My Jerry Mcguire Moment

In construction there are fire codes. One method to contain out-of-control fire is to build a barrier so that the heat of a fire would take 1 or 2 hours to burn through. Another is to fully fire-sprinkler a building. Fire sprinklers have an outstanding track record for containing fire. Yet in a fully-sprinklered building, we still find compartmentalization defined by rated-walls.

If properly designed, installed and functioning fire sprinklers are as effective as I suggest, then why fire rated walls? The answer is simple. We must consider the possibility of water supply breakage or fire sprinkler malfunction. I say that is a reasonable concern.

But sometimes these rated walls are made out of glass. Fire-rated glass is VERY expensive, so architects and builders need an alternative. They need a way to make fragile and not-so-fire-resistant glass to maintain a 1 or 2 hour rating in certain applications. So what did they do you ask, almost rhetorically? I will tell you! They decided to use special-application fire-sprinklers to solve the problem. The codes that apply to this situation, the sprinklers involved and the volume of water intended to keep every square inch of the glass wet in case of out-of-control fire is also expensive and often aesthetically displeasing.

In short, we need rated walls in case the fire sprinkler system fails, yet in some cases we need to count on the fire sprinkler system to tally a certain rating for our fire-rated walls. If the sprinklers work, we don't need the rated walls ...

Yes, I earn a living in the fire-sprinkler industry and benefit from this sort of bureaucratic nonsense. But like Jerry Mcguire, I have an internal ethic that just doesn't know when to keep its mouth shut!