Appeal 33678

PORTLAND FIRE & RESCUE Fire Design Manual

The Portland Fire & Design Manual requires that all systems must be designed using 80% of the normal maximum static pressure unless otherwise approved by the Fire Marshal’s Office.

This appeal proposes to use the flow test data taken from private hydrants on campus for the fire sprinkler design with a 10% safety reduction.

The Health Technology (HT) Building is an existing Type II-A Building located at the PCC Sylvania Campus in SW Portland. Built in 1964, it is a fully sprinklered four-story building, including the basement, and contains partially separated Group A-3, B, and S-1 mixed occupancies. The building is located on a sloped site with exits directly to the exterior on all floors of the building.

The proposed scope of work includes renovation of the West portion of the building, including reconfiguring interior spaces, converting the former natatorium (A-4 Occupancy) to classrooms (B Occupancy), and adding 9,087 sf of floor area with a new floor system to create a second level in the former natatorium.

The attached flow test data would be utilized for the fire sprinkler design with a 10% safety. The test data was taken from the private hydrants on the Portland Community College Sylvania campus. The private hydrants are on the discharge side of the site fire pump.

An actual flow test likely provides more accurate data for campus style arrangements. The 29 PSI static pressure to use for design provided by the attached Portland Water Bureau model is a 7 PSI reduction from the 36 PSI maximum static pressure. Utilizing a 10% safety on the test results taken from the actual flow test would results in an 8 PSI static pressure reduction. Therefore the 10% reduction from the actual flow test would result in a larger reduction in pressure and provide more safety.