Fire Flow for Outdoor Mulch Storage Piles?

11/13/2023

The local fire department wants us to document that a facility provides the minimum fire flow for their outdoor mulch storage piles.

I can't find any NFPA requirements for wood chip or mulch storage; only setback distances.

Anyone have input on how to establish minimum Fire Flow for outdoor storage like this?

Thanks in advance.

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5 Comments

Chad

11/13/2023 09:47:16 am

Axa has a generic outdoor storage guideline for this. For a calc, I would accept Axa's formula.

FM has 8-27 for wood chips, I would say its pretty close to mulch,

https://axaxl.com/-/media/axaxl/files/pdfs/prc-guidelines/prc-10/prc1031outdoorstoragev1.pdf

Jesse

11/13/2023 10:17:31 am

I would second Chad's citing of the FM data sheet. I would probably ask the AHJ what fire flow they want and then calc it to see if the supply meets their requirement.

Franck

11/13/2023 11:09:58 am

FM global is definitely the answer to that question if you consider mulch equivalent to wood chips.

You may find something in NFPA 850 (I am on travel, so no access to it on my side to confirm) as there are some guidelines for waste storage and there may be some information for biomass (for electricity production… I know it seems strange to look for that information in that standard).

Dan Wilder

11/13/2023 11:39:23 am

This is textbook Insurance or FPE territory and at a minimum a request from the responding AHJ's as to their SOP.

There used to be an NFPA 230 (withdrawn and incorporated into NFPA 1 in 2005) that covered some of this, however fire flow was not defined. NFPA 1 - Chapter 31 provides the most current guidelines, specifically 31.3.6.3.5 & Annex but is still not direct as to fire flow requirements.

The current Fire Flow paths are for buildings, not open areas. A majority of the info I can find is all based on pile requirements, internal temperature monitoring, pile relocation to avoid spontaneous combustion, clear space, and clearance to hydrants along with locations to provide coverage to all parts of the property (several other items not specific to fire protection directly).

John link

11/18/2023 04:47:38 pm

I have seen monitor nozzles for woodchip piles. You may want to consider these devices on the hydrants.

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Fire Flow for Outdoor Mulch Storage Piles?

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