Sprinkler for 5,000 S.F. commercial parking garages

[BayPointArchitect]

Reference:

2006 IBC 903.2.9.1

I am dealing with a 7,000 S.F. storage building to be used for the storage of large bucket trucks used by the Public Power District. The architect and I were looking at this fitting into the 12,000 S.F. limit for S-1 occupancies.

Then again, I have applied the more restrictive requirements for fire sprinkler systems when dealing with more than 5,000 S.F. storage of commercial trucks or any large vehicles regulated by the department of transportation (D.O.T.). This would include fire trucks, ambulances, dump trucks and back hoes.

Question:

What is the rationale behind the requirement for a fire sprinkler system when dealing with a 12,000 S.F. storage building for smaller vehicles and then 5,000 S.F. storage building for larger vehicles?

The size of the gas tanks maybe?

Thanks

Registered Architect

ICC Certified Building Plans Examiner

 

[mtlogcabin]

My 2 cents buses have a lot of combustible products within them. Foam and plastics in the seats and upholstry

Commercial trucks can have gas cans, propane bottles, gas welding equipment, Delivery trucks could be anything, depends on what the truck may be used to service

 

[Mr. Inspector]

I started a blog on this 2 years ago and did not get a lot of answers that helped. I wanted a definition of commercal trucks and the answers were all over the place. Don't know if this included trailers without the cab. Most big trucks are diesel, I would think they would be safer than gas cars.

 

[Builder Bob]

Simple-compare the Heat Release Rate for a car verus the Heat Release Rate of a large truck.........therefore lies the answer. (Actually, small car parking garages are assumed to be active with high visibility thus early detection and notification possible, large commercial parking garages tend to be not open to the public thus hidden.)

 

[FM William Burns]

I believe BB heads in the right direction with reference to HRR and BTU's for fuel packages and commodity arrays potentially encountered. The commodities permitted in S-1 can take a building down much faster than those in S-2.

 

[Mr. Inspector]

Anybody have anything more in what is a commercal truck? Builder Bob says it has to do with the size of the truck. Since the code does not have a defintion of a commercal truck I don't think we can go by size. If this was the case we could control it by the size of the garage door. A commercal truck could be anything from a mini van that delivers flowers to a huge quarry dump truck. The mini van could have cans of gas in it which could be more dangerus than a huge dump truck full of rocks. And what about trailers? They are bigger and hold more than most trucks. Also we can't control the type of trucks they are storing in the building after they have the C. O. I seem to be runing in to this a lot of time, I'm geting a lot of S buildings where they want to keep trucks in. I mostly do just commercal plan reviews and don't get out on inspections.

 

[cda]

I think the other definition should be open and enclosed parking garage

Just because the landscaper pulls his pickup in a 1500 sq ft office warehouse is that a parking garage

 

[north star]

~ & ~

IMO, Commercial trucks / vehicles are those that are used as a tool

to earn a profit for a business, or in the case of AHJ's, ...they serve

the public interests..........They are not privately owned vehicles used

for pleasure purposes !

Since the IBC does not provide a descriptiopn for all types of

Commercial vehicles, or trailers, ...think "worse case scenario" of

the potential fuel loads [ as **FMWB** stated ] being stored /

housed in a structure......Lots of gray area I know, but the code

officials cannot monitor completely every single application.

This time, ...[ Commercial ] "bucket trucks" will be stored, ...next time

there will be [ Commercial ] trailers, ...various sized trucks with both

gasoline and diesel engines, ...heavy equipment with various fuel tanks,

and on and on and on.......There is a myriad of applications and

possibilities.

~ & ~