[labnetwork] TGMS Emergency Response Cordination

[John Shott]

Corey

Let me share some of our experiences at Stanford.  I'm sure that this 
question will get a lively discussion from a number of members of this 
community.

First, if you think that your fire department is beginning to think that 
your alarms are false alarms, then it is a safe bet that your users and 
staff have probably developed that feeling as well. Nothing is more 
dangerous ...

While we all have a certain number of false alarms and, in some ways, 
false alarms are better than real alarms, I think that you need to 
determine whether there needs to something done to reduce their 
frequency.  Is this due to sensor drift?  Cross-sensitivity issues?  
Insufficient sensor replacement frequency?  A system with no "warn" and 
"alarm" levels?

How well does your fire department know you, your staff, your building, 
your TGMS system, and the gases and chemicals you store and use?  Do you 
have enough NFPA 704M placards (the blue, red, yellow, white diamonds) 
in and around your building?  As you know, the sum of those numbers can 
be between 0 (no hazard) and 12 (uh, oh).  Many of our facilities reach 
a sum of 11 if you have silane, germane, hydrofluoric acid, etc.  Most 
fire departments look forward to the opportunity to learn about such a 
facility during the daylight when there are no horns and strobes 
sounding.  Invite them over, show them your facility, let them see your 
TGMS system, etc ...

Stanford has contracted fire protection from the Palo Alto Fire 
Department.  Only one of six fire stations is on the Stanford Campus.  
Despite that, every single firefighter, paramedic, captain, and 
batallion chief in ALL of PAFD (that's 125 people on all three shifts) 
has toured our facility, seen our gas bunkers, clean room, TGMS system, 
etc.)  Also, fewer departments maintain a HazMat team. Palo Alto uses 
the Santa Clara County HazMat team.  Every one of them has also been on 
the tour and knows us and our facility.  If you want to really get on 
their good side, offer to hold a training exercise at your facility ... 
not many industrial facilities will make such an offer.  Not too long 
ago PAFD simulated an anhydrous HCl cylinder leak in our gas bunker.  
Praxair sent their ERT team with the leaker cylinder container.  Note: 
they came from Richmond, CA which is probably closer to you than to us.

If you do things like this, your fire department will make a more 
informed and appropriate to alarms in your building.   They will also be 
more likely to look to you and your staff for technical support the next 
time the alarms sound at 3 a.m.

Note: rather than waiting for fire to call you, I'd suggest looking into 
automating your TGMS system so that  it automatically calls you and your 
staff at the same time that the fire department gets the call.

Final note:  we evacuate {and automatically call PAFD) for breathing air 
alarms, but not for alarms in exhausted spaces such as gas cabinets.

Let me know if you have additional questions along these lines.

John

On 7/17/2015 8:57 AM, Corey David Wolin wrote:

  After a few false alarm with our toxic gas monitoring system concerns 
were raised with regards to the response from fire and PD. They approach 
to to the alarms is as if they are all false alarms. Our TGMS system is 
set to evacuate the building on any high level gas alarm, which includes 
the dean's office among all other engineering administrative staff. They 
also don't contact anyone on the alarm contact list for after hours 
alarms which is very concerning. This was determined after looking 
through the alarm history. I'm curious as to how many of you coordinate 
with campus first responders and EH&S on the serious nature of the the 
gases to which the sensors are monitoring? What do many of you feel the 
proper emergency response to a high level silane alarm should be? Low 
Level? In addition, at which point should the TGMS evacuate the building 
if automatic shutoff valves exist for both high and low level alarms? 
Any feedback and/or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, 
Corey ----------------- Corey Wolin NanoFab Manager UCDavis Engineering 
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