This may be a reach, but if the property underwriters had been on their toes in 1992 when the purpose built warehouse facility (at least) designed to store upholstered goods was built…why didn’t they require sprinklers? (The sprinkler leakage exposure is significant…but quakes in SC?) Where was Risk Management for the last 15 years? The carrier never inspected the place and made recommendations? Never knew that smoking was permitted in a questionable area?
There are a number of entities complicit in this disaster…not the least of which is the FD’s apparent failure to inspect and be aware of their own exposure.
Is the producer even blameless? Did some good old country club buddy broker fail to suggest sprinklers to the insd at the time the plans were being drawn? It’s not like that isn’t a furniture center.
Seems we are too eager to point the finger at the other guy when our industry may not be free from guilt.
Mr Reed, I don’t want to sound too “Hair Splitting” here but I believe very few Fire Protection Engineers would agree that a sprinkler system is designed to protect lives. Sprinklers are a property loss control system designed to protect the structure and its contents. By reducing the spread and often extinguishing a fire in the incipient stage they will by default provide protection to persons in the building from the spread of the fire. Sprinkler heads do not fuse and operate until the temperature in the area is well above temperatures most humans can survive.
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This may be a reach, but if the property underwriters had been on their toes in 1992 when the purpose built warehouse facility (at least) designed to store upholstered goods was built…why didn’t they require sprinklers? (The sprinkler leakage exposure is significant…but quakes in SC?) Where was Risk Management for the last 15 years? The carrier never inspected the place and made recommendations? Never knew that smoking was permitted in a questionable area?
There are a number of entities complicit in this disaster…not the least of which is the FD’s apparent failure to inspect and be aware of their own exposure.
Is the producer even blameless? Did some good old country club buddy broker fail to suggest sprinklers to the insd at the time the plans were being drawn? It’s not like that isn’t a furniture center.
Seems we are too eager to point the finger at the other guy when our industry may not be free from guilt.
Anyone know who insured it? A large mattress unsprinklered storage facility and people are surprised that it burned to the ground?
Mr Reed, I don’t want to sound too “Hair Splitting” here but I believe very few Fire Protection Engineers would agree that a sprinkler system is designed to protect lives. Sprinklers are a property loss control system designed to protect the structure and its contents. By reducing the spread and often extinguishing a fire in the incipient stage they will by default provide protection to persons in the building from the spread of the fire. Sprinkler heads do not fuse and operate until the temperature in the area is well above temperatures most humans can survive.