Fire safety

I totally up to getting a walk through with a fire inspector. If Kevin could connect me with some of his peeps that would be cool.

There’s a firehouse around the corner. Seems like we should just go knock on the door. We also should probably ask them about the venting outside, new dust collection.

One way I think of fire safety is to imagine I light a flare and toss it into an area. What would you do? (run away screaming is not really the answer)

Sorry, I don’t understand why not. First, getting away from the fire sounds like a good idea, second, screaming alerts other people. Not messing with you, I don’t get it. Sure using the extinguisher makes sense if the fire is very small, but otherwise it seems like a job for the pros.

Just kidding around.
Actually getting away is a good idea but panicking is usually a bad idea. :flushed:

I’d be happy to talk to the firehouse down the street but they may not be setup as an inspector.

Brad

Now if hive members are willing to drive up to Colerain I can likely schedule a day at the burn tower and let everyone get hands on with a fire extinguisher putting out an electronic , wood, or petrol fire. Katie and I run the classes up there.

Andrew if it’s cool with you I’ll get with you Tuesday and get a count on what extinguishers we have, need serviced, or need to buy. Then we can swing by one of the days or I might be able to just drop them off at the station and have them send a bill to the hive. I can promise the prices worked out with them are very good because we do it off of bids and it will be piggy backed of the dept contract hopefully… I might even have funds with the fire department to donate stuff since we do programs for the community. Let’s get the ball rolling this week coming up?

Brad, I might have some of that ultra reflective adhesive tape up at the township Depot or one of the fire house we stick to the work trucks and equipment, it’s the really bright retro reflective stuff that works awesome with an emergency light. If the hive is willing we can either go with the guys around the corner with the Cincinnati department or I can have myself katie and some of the township guys do a medical and fire talk separated by s month. I do have cat tourniquets and compression dressing for if you had a large laceration down at the high from the ptdr. It would likely be best to teach people how to use them. I always banked on my dad, katie, or I being at a ptdr event if someone got an unwanted saw brarrow ; ) (credit to Ryan for saw brarrow)

Now if hive members are willing to drive up to Colerain I can likely schedule a day at the burn tower and let everyone get hands on with a fire extinguisher putting out an electronic , wood, or petrol fire. Katie and I run the classes up there.

Sounds awesome! I’d love to learn how to use a fire extinguisher.

Andrew if it’s cool with you I’ll get with you Tuesday and get a count on what extinguishers we have, need serviced, or need to buy.

That’s fine. FWIW, I think Jim has stated he thinks our land lord should be taking care of this. He might be right, but I’d rather the hive spend a few bucks than have a big problem.

Fire Extinguishers:
Kitchen - Pole next to trashcan
Fablab - At workstation (CO2 canister)
Woodshop - Pole under dust collector (brand new)
Dirty Room - Next to door.
Electronics - Between the two bays closest to the dirty room

So we’ve got three that potentially need to be recharged, one new one. Also might be nice to put up a hook for the CO2 canister, I get the feeling it wanders around the fab lab, having no permanent home.

I have a co2 tank in my storage from when I had the auto repair shop. It was not huge but also not paintball sized. I am wanting to pipe that into the lazer cutter and have a manual valve on it along with a pressure regulator. If a fire were to start in the laser cutter it would be a lot more productive to purge it from the inside without lifting the lid and giving it a fresh breath of oxygen. It would also contain things from blowing out of the machine with the lid open and spring pressurized CO2 into it.

If we get a chance to figure out if garden street maintains the equipment extinguisher wise we could likely ask who does the refills and maintenance for the systems they use at the business and take them there ourselves to speed the process up. Then just have them billed. If the hive is ok with it I can put a formal letter into the department so they can allocate materials and look into teaching a dam good hands on fire class at the hive? I will be at the meeting to get the ball rolling with that the first Thursday of February.

They know the work we do and a few people swung by the chemistry classes and maker faire so the likely hood of them being able to do something good would be high.

OK still not a lot of activity.

I’ll commit to putting down the Fire Lane tape (Kevin could you get me a roll or two of that reflective tape?)

I got distracted in the last meeting so I missed auditing the fire extinguishers. Sounds like we need to recharge at least one. (once again - Kevin would you like to be involved?)

The fire safety training up at Colrain sounds awesome! (once again - Kevin, would you like to connect with them to arrange a training - in the Spring/summer I assume).

Sounds like a lot of Kevin is involved. Wonder if he ever worked with the Fire people . . . . .

If anyone else has any ideas please feel free to post on this thread.

I have my meeting today now* Thursday up at the fire department and I’m going to get the ball rolling. I will bring up the issues we are looking at across the board :slight_smile:

One I have been mullling over… my work rents a building, and we are responsible for upkeep. This includes our sprinkler system. This years state inspection we learned that the rules changed a month after our last inspection. This year, we had to have hard copy on hand of which specific detector was tested and when. Small problem… our vendor for this just records that it was done. So… this was a stumper for a fellow running a company that services two dozen nursing homes, and about a hundred other major buildings… None of which he was recording this data for, this being the first day he heard of the requirement. And this paperwork requirement? Every bit as much of a serious violation as if the whole shebang was out of spec. Luckily, the inspector was rational and reasonable, and after only an hour of discussing it with all involved wanted those records in place for next inspection. I am not sure there were competing departments in the government wanting differing information, but it is part of the puzzle that there may be competing jurisdictions.

The other thing I learned that directly applies is Cinci the city is under a differing inspection regime than Ohio the state, because cinci was a city before Ohio was a state… So, for all issues for the sprinklers and such, it would be best to speak directly with the Cinci Folks… whichever department/marshal that might be. If the fire department is within that chain, who-ho!! they can save us from major violations and headache.

I’m pretty sure if the lease stipulates we maintain it, we’ve got to have access to a closet somewhere jam packed with pipes and valves. I’m also pretty sure it would not have slipped under the radar, so my bet is the landlord is maintaining it. I hope it is not an air over water system… because the yearly cycle and the slow leaks mean the pipes rust out… A good portion of my job is fishing the old pipes out of the attic once they have been cut out and replaced.

Man, we’ve been in the attic over a week looking for air leaks. Turns out the accelerator needs a rebuild, and is dumping air and water out the drain(s). Unfortunately, this also means things that should be filled with air, are therefore also filled with said water. A rebuild kit and a new thingerdoody are the same price for some reason. Otherwise our patches are holding like champs. What is striking me however is at the hive, one section looks like new sprinkler heads, and the annex looks like they are older than ours (30 years) by the oxidation state of the brass. I’d be worth checking if the annex’s systems were updated/modernized… and if so, which control location is theirs. It’s even money that they are separate imo.

Brad:

What is the status of the Hive fire safety protocol?

I was thinking of including info on it in the CNC lecture, since, CNC routers can start fires (though I have not yet seen one, happily).

John2pt0

I haven’t done much. Thanks for the gentle push.

I did track down the sprinklers and it looks like they have been updated in the last decade.
We should get and inventory of our extinguishers and mark their locations better.
I’ll bring it up in the meeting tonight.