Tuesday Morning – Keep Dry
Yesterday's story (HERE) about the fire in the underground parking garage in France that burned 90 autos was a little reminiscent of last weekend's Caption Contest photo entry. But it also brought a comment from one of our readers who mentioned that on a recent visit to Europe he was surprised at the widespread lack of fire sprinklers in buildings of high value and/or life hazard. That is something that we mandate in a lot of occupancies and come to expect in several other places voluntarily.
Waaay back, when I was still on the job, I was a member of an NFPA standards committee that was responsible for developing recommended practices and standards for fire protection in libraries, museums and historic sites. At one of our meetings a discussion led to something-or-other that brought up that very point, and I wondered out loud why the Europeans are so reluctant to use fire sprinklers when their effectiveness is unquestioned. The man who was our committee chairman at the time was an FPE who worked mainly in the academic field and had spent a year in Europe on a sabbattacal studying such things, and he explained why this is so.
It has to do with culture and historic background. Keep in mind that civilization in North America is, for all practical purposes, only about 300 years old. And over that time our greatest losses have been from towns and cities burning down. With a continent filled with an endless supply of trees, we kept building and rebuilding with our primary structural material, wood. Thus, our measures of fire protection have been focused on extinguishment along with prevention (which hasn't been all that effective).
On the other hand, the European countries have a history of civilized behavior that goes back nearly 1,000 years. In those earlier centuries they had conflagrations as well, but unlike No. America, they started running out of trees and began building more and more using masonry materials, such as stone primarily, and brick. Their primary fire protection then became the natural containment built into the structure that greatly reduced the fire spread. Couple that with the centuries of firm-handed rule by kings and emperors who brutally enforced lawful activity by severely punishing people who upset the peace – such as letting their house catch on fire – and they built in more compliant living habits that were more closely focused on preventing things from happening that would lead to their being tossed in the clink.
So over the last few centuries, their greatest losses have come not from fire, but from water, mainly floods and disastrous storms. While we worry about things burning, their culture has taught them to worry about things getting wet. And what do sprinklers do? They get things wet. While once in a rare while they get a loss like yesterday's parking garage, it's not enough to offset the expenditures of sprinklering places and besides, they're uncomfortable with it. The general population, that is, not the firefighters. But that's starting to change now and I will offer my opinion on why it is changing at tomorrow's lineup.
Right now it's time for us to get this equipment checked out for today's activities. I'll get some more coffee started and see you back in the day room in a little while.
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NHL Conference Semi-Finals
Standings as of Tuesday Morning
Western Conference
Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators — Canucks – 2, Preds – 1. Vancouver wins series 4-2, advances to conference finals.
San Jose Sharks vs. Detroit Red Wings — Wings – 4, Sharks – 3. San Jose leads series 3-2. Next game Tuesday night.
Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay Lightning will face the Boston Bruins for Eastern Conference championship. Dates TBA.
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