Post to Records Management Listserve:

I saw this article on the Data Center Journal and thought this might  
have wider interest.
For everyone who has a records center or large office that has a  
sprinkler system, the sprinkler system is often powered by a diesel  
pumps that pumps the water to the various heads calling for water.   
After all you can not power an entire sprinkler system with tap water  
pressure.

But what if that pump that is powered by fuel oil would not run due  
to contaminated fuel or maybe it fails because its electronics brain  
is corroded by years of sitting in a non-conditioned space.

Take a look at this article:

Poor Fuel Quality: Cause of Generator Failure
If your data center’s standby power source is a diesel generator,  
the odds are one in eight that the fuel that’s supposed to operate  
the engine fails to meet oil-refinery specifications. Furthermore, if  
the fuel has been stored at your data center for more than three  
months, there’s a 50-50 chance that the fuel is seriously  
contaminated with water or algae, posing a threat to the generator as  
well as to essential functions that are supposed to be protected by  
the engine during an emergency.
Read more...

In certain large fires, the sprinkler systems failed to perform.  Add  
this to your list of responsibilities.  Ask facilities to run a fuel  
quality check, ask them to run a mock simulation of the system being  
activated by a sprinkler head.

HERE ARE THE KEY QUOTES:

> In fact, diesel fuel begins to deteriorate as soon as it is  
> produced—a problem that poses no real threat if the fuel is  
> consumed quickly. However, such fuel may be stored for years in a  
> standby power system; such deterioration affects the fuel’s  
> pumpability and combustibility as well as the degree of damage that  
> it could cause to the engine.

>
> Water is heavier than diesel fuel and will separate from it if the  
> storage container remains relatively undisturbed for a period of  
> time—in an end-user’s bulk-storage tanks, for example.  
> Furthermore, the less frequently the fuel is used (an in standby  
> applications), the more likely water will separate and cause damage.

> For example, when water comes in contact with the heat of the  
> combustion chamber (more than 2,000 degrees F), it immediately  
> turns to steam and often explodes the tip of the injector.

The article talked about the generator as it is a data center  
publication, but this same diesel fuel problem is applicable for the  
pumps that run sprinkler systems as well.

Imagine how smart you will look if you ask for a check on the fuel  
quality and they find the fuel for your location is contaminated.   
Now place a call to your offsite records center vendor and aks for  
this same report on fuel quality. If we all do this, we can avert  
losses of up to 500,000 boxes per year.  (That is the average of  
losses over the last 10 years if you add up all the boxes burned in  
records center fires and calculate an average.)

A disturbing trend where a few companies are buying everyone else up  
is creating a national emergency. In 1997 the average volume of  
records storage boxes in a individual records center was far less  
than 250,000 boxes.  With the surge in acquisitions, the industry is  
moving towards a position where the model is 1,200,000 to 1,800,000  
boxes per warehouse with no compartmentation.  America's corporate  
records for its largest companies is at risk.

Checking the fuel quality and the compartment size that your records  
are stored in is a remarkably smart thing to do.

If your records center was recently acquired, demand that the records  
stay where they are or be stored in a compartment of reasonable size.

The same is true for your media storage.  Is it stored in a warehouse  
with water sprinkler coverage or in vault?  Is the vault equipped  
with a clean agent fire suppression system?

In Houston, a rather large client of ours for media vaulting needed  
to pull some microfilm from their offsite records storage company.   
They visited the facility to enter their climate controlled room only  
to find that is was not being air conditioned?????  They were paying  
for this feature!

The company decided that air conditioning was to expensive and just  
quit doing it.  The client is now looking at building a vault for  
their microfilm.  But this is unbelievable.

If you do not perform your role of auditing you offsite storage  
company on a periodic basis then I think you are responsible as well.  
So here are three simple things. 1) Check you oil for your diesel  
pumps 2) Check that your offsite storage company has checked their  
oil 3) Ask for mock tests to see if everything works as required and  
finally 4) You should inspect to see that your computer media,  
microfilm and other documents specified for climate control ( on site  
or off site are actually meeting their specification) that you were  
promised.

After all, SOX and Rule 26 and ESI make your C-Level officers and  
Board of Directors criminally liable if there is a loss by  
spoliation. Since NFPA 232 makes the records manager "The Responsible  
Party" I believe we will be seeing a Records Manager go to prison in  
the next five years.  The new laws make anyone who is culpable for  
the protection of records liable.

In the past not performing these tasks was just poor management.   
Today this same failure to behave responsibly could be construed as  
criminal behavior.


Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM




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