Emergency Assessment: Fire Suppression System Upgrades

Hello Residents,

We are writing to more widely drive awareness of an Emergency Assessment that the Board voted to approve during the most recent open session.  These funds are needed to address newly mandated fire safety system upgrades in our community.

The Challenge

The current build-out of our property does not allow firefighters to easily get water to all the places they may need to in order to effectively fight fires around the entire complex. One example that illustrates the situation is that standard firetrucks are unable to drive up the ramp on to the podium level as they exceed the maximum weight allowed for vehicles on the podium. This means upgrades to our systems are needed to ensure that firefighters can more easily access the pressurized water they may need should a fire break out.

The Resolution

We have worked closely with our local Fire Officials and our Engineers to develop a plan to address any deficiencies and improve safety.  At the bottom of this email, we have included some details on what the work will entail (also emailed previously by management).  Essentially we are installing additional piping to allow firetrucks to pump in additional water and additional connections for fire hoses on the podium level.

Next Steps

You will receive a piece of mail from management shortly. It will provide you with additional details on the charge you will see in your January 2021 statement.

Thank you for your attention,

Your Management Team and Board of Directors

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PROJECT DETAILS

Vendor: 360 Fire Prevention

Timing: 6 weeks

Work activity

The primary aim of the project is to install Fire Department Connections (FDC) to each building and new Wall Hydrants to each building with the exception of Adams and Jefferson as they already have them.  An FDC enables the Fire Department to connect a truck and pump water into the building’s existing firefighting systems.   

The FDCs will be installed on the ground level.  You have likely noticed the red pipes and fire hoses in many stairwells, this is the system we will be connecting into. 

The FDC for Ellery, Franklin, Hancock, Chase, Ellery, Williams and Thornton will be located near the building it serves. For ease of installation and to minimize impact on interior walls they will generally be running a new connection in a stairwell, into the garage and then through the perimeter fence.   

To connect to the 6 buildings that are on the pier we will be building a 5’x5’ cinderblock wall on both the north and south sides in the vicinity of the circles.  These walls will support a manifold that provides connections to 4 buildings.  Livingston, Nelson, Penn, and Jefferson on the north and Stockton, Smith, Rutledge, and Adams on the south.  After the plumbing is completed, we will look to improve the aesthetic of the walls. 

The Wall Hydrants will be installed on the podium level.  The hydrants create another connection point where firefighters can connect hoses.  These hydrants are needed primarily for the townhouses, but they would also be used for a situation like a car fire on the podium. 

Where the hydrants are located depends on the design of the building but most of them will come out of an exterior wall near a fire exit door.

In addition to the FDCs and Wall Hydrants we need to install lights to indicate where firefighters can “plug in”. On the podium level a lot of the buildings will need two lights to direct firefighters to the Hydrant.  These will be small red or blue lights.