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Contents
  1. 1Definition and terminology
  2. 2Components and layout
  3. 3Water supply, flow and pressure
  4. 4How water puts out a fire
  5. 5Fires for which water is unsuitable
  6. 6Who uses a hose reel
  7. 7Hose reels, extinguishers and sprinklers
  8. 8Reliability and maintenance
  9. 9See also
  10. 10Notes
  11. 11References

A hose reel is a fire hose kept permanently connected to the water supply of a building, so that trained occupants or employees can fight a fire before the fire department arrives.[1][2] The glossary of NUREG-1805 defines a related term, the small hose system, as hose of 5/8 in. to 1½ in. (about 16 to 38 mm) diameter for the use of employees, intended to control and extinguish fires in their earliest stage.[3] The International Fire Engineering Guidelines name hose reels, together with fire extinguishers, as the means by which building occupants may suppress a fire.[4] In high-rise buildings, such hoses may hang on the standpipes, which also provide connections for the hoses that firefighters carry in.[5]

Rules for hose reels differ between countries and documents. In the United States, NFPA 14 provides Class II hose stations with 38 mm (1½ in.) hose for trained occupants, designed for about 380 L/min (100 gal/min), as summarised by NIST.[6] The New York City Building Code required occupant hose reels and, for that reason, had no requirements for fire extinguishers.[7] Their value depends on the user: fire engineering analyses customarily assume that occupants will not fight a fire effectively unless they belong to a trained emergency crew.[8] Water also does not suit every fire, and NUREG-1805 warns never to use it on burning metals.[9]

Definition and terminology

The glossary of NUREG-1805, a report of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, uses several related terms. A small hose system is hose of 5/8 in. to 1½ in. diameter for the use of employees, intended to control and extinguish incipient fires.[3] An incipient fire is one that can still be controlled with portable extinguishers, Class II standpipes or small hose systems, without protective clothing or breathing apparatus.[10] A standpipe hose cabinet holds standpipe outlets or stored fire hose, and the hoses are usually pre-connected and kept in a rack with release pins.[2] The list of abbreviations in the same report uses FHR for fire hose reel.[11]

Many high-rise and other large buildings have an internal system of water mains, the standpipes, connected to fire hose stations; these pipes are covered under Dry and wet risers.[1] In the World Trade Center (WTC) towers in New York, hoses pre-connected to the standpipes in the stairwells were installed for trained occupants. The same standpipes offered hose connections for the fire department on every floor.[12] For WTC 7, the NIST investigation describes hose reels in the stair enclosures and hose cabinets throughout the floors.[13] A hose reel is not the same as a fire hydrant, which supplies water to fire department pumpers.[14] Nor is it a fire department connection, through which the fire department pumps water from its trucks into a building system.[15]

Components and layout

In the WTC towers, a typical hose rack started with a 64 mm (2½ in.) standpipe valve and a reducer to 38 mm (1½ in.). A rack or cabinet then held 38 m (125 ft) of fire hose with a nozzle.[16] The racks were mounted about 1.4 m (4½ ft) above the stair landing. This arrangement let the fire department or a fire brigade start manual firefighting with the smaller hose without carrying hoses up from the ground floor.[16] Such a station was provided on every floor of every stair. Extra hose cabinets were added so that the whole building lay within 7.6 m (25 ft) of the end of a hose nozzle.[17]

Water supply passes through a valve and hose to a nozzle aimed at the fire.
A hose reel works as a connected assembly, not as an isolated fitting. Based on Iqbal and Salley (2004), pp. F-61–F-62.

The 1968 Building Code of the City of New York was used for the design of WTC 1 and 2. It required standpipes to be placed so that a 6.1 m (20 ft) stream from a nozzle on at most 38 m (125 ft) of hose could reach every point of every floor.[18] Hose stations had to stand at the standpipe risers, inside or next to the entrances of the stair enclosures.[19] In the occupancy groups that included the business use of the towers, the hose was 1½ in. unlined linen hose, and auxiliary hose stations with the same hose were allowed.[20][19] Water had to be available at every hose outlet at all times, or be made available automatically when a hose valve was opened.[19]

Under NFPA 14, as summarised by NIST, Class II hose stations are spaced so that every area lies within 6.1 m (20 ft) of the nozzle of a 30 m (100 ft) hose.[6] These stations provide small streams for trained occupants or fire brigades to fight incipient fires and to finish off afterwards. Class I systems instead have 64 mm valves that supply heavy streams for the fire department in advanced fires, and Class III systems combine both.[6]

Water supply, flow and pressure

A hose reel is only as good as its fire water supply. Wet standpipes, the preferred arrangement, are filled with water at all times and connected to an automatic supply such as the city mains, a tank with a pump, or an elevated tank.[21] Manual dry standpipes have only fire department connections and no automatic supply.[21] In NUREG-1805, a manual standpipe relies on the fire service to supply it, and a semi-automatic standpipe needs a control device to be activated before water reaches the hose outlets.[2]

The flows are modest compared with those for the fire service. NFPA 14, as summarised by NIST, designs Class II systems for about 380 L/min (100 gal/min) at about 450 kPa (65 psi) at the most demanding standpipe.[6] Class I and III systems are designed for about 1,900 L/min (500 gal/min) at about 690 kPa (100 psi).[6] In New York, pressure-reducing valves at 1½ in. hose stations were to limit the pressure to about 590 kPa (85 psi) at a flow of about 265 L/min (70 gal/min).[22] In the WTC towers, tanks of about 19 m³ (5,000 gal) could supply about 1,900 L/min (500 gal/min) for 10 minutes, so that manual firefighting could begin before the manual fire pumps were started.[23]

Hose reels usually share their supply with other systems. In WTC 7, the hose connections were supplied from combined sprinkler and standpipe systems, so they had the same supply zones as the sprinklers.[24] For the lowest 20 floors, a loss of power to the automatic fire pump or significant damage to the city main could interrupt that supply.[25] According to NUREG/CR-6850, a rupture of the firefighting water main in a US nuclear power plant could make all water-based suppression, including manual hose stations, unavailable until the break is isolated.[26] Several outlets on one supply also compete for water. In NIST's calculations, four hose valves at the top of a WTC tower needed three or four fire pumps, while two pumps could supply only one.[22]

One riser and pump supply several hose reels, with an independent backup path.
Shared infrastructure can disable multiple hose outlets at once. Based on Hopkins et al. (2005), pp. xli and 149 and Nowlen et al. (2005b), p. 13-3.

How water puts out a fire

A fire needs fuel, oxygen and enough heat, the three sides of the fire triangle described in Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering.[27] Water from a hose acts on this triangle in several ways at once. When it reaches a burning solid, it cools the fuel, which then releases less flammable gas. It also cools the flames, so that they feed less heat back to the fuel.[28] The steam it forms may keep oxygen away from the fire in some confined conditions, and a water fog may block heat radiation.[28]

Water is the most commonly used extinguishing agent, mainly because it is widely available and cheap, and because it has a high specific heat and a high latent heat of evaporation.[29] The specific heat of water, 4,186 J/(kg·K), is about four times that of air, and turning water into steam takes extra energy on top of that.[30] Fleming gives 9,280 Btu for one US gallon of water heated from a room temperature of 21 °C until it has turned into steam at 100 °C. That is about 2.6 MJ per litre.[29]

A fire at the Point Beach nuclear plant in the United States in 2001 shows how little water a small fire can need. The fire brigade first discharged about 32 kg (70 lb) of dry chemical from three portable extinguishers without putting the fire out.[31] It then extinguished the fire easily with a hose line, using 57 to 76 L (15 to 20 gal) of water.[31][32] The dry chemical had covered large areas with white dust, whereas the small quantity of water left little to clean up.[31][32]

Fires for which water is unsuitable

Water does not suit every fire. In the table of fire classes in NUREG-1805, water is listed for Class A fires in ordinary combustibles such as wood, cloth, paper, rubber and many plastics.[9] It is not listed for flammable liquids and gases, for energised electrical equipment or for cooking oils and fats. Water and water-based extinguishers should never be used on Class D fires in combustible metals such as magnesium, sodium or lithium.[9]

Liquids need special care. A burning liquid that is lighter than water and does not mix with it simply floats on the water and keeps burning.[33] Water applied to a burning oil or fat far above the boiling point of water turns to steam below the surface. The steam can throw out the oil in an eruption that spreads the fire.[33] Some materials react with water and can produce heat, flammable or toxic gases or explosions, although enough water can overcome small amounts of such materials.[29]

Trained responder deploys hose past obstructions and checks water-compatible fuel and egress.
Hose deployment requires access, training and a suitable fire scenario. Based on Evans et al. (2005), p. 9 and Iqbal and Salley (2004), pp. B-16 and B-58.

Who uses a hose reel

Hose reels are meant for firefighting by trained occupants and staff in the first stage of a fire, although firefighters can use them too. In NUREG-1805, trained occupants or employees operate the hoses until the fire department arrives, after which firefighters can connect their own hoses to outlets near the fire.[1] NIST notes that the safe and effective use of pre-connected hoses requires training.[5] In the WTC towers, each hose station was intended for a trained fire brigade or the New York City fire department.[34] At the Waterford 3 nuclear plant in 1985, the fire brigade used a local hose station and water streams to put out a feedwater pump fire in about 10 minutes.[35]

How far a design may rely on occupants is uncertain. NIST describes a long-standing debate about relying on occupants to use pre-connected hoses, and notes that some jurisdictions allow only Class I standpipes, for fire department use.[21] The International Fire Engineering Guidelines state that fire engineering analyses customarily assume that occupants will not fight a fire effectively unless they belong to a specially trained site emergency crew.[8] If there is good reason to expect effective firefighting by occupants, the analysis may include it, together with the time at which it starts.[8] Its effect on the design fire is then taken as no effect, control or extinguishment.[36]

Research on human behaviour helps to explain this caution. In the SFPE Handbook, Bryan describes how a person who has recognised a fire decides between leaving the building and fighting the fire, for example with an extinguisher.[37] People in a familiar role and familiar surroundings, such as those with firefighting training, are likely to choose more suitable actions.[38] In a study of an office building fire in Osaka, the regular occupants fought the fire and alerted others, while people attending training sessions there, who did not know the building, mainly evacuated.[39]

Hose reels, extinguishers and sprinklers

The International Fire Engineering Guidelines treat hose reels and fire extinguishers alike, as means of suppression by occupants within the detection, warning and suppression sub-system.[4][40] Building codes do not always require both. NIST found that the New York City Building Code had no requirements for fire extinguishers, because it required occupant hose reels instead.[7] The Port Authority's design guidelines for the WTC nevertheless required portable extinguishers in all spaces, under a fire department directive and the New York City Fire Prevention Code.[41] For battery rooms in US nuclear power plants, NRC Regulatory Guide 1.189, as summarised in NUREG-1805, says that a hose station and portable extinguishers should be readily available outside the room.[42]

Hose reels are not a substitute for automatic sprinklers, and NIST notes that standpipe systems are not considered an alternative to automatic fire suppression.[21] NUREG-1805 explains that sprinklers typically use less water than fire hoses. The human response, from discovering the fire to the arrival of a fire brigade, usually takes much longer than sprinklers need to control a fire in its early stage.[43] Even in a sprinklered building, people with extinguishers or hose lines are generally needed to put out all the burning, especially where the fire is shielded from the sprinkler spray.[5]

In Australian performance-based design, firefighting by occupants is usually left out of the design fire. The handbook for the Fire Safety Verification Method notes that many smouldering and small flaming fires are dealt with by the occupants and therefore go unreported.[44] It is common practice to consider reported fires only and to ignore suppression by occupants.[44] For the risk of a major structural collapse, the handbook suggests deriving the frequency of fires that occupants could not manage from fire statistics.[45]

Reliability and maintenance

A hose reel can fail anywhere between the water source and the nozzle. For sprinkler systems, NUREG-1805 lists causes of water supply failure such as a closed water supply valve, a broken supply header, an empty water tank and a fire pump that does not start.[46] Where hose stations share that supply, as they did in WTC 7, the same faults would affect them.[24] For US nuclear power plants, NUREG/CR-6850 asks whether hose stations would survive an earthquake, whether an alternative source of firefighting water exists and whether there is enough hose to use it.[47] Where a water hose reel is credited, the analyst also checks that vulnerable components are shielded from water spray and that drainage is adequate. Floor penetrations must be verified as sealed, so that firefighting water cannot run into the compartment below.[48]

Performance records are not kept for standpipe and pre-connected hose systems, and NIST found their performance difficult to assess.[21][49] At the WTC, these systems met the New York City Building Code but not the flow rates and durations of NFPA 14.[50] The International Fire Engineering Guidelines ask that active fire protection equipment be maintained in line with the relevant codes, standards and manufacturer's literature, in some jurisdictions through essential safety provisions.[51] Among the American standards, NUREG-1805 lists NFPA 1962 (2003 edition) on the inspection, care and use of fire hose, couplings and nozzles and the service testing of fire hose.[52]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-62.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-61.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-50.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), pp. 1.7-1–1.7-2.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Evans et al. (2005), p. 9.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lew et al. (2005), p. 151.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 1.7-7.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. B-16.
  10. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-38.
  11. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. G-4.
  12. ↑ Evans et al. (2005), p. xxix.
  13. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 128.
  14. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-26.
  15. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. F-25.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 40.
  17. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 127.
  18. ↑ Grill and Johnson (2005b), p. 29.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Grill and Johnson (2005b), p. 30.
  20. ↑ Grill and Johnson (2005b), p. 2.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 21.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 148.
  23. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 39.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Hopkins et al. (2005), p. 149.
  25. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. xli.
  26. ↑ Nowlen et al. (2005b), p. 13-3.
  27. ↑ Van Rossum (2027), §4.2.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. B-15.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Fleming (2002), p. 4-72.
  30. ↑ Van Rossum (2027), §3.4.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. H-29.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. H-30.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. B-58.
  34. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. xxxiv.
  35. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. H-13.
  36. ↑ National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 1.7-4.
  37. ↑ Bryan (2002), p. 3-318.
  38. ↑ Bryan (2002), p. 3-319.
  39. ↑ Horiuchi et al. (1986), as cited in Bryan (2002), pp. 3-319 and 3-340.
  40. ↑ National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 1.2-10.
  41. ↑ Grill and Johnson (2005c), p. 17.
  42. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. 16-6.
  43. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. 10-1.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Australian Building Codes Board (2020b), pp. 61–62.
  45. ↑ Australian Building Codes Board (2020b), p. 92.
  46. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. 10-2.
  47. ↑ Nowlen et al. (2005b), pp. 13-7–13-8.
  48. ↑ Nowlen et al. (2005b), p. 11-18.
  49. ↑ Hopkins et al. (2005), p. xlii.
  50. ↑ Evans et al. (2005), p. xxxi.
  51. ↑ National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 1.7-8.
  52. ↑ Iqbal and Salley (2004), p. E-12.

References

  • Australian Building Codes Board. (2020b). Handbook: Fire Safety Verification Method (Print version 1.1).
  • Bryan, J. L. (2002). Behavioral response to fire and smoke. In P. J. DiNenno, D. Drysdale, C. L. Beyler, W. D. Walton, R. L. P. Custer, J. R. Hall Jr., & J. M. Watts Jr. (Eds.), SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering (3rd ed., pp. 3-315–3-341). National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
  • Evans, D. D., Peacock, R. D., Kuligowski, E. D., Dols, W. S., & Grosshandler, W. L. (2005). Active fire protection systems (NIST NCSTAR 1-4). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • Fleming, R. P. (2002). Automatic sprinkler system calculations. In P. J. DiNenno, D. Drysdale, C. L. Beyler, W. D. Walton, R. L. P. Custer, J. R. Hall Jr., & J. M. Watts Jr. (Eds.), SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering (3rd ed., pp. 4-72–4-87). National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
  • Grill, R. A., & Johnson, D. A. (2005b). Fire protection and life safety provisions applied to the design and construction of WTC 1, 2, and 7 and post-construction provisions applied after occupancy (NIST NCSTAR 1-1D). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • Grill, R. A., & Johnson, D. A. (2005c). Post-construction modifications to fire protection and life safety systems of the World Trade Center towers (NIST NCSTAR 1-1H). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • Hopkins, M., Schoenrock, J., & Budnick, E. (2005). Fire suppression systems (NIST NCSTAR 1-4B). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • Iqbal, N., & Salley, M. H. (2004). Fire Dynamics Tools (FDTs): Quantitative fire hazard analysis methods for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fire Protection Inspection Program (NUREG-1805). U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
  • Lew, H. S., Bukowski, R. W., & Carino, N. J. (2005). Design, construction, and maintenance of structural and life safety systems (NIST NCSTAR 1-1). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • National Research Council of Canada, International Code Council, Department of Building and Housing, & Australian Building Codes Board. (2005). International fire engineering guidelines (2005 ed.). Australian Building Codes Board.
  • Nowlen, S. P., Najafi, B., Wyant, F. J., Forester, J., Kazarians, M., Kolaczkowski, A., Joglar, F., Funk, D., Hannaman, G., & Anoba, R. (2005b). EPRI/NRC-RES fire PRA methodology for nuclear power facilities: Vol. 2. Detailed methodology (NUREG/CR-6850; EPRI 1011989). Electric Power Research Institute; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
  • Van Rossum, E. (2027). Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering. Fire Safety Academy.
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