As of July 1^st 2004 the State of Washington will be adopting a new code for the standard of Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of water based fire protection systems known as NFPA 25 (National Fire Protection Association). This new adoption will affect all Property Owners, Property Management Companies, and Facilities Engineers that currently own and/or maintain water based fire protection equipment. This Equipment includes; Wet Sprinkler Systems, Dry Sprinkler Systems, Deluge / Pre-action Systems, Foam and Water Spray Systems, Wet and Dry Standpipes, Fire Pumps, Water Storage, and Backflows. This law will require all responsible parties to perform weekly, monthly, and quarterly inspections. The Local Authorities Having Jurisdiction, (AHJ’s) will require a logbook recording of all inspections performed upon demand.

     The reasoning behind these reforms is to minimize the failure of water based fire protection equipment across the country. Washington State is one of the first states to adopt NFPA 25. This standard will make us all more aware of our equipment, and most importantly more confident in the abilities of our equipment to perform as it was designed, to save lives and property. This standard has been prepared to provide guidance and assistance in the inspection, testing and maintenance of water-based fire protection systems.  NFPA 25 is written with the assumption that the system was designed and installed correctly.  Where a system has not been installed in accordance with generally accepted practices, the corrective action is beyond the scope of this standard.

    Fire Protection systems have earned a tremendous success record over the years in protecting life and property. However, there are considerations that may affect proper sprinkler operation such as closed valves, occupancy changes, hazard classification changes, damaged components, revisions to buildings, and blockage of equipment by storage, and objects hanging from sprinklers. Following the practices of NFPA 25 will improve on the performance of your systems when they are needed.

    Your responsibility as an owner or manager is to keep records including the procedure performed (e.g., inspection, test, or maintenance), the organization or person that performed the work, the results, and the date the work was performed. It is your responsibility to keep the original records for the life of the system. All other test records are to be kept for a period of one year from date and to be replaced with the next year’s records. We recommend keeping the records forever, the more documentation on these systems the better.    

    Making sure that you are not in violation as of July 1^st is not an impossible task. With a proactive approach and a close relationship with your service provider this can be made an easier transition.  Be sure you personally take the steps needed to provide your fire marshal with the documentation they need and don’t be caught in the dark.  Life safety is no joke! 

Call Infinity Fire for: Fire extinguisher, fire alarm and fire system service, maintenance and certification. Servicing Seattle, Tacoma, Renton, Kent, Bellevue, Burien, Newcastle, Sammamish, Issaquah, Federal way, Des Moines, Skyway, Kirkland, Woodinville, Fall city, North bend, Auburn,  Mountlake Terrace,  Shoreline, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Ballard, Fremont, Rainer Valley.  We service all makes and models including: Ansul fire extinguishers systems, Amerex fire equipment, Badger fire systems and equipment including range guard, PyroChem, Silent knight, Firelite, NOTIFIER, BRK Brand, Detection Systems, Edwards, ESL, Firelite, Firex, Gentex, Detection Systems Sensor, and Wheelock, fire alarm control panels,   Addressable Control Panels, Conventional Control Panels, Conventional Control Panels with a Built-In Communicator. We also service Fm-200, FE-227,  MicroMist fire suppression system, Carbon dioxide or CO2 clean agent fire suppression systems, Just to name a few.

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