Fire hydrant systems for buildings – new Amendment
Amendment 1 to Fire hydrant systems for buildings, NZS 4510:2008, was published on 30 January 2009. Amendment 1 enables the Standard to be incorporated by reference in the Acceptable Solution of the Fire Safety Compliance Document, for Clauses C1 to C4 of the New Zealand Building Code.
The committee took the opportunity when drafting this amendment to update a number of referenced documents, to include the latest versions, include provision for the use of mid-floor landings, and add a minimum flow pressure for non-sprinkler protected buildings.
Download this amendment (free).
(Note that a charge applies for hard copies of amendments.)
Burning down the house!
Reprinted with permission from Plumbers’ Journal, January 2009.
Firefighters normally extinguish fires but, on this particular September day, they were there to start one. An old timber villa in Johnsonville, Wellington, was to be set alight by the New Zealand Fire Service to demonstrate the effectiveness of home fire sprinklers. The house had two similar rooms either side of a central corridor, making it perfect for comparing fire growth in a room with and without sprinklers.
With the crowd gathered at a safe distance, fire engineer James Firestone talked about the benefits of sprinklers in houses: 'These are really just a feature of well designed plumbing, adding only 1.5 to 2% to the total construction cost.'
Flashover – the point where all flammable items in the house burst into flames at once – can occur within several minutes of a fire starting, explained James. The fire truck, meanwhile, can take five to seven minutes to arrive, by wh ...read more [opens in new window]
UPDATE ON STANDARDS IN DEVELOPMENT
Fire sprinkler systems for residential occupancies Committee: P4515 Amendment
Project Manager: Erin Alderton
Estimated publication date: November 2009
Comments: The Standard will be amended to clearly define a residential occupancy and any fire formal interpretations relating to NZS 4515 since its last edition in 2003 will be applied. The committee will meet for the first meeting in mid March.
Fire sprinkler systems for houses Committee: P4517 Amendment
Project Manager: Erin Alderton
Estimated Publication Date: January 2010
Comments: The Standard will be amended to emphasise its application to domestic occupancies only. Any fire formal interpretations relating to NZS 4517 since it was last amended in 2003 will be applied during this amendment project. The committee met for the first time at the end of February.
Automatic fire sprinkler systems correction amendment Committee: P4541
Project Manager: Vicki Allison
Estimated Publication Date: June 2009
Comments: The purpose of this project is to publish a correction amendment to NZS 4541:2007 to fix a small number of editorial errors. The committee that developed the Standard has been re-constituted and had a teleconference in February to agree the draft contents. The Draft will be released for public comment in March.
Fire resistant doorsets adoption Committee: P4520
Project Manager: Jono East
Estimated Publication Date: December 2009
Comments: A committee is currently being constituted to review and adopt AS 1905.1:2005 as a New Zealand Standard. The adoption will enable Department of Building and Housing to reference the new Standard in clause C of the Compliance Documents to the New Zealand Building Code.
Interconnected smoke alarms for single household units Committee: P4514
Project Manager: Vicki Allison
Estimated Publication Date: September 2009
Comments: The amended NZS 4514 will continue to help prevent the loss of life and provide ongoing protection of single household units by specifying the requirements for the installation and commissioning of externally powered interconnected smoke alarms. The committee that developed the Standard is being reconstituted and had its first meeting in mid February.