Candace, I also recommend taking Chris off your list to consult with about liquids and gases and your archives. ;~)

I gave a talk in Wisconsin for the Business Resumption Planners Association and some of the records managers attended and we held it at Northwest Mutual Insurance headquarters and I demonstrated how an arsonist could start a small fire (and of course using your loads of paper as fuel) without lighting a match.  The small fire in a pie plate started and then using a bottle of NOVEC, I merely tilted the half fuel bottle and let the vapors which are heavier than air flow over the plate and the minute the fire started (like a road flare in appearance) the NOVEC suppressed it.

The quality of the vapor barrier or air seal around your storage archive is critical to success.  So many times you have drop ceiling which use the space between ceiling tile and structural ceiling as return air plenums and these are terrible for the ceiling of a vault or archive as they create a non-sealed space so in theory you would need infinite amounts of agent, which would be very expensive. (A rule of thumb, the agent costs per pound, more than the filet mignon in your butcher’s display case. )

As a disclaimer: Never throw gasoline on an open flame. The explosive pressure of the gas would displace any benefit of a suppression agent by involving more air than your agent could resolve.  That is why protecting against an arsonist should be a key factor in your protection strategy.  You cannot design any suppression system that an experienced arsonist cannot defeat. Therefore your first step is to secure your most valuable collection so no unauthorized person can gain entrance.  (That’s tough to do.)

We always place the fire suppression agent and all controls (except the abort/emergency release panel) within the vault so the arsonist cannot first disable the system by simply shutting town the tank or releasing the gas prior to the fire.

Also, background checks on your staff is also critical.  If you are protecting batch records, clinical trials or Compound storage collections and stability samples, they are priceless when you go to court. If you do not perform background checks, you may go to court empty handed.

Chris what hospital should we send our Get Well cards to?

P.S. It is the end of the year, you should have a locksmith in to reset your combination lock, and other pin pads so you begin the year secure.  Hopefully I will correct the problem of many of you that never really set a new combination. I suspect over 30% of the marketplace never even places a new combination on their safes, vault doors and other security equipment. If I was called to testify in your negligence lawsuit and you did not have a log showing you changed the combination from its basic install or contractors combo then I would argue you are grossly negligent. This is the simplest thing for low cost you can do to improve your vault or file rooms security.

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

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