AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

Automatic sprinkler systems have long been an important element in the preservation tool kit of collecting institutions, yet the threat of accidental discharge has also made them a great source of anxiety and, on rare occasions, of water damage. Halon, once seen as an ideal replacement for sprinklers, is no longer an option due to its environmental effects, and there is no easy drop-in gaseous replacement.  Water mist and Vortex, a nitrogen/water hybrid system, offer hope of very low-wetting fire suppression.  In this panel presentation we will discuss what makes mist and nitrogen/water hybrid systems so promising and why so few museums, libraries and archives in North America have implemented them.  

Is this due to lack of precedent?  Confusion and conflicting information about the efficacy of these systems in the context of collecting institutions?  The difficulty of proving their effectiveness to insurers and regulatory bodies?  Cost?  Can we do anything, as museum professionals, to put water mist and the nitrogen/water hybrid more easily within our reach as tools to suppress fire in museums, libraries and archives?  Panel members will include two conservators and a museum building engineer who have each pitched, successfully or unsuccessfully, for low-water fire suppression systems at their institutions, as well as an expert from the Canadian Conservation Institute, and a fire protection engineer.