The uninterrupted use of a computer center, or any facility with information technology (IT), is implicit, expected, and in many cases vital, and damage to one of these facilities, such as that caused by a fire, can be catastrophic.
By Jaime A. Moncada*
Just think about our daily lives, almost everything we do, our work in the office, when we make a purchase or visit the bank, when we go to the airport, when we get distracted by surfing the internet, when you read this article online, all this requires computer centers and electronic information management centers, that make all these things work quickly and efficiently. The increasingly fast exchange rate of this information, allowing us to have communication from our personal computer with an IT room on the other side of the world, almost in real time, as well as the increase in data storage capacity and computing speed, are revolutionizing our world.
IT rooms include equipment that is expensive and sophisticated, that is susceptible to damage, that can take quite some time to replace, and that when it doesn't work, its lost profits cost a lot of money. IT room components can be affected by high temperatures, steam, and combustion products from a fire. Although there is a wide variety of equipment and differences in its points of failure, laboratory tests have shown that: at temperatures above 49°C permanent damage can begin; magnetic tapes can lose information at temperatures above 52°C; hard drives are damaged when there are sustained temperatures of 66°C; equipment components begin to fail at a temperature of 79°C, with failures in main equipment between 149°C and 200°C; microfilm begins to damage at 107°C when there is high humidity; even paper can be damaged at temperatures around 177°C1.
Fire Safety: NFPA has developed NFPA 75, Standard for the Protection of Information Technology Equipment2, a document that includes requirements for fire protection of both IT equipment and the areas that contain this equipment. This standard includes requirements on the construction of the computer center, the equipment allowed inside the room, fire protection and smoke detection systems, among others. In our region, the most common procedure for IT room fire protection is for the user/operator to contact a fire system installer directly, who typically suggests the installation of a clean agent-based extinguishing system3 (traditionally FM 200) and a conventional smoke detection system, without regard to any additional fire safety elements. Although it has become a little more common, it is rare that after the installation of the extinguishing system based on clean agents, a check of the integrity of the enclosure is carried out.
Enclosure Integrity Check: If the IT room is protected by clean agents, it is required that the enclosure has a tightness test (NFPA 2001-2015: 7.7.2.3) through a specialized test called "door fan test", a test that should be performed by independent and certified personnel. The objective of this test is to certify that the enclosure where a clean agent has been fired by total flooding, contains the gas for an adequate time to guarantee extinction and avoid the re-ignition of the fire. I dare to say that less than 10% of the enclosures protected with clean agents in Latin America have been tested for tightness and even more, my experience tells me that the vast majority of enclosures do not pass the test of their integrity the first time they are tested (after identifying the openings and sealing them, venues usually pass the test). This should be alarming for all those who have invested significant sums of money protecting their facilities with clean agents. I suggest that they hire a fire protection consulting firm (independent of the installer of the equipment), so that they perform a tightness test in each protected enclosure with clean agents and in passing make an evaluation of the IT center according to NFPA 75.
Fire Detection: Another recurring problem is the initiation of the fire alarm, as many IT rooms are protected with conventional smoke detectors, whether these ionic or photoelectric. The combustion products coming from the wires that are contained in these rooms are the main enemy. The typical fire is one that has very little energy and develops slowly. As a result of this problem, much faster detection systems are required today than conventional photoelectric or ionic detectors, and as a result of this need, very early warning detectors (called in NFPA standards as VEWFD) and early warning detectors (EWFD) emerged in the market. Air or laser sampling detectors meet these criteria and are therefore required today in IT rooms (NFPA 75-2013, Art. 8.2), and by the way, in telecommunications rooms as well.
Compartmentalization and Interior Finishes: The compartmentalization of the IT room is another aspect that has received little attention in our region. Generally speaking, the IT room should have a fire resistance of at least 1 hour. How many computer centers have you seen with glass windows? This also means that all openings (cables, ducts, pipes) must be sealed with materials suitable for the fire enclosure. Furniture must be of metal construction, garbage receptacles must be of the self-extinguishing type, the finishes of the ceilings and walls must be Class A according to NFPA 101, and the floors must be Class I, also according to NFPA 101 (NFPA 75-2013, Art. 5.3).
There are also increasingly strict requirements on the construction of information technology equipment that seek that a fire does not spread beyond the unit where the ignition source is located. Chapter 7 of NFPA 75-2013 provides more information on this.
Extinction Method: The extinguishing method in the IT room is another aspect that requires greater care and evaluation. As I mentioned earlier, if we listen to the companies that sell and install fire systems, it seems that the fire protection of this type of enclosures is already predefined with clean agents. But is this required in the NFPA regulation? I must remind almost all users of data centres that this conclusion, i.e. the use of clean agents, has been formulated by their discussions with the supplier of clean agents. It's like having an illness and going to the pharmacy instead of going to the doctor. The pharmacist will always find a drug that is on the shelves of the pharmacy, but this is not necessarily the best solution to the disease. Let's then look at protecting an IT room in more depth.
NFPA requires, in most buildings where there are IT rooms (which are typically tall or large buildings), that these buildings be protected with automatic sprinklers in all their width and length. NFPA is emphatic in requiring also, in this type of building, that the IT room is also protected with automatic sprinklers (NFPA 75-2013: 8.1.1). This is shocking for the Latin American user, but this recommendation is based on decades of experience where the problems that many, especially the drivers of clean agents, afflict automatic sprinklers have no statistical or technical support, and are at the end of the day simple guesses. The most common sprinkler systems in this type of occupation are the so-called pre-action systems4, which are extremely safe and prevent accidental discharge of water. NFPA allows false floors to be protected with automatic sprinkler systems, carbon dioxide-based extinguishing systems, or clean agent-based extinguishing systems (NFPA 75-2013, Art. 8.1.1.2). But what should be very clear is that NFPA does not allow the removal of automatic sprinklers (if the building requires this type of protection) if protection with clean agents is installed (clean agents can be installed in addition to sprinklers). In buildings where sprinklers are not required, NFPA requires IT areas to be protected with sprinklers, clean agents, or both (NFPA 75-2013, Art. 8.1.1.1).
Many data centers in the region, for example, meet or would like to meet the requirements set forth in TIA-942, Standard for Data Centers as part of the Telecommunications Infrastructure. This standard establishes levels of protection (called Tiers), where the most common levels are Tier III and IV. These levels of protection require pre-action sprinklers, clean agents, and early warning detection (TIA 942, Art. G.6.1.10). I want to emphasize with this that fire protection with sprinklers in IT rooms is neither new nor far-fetched, but is simply a method of protection little known in Latin America (specifically speaking of fire safety, we have many pharmacies and few doctors).
I reiterate once again, and before finishing, that the success of the fire safety strategy in a computer center is the congruence of several elements, called prevention, compartmentalization, interior construction, detection and early warning, suppression and evacuation of fumes, which all chained and in strict compliance with NFPA regulations, are those that provide an acceptable level of fire safety.
1. NFPA Fire Protection Handbook, 19th Edition, pag. 8-61.
2. From 1962, when the first standard was adopted, until 2003, this standard used the terms "electronic computers and data processing", which were replaced in subsequent editions by a more precise term such as "information technology".
3. Clean agents are an electrically non-electrically conductive, volatile and gaseous extinguishing substance that leaves no residue after evaporation (NFPA 2001-2015, Art. 3.3.6). Clean agents replace halons. The best known commercially known clean agents are FM-200, Inergen, Novec-1230 and ECARO-25.
4. A sprinkler system that uses automatic sprinklers connected to a pipe network containing air under pressure instead of water, which is connected to a supplemental smoke detection system installed in the same areas where the sprinklers are. The activation of the smoke detection system allows, through an automatic valve, the entry of water into the pipe network and consequently, the water in the pipes would only be applied to the burned areas, by the thermal activation, one by one, of the automatic sprinklers. It is then impossible that with the rupture of a sprinkler or a pipe there is random water damage in the protected areas.
*Jaime A. Moncada, PE is a director of International Fire Safety Consulting (IFSC), a fire protection engineering consulting firm based in Washington, DC. and with offices in Latin America. He is a fire protection engineer graduated from the University of Maryland, co-editor of the NFPA Fire Protection Manual, Vice President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). Moncada's email address is [email protected].
