Sprinkler Design Criteria for Distilled Alcohol?

9/17/2021

Distilled alcohol storage on single/double row racks. I feel like I am loosing my mind in a big way.

I currently have a larger liquor store that I am trying to design that will have a stock room which will utilize 10-ft tall single and double row racks. These racks can contain alcoholic beverages that exceed 20% (Everclear).

What standard/section does this fall under?

So far I've only found sections that exclude this kind of commodity. I am sure I'm missing something stupid simple on this one. Thanks ahead for the help.

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14 Comments

Dan Wilder

9/17/2021 07:12:12 am

NFPA 30 - Class III Liquids (typically), water miscible, cartoned, stored in non-metallic containers and typically less than 1 gallon

You'll fall under Chapter 10 and possibly Chapter 12 which pushes you over to Chapter 16.

Start with 16.4.1(c) if so.

There are a lot of requirements for the racks, allowable quantities, wall ratings....read carefully and call your AHJ, they are pretty savvy on all the specifics, not just what density to apply.

Alex

9/17/2021 07:47:11 am

Hi Anonymous,

Let me start first by saying I haven’t designed a liquor store myself. But here is some research from this morning.

NFPA 13 (2013) Table A.5.6.3 states that liquor under 100 proof is a Class IV. From google, everclear can be 120 and higher. If they are only storing liquor with under 100 proof:
- Table 13.2.1 Discharge Criteria for Miscellaneous Storage, storage equal or under 10 feet, should follow design curve figure OH2 (combined hose of 250, duration 90 minutes)

My next thought was NFPA 30 but NFPA 30 (2018) 10.1.3 states “beverages where packaged in individual containers that do not feed 1.3 gallon capacity” do not fall under chapter 10 (Storage of liquids in containers – mercantile occupancies)

I will update/add another post if I come up with anything else.

Take a peak at the following:
FM Global Research: https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/Proceedings/High-Challenge-Storage-Protection/SienkiewiczDistilled.ashx

Brian Cockburn

9/17/2021 08:14:20 am

I agree with Alex that Table A.5.6.3 in NFPA 13 would be the place to start. This would fall under Table 13.2.1 in Chapter 13 - Miscellaneous Storage.

Ordinary Hazard 2 (250 gpm hose allowance, 90 min duration).

If the shelves were taller and still back-to-back, then it would be Extra Hazard 1.

Jon R Corbett link

9/17/2021 08:22:42 am

Everclear is 95% alcohol and is a class IB Flammable liquid.

The International Fire Code has 5704.3.6.3, et. al. as possible guidance for your design.

Anthony Crispo

9/17/2021 08:29:08 am

http://www.klausbruckner.com/blog/distillery-storage-dilemmas/

I found the above link to be helpful but make sure you check all the claims the article makes with regard to code. I couldn't find where the IBC says 240 gal was acceptable.

Franck

9/17/2021 08:35:36 am

I usedd to be a loss prevention engineer (Insurance side) for Seagrams quite a long time ago.

Alex is right, it is normally considered as a class IV commodity and is defined that way under NFPA 13.
The reason is that they are normally stored in glass bottles and the alcohol is water miscible.

To be honnest, the best standard for distilled spirits is the one edited by DISCUSS (Distilled Spirits Council of the United States), which will give you the right information for the required densities for all activities (distillery, bottling lines, glass bottles storage, distilled spirit storage in casks...).
FM Global is also quite fine with FM data sheet 8.8 Distilled Spirits Storage.

Jesse

9/17/2021 08:38:13 am

2018 NFPA 30 Table 10.7.1 directs us back to NFPA 13 with protecting this as OH 2 presuming that we don't exceed the MAQ and storage height limitations.

Anthony C Brown

9/17/2021 08:45:19 am

I have designed several Liquor Stores some of which have had large on-site product storage. The storage racks were 10' 0r less and where back-to-back and I successfully obtained Sprinkler Permits designing with Ord. Haz., Gp II

As long as the site is not a Warehouse distributing to other Stores in that case it would have to be Ex. Haz.

9/17/2021 09:58:11 am

Great info!

Thank you all!

(this was my post)

Meyer should be proud, this site is such a great resource.

It feels like going to some wise elder council.

Moderator (Joe)

9/17/2021 10:45:28 am

LOL. It's 100% you all who make it a helpful destination.

This industry has a lot of very intelligent and passionate people and that's one of the reasons why I really being in our line of work. Thanks for submitting the question, I feel like I personally learn something each day.

Joshua Freedman

9/17/2021 10:34:25 am

Yeah, it was pretty well answered above. NFPA 13 and 30 do not cover it, I have spoken with NFPA engineering about it and they said they will be covering liquor in future editions of NFPA 30. I have used FM 7-29 - Ignitable Liquid Storage in Portable Containers to assess locations before. And just FYI, a lot of the big insurance companies will write to FM standards when it comes to the higher hazard stuff.

Connor

9/17/2021 11:15:22 am

Just to add my experience on to all the contributions above:

NFPA-13 2016 22.2.1 states that design requirements for flammable and combustible liquids shall comply with NFPA-30.

Section 10.1.3 0f NFPA-30 2018 states that it does not apply to beverages where packaged in individual containers that do not exceed 1.3 gal (5 L) capacity. For at least the mercantile part of the store, this basically means that NFPA-30 doesn't cover this situation and kicks us back to NFPA-13.

NFPA-13-2016 Section 1.5 allows for equivalency and states that you can use other standards as long as you can support the design with technical documentation (e.g. FM Global data sheets) and it is approved by the AHJ. In the past I have used the document "Recommended Fire Code Protection Practices for Distilled Spirits Beverage Facilities" from the US Distilled Spirits Council, found here: https://www.distilledspirits.org/recommended-fire-code-protection-practices/

For the rack storage configuration that I was protecting, the above standard recommended protecting it as a Class IV commodity per NFPA-13 with a 500 gpm hose stream allowance.

Todd E Wyatt

9/20/2021 04:36:14 pm

The IBC and IFC determine the Maximum Allowable Quantities (MAQ) for assigning the appropriate Occupancy Classifications (OC) for buildings containing "Hazardous Materials Posing A Physical Hazard." These Codes provide prescriptive requirements for determining the OC (e.g. Mercantile vs S-1 Moderate-hazard Storage vs Group H High Hazard) based on the MAQs and if the story(s) are divided into Control Areas (CA) protected by fire-resistive rated (FRR) assemblies per IBC Table 414.2.2 Design and Number of Control Areas. Lastly, how the "hazardous materials" are to be stored (e.g. high-piled stock or rack storage?) will affect the design of the automatic sprinkler sysytem.

Aaron link

3/16/2022 01:16:07 pm

Any addition of NFPA 13 Appendix A will only focus on alcohol <20% in various containers.

Any alcohol >20% ABV will be considered an ignitable liquid and fall under either NFPA 30 flammable and combustible liquids code OR FM 7-29 Ignitable Liquids Storage in Portable Containers.

I recommend 7-29. Start with Table 2.1.2.2 Water Miscible Liquid Grouping and understand what Group your alcohol falls in (Group 1-5). From there you should be able to follow the table of contents to figure it all out.

Automatically defaulting to NFPA 13 Class I-IV can get you in a lawsuit quickly.

Sprinkler Design Criteria for Distilled Alcohol?

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