Firefighter Air Replenishment System also known as Firefighter Breathing Air Replenishment System or Firefighter Air System is a building-installed air replenishment system that allows firefighters to refill their air tanks inside a structure during a fire or any emergency where air quality is compromised. It provides firefighters with rapid access to a constant, safe and reliable source of breathing air throughout complex structures such as high-rise buildings, large horizontal structures and tunnel systems. At a typical fill station, a firefighter can replenish the air in his or her Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus tank within one minute. A new appendix entitled "Requirements for Firefighter Air Replenishment Systems" was added to the International Fire Code of 2015 after The International Code Committee had voted to include it at the 2013 code hearing in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was added to the International code under Appendix L; F346-13.
History
FARS was born out of the worst accident of the Los Angeles' First Interstate Bank building fire of May 4, 1988. This 62-story landmark structure was the tallest building west of Chicago when it opened in 1973. When a fire broke out on the 10th floor of the building, it took 383 firefighters from 64 companies to extinguish the blaze - nearly half of the city's on-duty force. They used more than 600 air cylinders, each one hand carried up and down 10 flights of stairs, from and to a mobile air truck located outside the building. The need for air was so acute that firefighters were breaking windows to get it - a dangerous and difficult act. Within weeks of the fire, California fire service professionals gathered in Los Angeles to gain insight into the cause of the fire, and find ways to streamline future firefighting operations. The group immediately identified the process of shuttling air bottles up and down the stairs as a major strain on manpower and a big impediment to efficiently fighting the fire. It was characterized as a misuse of highly trained, very capable firefighters. These observations led one member of the group, Fire Marshal Louis Vella of the Redwood City Fire Department, to envision a standpipe for air that could be permanently installed inside a building, just like a water standpipe. Vella created a prototype system and patented the technology behind it. The first FARS was flawed. Piping to and from the exterior connection, where a mobile air truck would access the system, was buried underground and not properly protected from corrosion. Early systems were tested with water, which left residual moisture in the pipes and affected air quality. Anthony Turiello, a mechanical plumbing contractor working in the San Francisco Bay Area, is credited with making the FARS technology viable. Turiello bought the original FARS patent and founded Rescue Air Systems, Inc., the first company focused on the design and building of FARS, in 1993. Early advocates of FARS include Ronny J. Coleman, former California State Fire Marshal and expert in firefighter education and training and Jack Murphy, a nationally recognized high-rise fire expert and chairman of the New York City High-Rise Fire Safety Directors Association. One of the first buildings to be equipped with the system was the headquarters for software giant Oracle, a 15-story office building in Redwood Shores, CA. There are now more than 350 buildings across the United States equipped with FARS.
Firefighter deaths
There are numerous examples of firefighter safety issue created by the lack of a readily available supply of air during fires in high-rises or other large, complex structures. The Meridian Plaza fire on February 23, 1991 in Philadelphia claimed the lives of three firefighters when they became disoriented and ran out of air. They were found in close proximity to the stairwell several floors above the fire. In 2001, Phoenix firefighter Bret Tarver died in a fire at Southwest Supermarket during a 5-alarm blaze after his SCBA tank ran out of air and he became disoriented and unable to find his way out of the building. It was the first fatality for the Phoenix Fire Department in 20 years. The Phoenix fire department became an advocate for FARS shortly after Tarver's death.
Mechanism
FARS works just like a water standpipe, but delivers air instead of water. It provides supply of air in the volume and speed it is needed. Fire departments access the system through an exterior connection panel that is locked to prevent tampering. The fire department's mobile air unit arrives on scene, connects to the system via the exterior connection panel, and begins pumping air into the system. The firefighters inside the structure access the system at fill stations that are located throughout the building, usually in a stairwell on designated floors. FARS are equipped with an air monitoring system, which continuously monitors the air pressure, moisture and carbon monoxide levels. If moisture or CO levels exceed the minimum acceptable levels, the system shows red flashing lights and digital readouts at key components. In addition, a supervisory signal is sent to the fire command center and an independent web monitoring station. If the system becomes over-pressurized, the air monitoring system also acts as a pressure relief. A system isolation valve is placed alongside each interior air fill station and interior air fill panel. It provides the fire department with the ability to isolate the system. This can be done manually or remotely from the fire command center. The piping distribution system is made from stainless tubing. It delivers compressed air to all the building interior air fill stations and interior air fill panels. The stainless tubing also acts as a conduit in the interior of the building between the exterior connection panel and the air storage system. The entire piping distribution system is cross-connected with the exterior connection panels. Keys to both the exterior connection panel and the interior fill panels are kept by the fire department. Systems are generally charged to 4500-5000 psig and can contain enough air in the piping distribution system to fill several SCBA cylinders before the fire department's mobile air unit is on scene to supply air to the system.
Types
There are two types of FARS systems which enables local fire departments to require systems that meet their operational needs. One type is the Rupture Containment System or RCS. Using the RCS, the firefighter removes the air cylinders from the SCBA harness and refills it in a rupture containment chamber, or interior air fill station, that surrounds the entire cylinder. The second type is the Rapid Fill System or RFS which allows a firefighter to refill the SCBA while it remains on the firefighter's back using an interior air fill panel.
Uses
Research by the University of Waterloo, Ontario found that half of the firefighters' low air alarms activated within 11 to 12 minutes of fighting a high-rise fire, with some activating in as little as 8 minutes, giving firefighters very little time in a building to actually fight a fire with an adequate air supply. Experts estimate that up to half of the personnel on scene at a high-rise fire are being used as "donkeys" to simply fill air tanks and haul them up stairs to the floor of the building where firefighting operations are being staged, then haul the empties back to the ground for re-filling.
ArrayAdaptations of Codes
Numerous jurisdictions voluntarily amended their building codes to require installation of FARS. These cities include San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, and Phoenix. Other cities have required FARS by special mandate, to help small departments cope with potential emergencies in large structures, such as the Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, OR. The International Association of Plumbing Mechanical Officials led the way in developing code language by establishing a Firefighter Air Replenishment Systems Task Group. The National Fire Protection Association steered this code development. IAPMO IGC 220-2005 was adopted into its Uniform Plumbing Code in 2006 and is contained within Appendix F. The document was written to provide a framework for FARS adoption. In the fall of 2013, the International Code Council voted to include a code for FARS in the 2015 International Fire Code under Appendix K101.1. This followed a 2-year vetting process by members of the national fire service and health and safety organizations. Adolph Zubia, Chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire and Life Safety Section, representing the ICC Fire Code Action Committee, was the proponent of Appendix K. Nearly all of the major professional associations and life safety organizations within the fire service supported the FARS appendix, including the IAFC, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the National Association of State Fire Marshals, and many more. Structures equipped with FARS include Infinity Towers in San Francisco, Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA, the San Jose Civic Center in San Jose, CA, the Department of Justice building in Sacramento, CA, the PeaceHealth Medical Center in Springfield, OR, the Arizona Public Service headquarters in Phoenix, AZ, and the Promenade Condominium project in Boynton Beach, FL. Numerous fire departments and educational institutions have FARS installed in their training centers, including the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute at the University of Maryland, the Glendale, AZ Regional Training Facility, and the training facility of the Phoenix Fire Department.
ArrayDeveloper Pushback
FARS became part of the San Francisco Fire Code in 2004, by unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors and the support of the San Francisco Fire Department. In 2008, under pressure from developers and under a new fire chief, the San Francisco Fire Department recommended rescinding the FARS code in favor of a firefighter elevator that had not yet been introduced in the United States. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously affirmed their support for FARS. Five years later, an effort between the powerful San Francisco Building Owners and Managers Association and the SFFD achieved partial success, convincing a more developer-friendly Board of Supervisors to limit the FARS requirement to buildings between 75 and 120' and tunnel systems. BOMA and its advocates claimed the fire service elevator, still not available in the United States, would suffice as a delivery system for air and was a better safety option. FARS industry representatives charged the move was driven by the developers desire to reduce construction cost and maximize profit and that the elevator was not an equivalency to a FARS. A number of national fire service experts agreed. Developers made a similar push in San Jose, CA, 50 miles south of San Francisco, but were unsuccessful after the San Jose Firefighters Union supported FARS. BOMA's national organization has made the defeat of codes requiring FARS one of its top priorities.
ArrayNotes
ArrayExternal links
- FARS added to 2015 international Fire Code
- 2015 International Fire Code Highlight
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