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A Woeful (True) Tale Concerning an Annual Fire Systems Inspection and the Competence of Your Service Technician

Do you have confidence that inspection of your fire systems by an outside service provider will not result in a business interruption loss? Since we as facility or property managers are not exposed to day-in and day-out fire systems operations and inspections, it is fair to say that we are not experts and rely on technicians to do the job. Here's a true tale of a recent event that makes a facility or property manager cringe and pleads for a pre-inspection check list that could have been used to avoid problems.

A large call center operation in another State was scheduled for an annual fire system inspection, to include the Halon system that protects the main server room. A new national service provider arrived to conduct their first inspection, replacing the local technician and the company that had been doing the inspection for the past 10 plus years.

As the inspection was to be conducted during normal business operating hours, call floor agents were advised that fire system testing was going to be accomplished shortly and to disregard the sounders and the strobe activations. The service technician went first to the server room and while he responded to certain questions that the Property Manager asked regarding his knowledge of the Halon system, he did not display good confidence that he was knowledgeable of the Halon system. The Property Manager's gut feeling was not to permit the technician to start the inspection, but then decided to let him continue as after all, the reputable service provider sent the technician as trained and competent technician to do the job.

Within moments, the technician removed a card from the panel and this immediately discharged the 350 lbs of Halon into the server room. The force of release blew ceiling tile and associated dust above the tile covered the room. Building alarms activated and strobes and sounders were pulsing. The perplexed technician attempted to restore the card and the Halon system tried to activate again. This happened quickly a third time and finally the UPS (Uninterruptible Power System) went into a fail safe mode by blowing a couple fuses. Since the commercial power flows through the UPS to regulate it, now no electrical power was able to service the building. Darkness prevailed in the building with the strobes and sounders activated. Needless to say, it was an exciting moment for the management of the building to request an orderly exit from the building. No one was injured in the process, but it was a notable event.

Well over 500 agents were unable to receive and process incoming telephone calls for close to 3 1/2 hours until electrical power was flowing, systems were tested and operations were re-established. This resulted in a significant business loss.

Labor and parts for repair of the UPS were significant. Assembling persons qualified to bring all systems back to an operational state was a challenge.

The penalty in the State for accidental release of Halon when the fire department responds is $25,000 per 100 lbs ($87,500).

The cost to refill the Halon cylinder is $28,000, but it took 3 days to get refilled and security guards had to be put in place 24 hours a day for 3 days to perform as "fire" guards.

UPS repair technicians in addition to electricians had to be called in. HVAC technicians had to verify that the Liebert systems were operating properly due to the sudden power off situation. Quite a bit of energy and emotion was involved in reestablishing operations.

Fortunately, a legal service agreement was in place with the provider and appropriate insurance certificates were on file. The service provider will bear/reimburse for most of the expense incurred.

Here are a couple points to learn from this story.

· If your gut reaction to a situation is that someone is not qualified to do a job, respond to that and temporarily suspend the activity until qualifications and skills can be verified.

· Advance definition of procedures and posting of bold, brief and clear cautions on the fire panel door will help avoid accidental Halon/FM200 discharge.

· Always have a written service agreement and insurance certificate in place before fire system inspection operations are started.

Isn't it fun to be responsible for fire systems inspection?

 

On a Lighter Note . . . the True Tale of Annie, the Fat Cat!

Our very own Julie Sheaffer's cat was featured in John Kelso's column about Austin's Fattest Cats!

Poor kitty looks like it had been sent to a feedlot for cats, to fatten it up for market. That cat's ready to ship, as they say in west Texas. Call the packing plant!

Here's a cut/paste of the article that's no longer in their archives - and I've attached the picture that John Kelso used of Julie's VERY rotund kitty!! By the way, Kelso never sent her any sausage as promised for the 'grand prize' . . . but then Annie's been on a serious diet lately and he failed to mention that in his article! She hardly eats anything - so it's not like Julie is overfeeding her. Evidently, there were a lot of negative comments written in by their readers - that thought Julie had nothing better to do but feed her cat bowls and bowls of food!!!!! Guess it never occurred to anyone that there might be something wrong with her poor kitty. Unfortunately the vet can't figure it out. She's getting heavier by the day and eats less and less. Maybe some Milk of Magnesia might help........? Julie has tried EVERYTHING!!!

Published in the Austin-American Statesman, Tuesday, July 15, 2003, by John Kelso

I hate writing columns with great pictures like the one here, because I spend the day listening to people telling me, "Hey, Kelso, really funny picture with that column."

Then they spend so much time laughing at the photo that they don't bother to read the article. I can hear it now at your breakfast table: "Hey, Martha, check out this fat cat."

The fluffy tub of feline guts you're looking at is Annie, who really should be named Fannie. Annie, who is a whole lot of cat, is the winner of our Fat Pet Contest. This "fake doorstop," as her owner, Julie Sheaffer, calls her, looks as if she's devoted her life to keeping the Friskies company afloat.

For the victory, Annie and Julie win 10 pounds of sausage.

You can't make fun of gravity-challenged people anymore without causing World War III. So I figured, what the heck, let's have some fun here and insult people's fat animals instead.

Annie weighs about 20 pounds and is about 10 to 12 years old. Or, as Julie points out, she has had "plenty of time to grow."

This is not so much life imitating art as it is life imitating furniture. Annie's favorite position is the one you see her in here. This is because she is "so rotund that she's simply more comfortable propped up against a wall," Julie pointed out.

Annie's problem isn't that she's an overeater. It's that she's an undermover. "She moves to eat in the morning and the evening and a couple of snacks during the day, and that's about it," said Julie, who lives in the Barton Creek area and has had Annie about eight years. "She's too big to jump up on the bed or the couch anymore. So she'll beg to be picked up and snuggled now and then."

Julie is lucky she hasn't thrown her back out lugging this cat around.

"I guess that would be comparable to us weighing about 400 pounds," she said. "She's happiest when she doesn't have to move much."

Temperature Issues

Probably the largest number of complaints that a facility manager has is hot and cold calls.

How do you manage temperatures in your organization?

Here are my thoughts:

Until the beginning of the summer, our thermostats were set at 73 degrees. For energy conservation, our thermostats were programmed at 76 degrees. If there is a complaint about a conference room temperature, the thermostat is lowered to 73 or 74 degrees. Classrooms, a gym, and commercial areas are still at 73 degrees.  The factory setting for control at the thermostat was plus or minus 2.5 degrees. This has been set at plus or minus .5 degrees to eliminate conflicts at the thermostat and to ensure that people abide by the rules. We checked the temperatures in 230 cubicles and offices becuase on some hot complaints.  After calibrating the thermostats, all temperatures were okay except where people needed 3 computers. Fans are good.

Here’s the result of a survey of several facilities

Suggestions.

Consider setting your thermostat at 74 to 75
Since rates are going up, reconsider motion detectors in restrooms and conference rooms. 
Program your thermostat or energy management system to go from 65 to 82 during off hours.
Calibrate your thermostats
Check your return air.
Be proactive and do a temperature survey.  If it's cool, your not saving energy.

By the way, my commercial electrical rate is going to go up over 19% in the next 6 months.

Submitted by J.R. Howard

Facilities Personnel City Lore (chuckle for the day)

           WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS
Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend. His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.

You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally.

Moral of the story: Don't work too hard. Nobody notices anyway.
(Wouldn't there be an odor after 5 days???)