pho...MarineMenu.htm

the city wants to revise the fire code and require moorage owners to
either
1) install high capacity waterlines, standpipes, sprinklers, and controls

or

2) remove the coverings and leave the moorages fully exposed.

I have heard that several property owners have compared the costs and
decided
that tearing off the roofing is preferable to investing in sprinklers and
plumbing.

Most of our covered moorages have no firewalls between slips, or even
between
every several slips. Once a fire gets going, the heat from one boat is
trapped
by the overhead to catch adjoining vessels afire all the soooner. If two
or
three get fully engulfed, it's almost impossible to contain with
land-based
fire units.

Um, no, that's not how it works.

It 'could' if the roof was low enough and there was heat being trapped, but
not likely with one open side to the water.


How fire spreads is from close exposure to IR and direct heat
radiation from the fire. The only way to eliminate the possibility of
boats close to the fire catching on fire is to spray water on the
adjacent boats cooling the surface thus reducing the possibility of
the fire spreading. Anybody who has ever sat in front of a fire place
knows how IR heading works.

We had one in our marina where the dock lines melted through, and the boat
on fire drifted across to the opposing slips.


It may be cheaper to remove the roof, but it ain't gonna do squat.
And your insurance company will probably tell you that if you care to
ask.

I would suggest that you get a State or Local Fire Marshall in there
to show you that the first choice is the best choice. Removing the
roof is meaningless if the dockage space is open except for the roof.
I know what you are thinking, that heat rises and thus removed the
heat will escape from the adjacent docks, but it's not true.

I personally don't think the sprinkler lines would do much for boat fires,
(too many confined spaces within the boats thmeselves) but the high
capacity lines nearby would certainly be a good idea.




The most cost effective choice is not always the best choice.

Good luck.

Later,

Tom