Fire Marshal visit

DMS General
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I will put this here and at the bottom. Please, everyone talk to each other rather go at each others throats about this, discussion is great but trying to attack each other gets us nowhere.

Ok folks here it is the Fire Marshals Inspection Report. With help most of this has already been completed or temporarily shut down till we can comply with fire code. Below is a list of exactly what the fire marshals inspection report said with applicable code. He did not list every applicable code just the general code that applies, on most items several codes applied. We have until 30June15 to comply with or begin serious effort to remedy all of these items.

1011.3 Illumination.
**Repair all exit signs so that they are illuminated at all times.
Status-completed by Andrew, William, Lance, and I

1011.1 Where Required.
**Install an illuminated exit sign inside the hands on/interactive classroom.
Status-not necessary after speaking to the marshal however we are going to do it anyway for safety.

2803.2 Dust Control.
**All wood cutting equipment in the wood shop area shall have adequate dust collection devices that shall be maintained.
Status-Complete the ventilation system was maintained by Andrew and the woodshop cleaned by me, now it needs to be maintained.

803.1 General.
**Replace all ceiling tiles throughout space such as in the wood shop.
Status-In Progress after leak repair is complete it will be completed

315.3.3 Equipment Rooms.
**Combustible material shall not be stored in boiler rooms, mechanical rooms or electrical equipment rooms.
Status-Complete my wife and I cleaned it out.

906.3.4 Class D Fire Hazards
**Shall have at least 2 x class D portable fire extinguishers at location in areas where combustible metals will be worked on.
Status-Complete Allen purchased one for the metal shop and we can put this on a roller cart for ease of use and mobility to milling when needed as this was the second area of concern for the marshal. Still recommended we buy a second though.

2404.2 Location spray-finishing operations.
**Spray painting operations at location shall stop immediately and can not be resumed until proper permitted spray booth room have been submitted for review and approved then installed and inspected. The closet currently being used is not appropriate for use as a spray booth or room.
Status-Complete and pending, shutdown and pending real paint booth install.

603.5.2 Heating appliance installation and maintenance.
**The kilns located in warehouse shall not be used until permit is applied for and plans submitted for review and approved. The exhaust shall also be repaired and all components shall meet codes and ordinances as required.
**The current exhaust setup is not adequate and unacceptable.
Status-Complete and pending, shut down and pending re install.
3501.2 Permits.
**Plasma cutter is prohibited from use at this location at this time.
**A permit shall be applied for showing equipment, ventilation, location in building etc.
**Once this is reviewed and if allowed then equipment can be operated under proper operators and with all proper safety checks in place.
Status-Pending, shut down and working on issue

901.6 Inspection, testing and maintenance.
**The smoke detectors, pull stations and notification devices located in this space are not currently wired to the buildings fire alarm panel located in suite #100. These devices shall be wired to and monitored by this fire alarm panel right away. More devices may be required and will be determined upon evaluation with fire alarm company of occupants choice and fire inspector. Until these devices currently at location become active, they shall be covered up so as to not appear to be life safety devices that will not function as designed.
Status-Pending

5003.4 Material Safety Data Sheets.
**All MSDS shall be kept in approved location on site.
**The preferred method is a spreadsheet that has all chemicals listed with their MSDS put into a thumb drive that will be placed in Know Box.
Status-Pending

102.3 Change of use or occupancy.
**Occupant shall reapply for a new Certificate of Occupancy showing all types of work/classes going on at location.
Status-Pending

Issues he brought up off report but will end up on the next inspection 30June15 if not worked on:
-GFCI sockets for anything within 6 ft of water source. Specifically the bio area water tank.
-Brewing is a no go at all, no books no equipment or we meet and permit for brewery or distillery.
-We need to schedule weekly cleanup on the space to ensure it stays clean and safely accessible such as pathways and equipment. Have this posted.
-Look at having laser C02 cans tagged and inspected.
-Check sprinkler heads in metal and workshop to ensure it is correctly rated for the area.
-Get all alarms and fire detectors wired in and connected to fire panel.
-Anything with potential for fire such as kilns and electrical panels and welders need 3ft clearance around it.
-MSDS for Gallon size and up
-Propane external storage meeting Texas Railroad commissions standards suggest at least 5 ft from exit door and in locked cabinet.
-Extension cords not being used as permanent supply lines store them when not in use or possibly get higher rated cords for certain uses
-Mark forging as storage only
-Wood storage should be moved off site, personal small storage not an issue but storing large amounts of lumber not okay. If it catches we don’t have the equipment to put it out quick enough.
-Keep milling cleaned up to much mess and risk of metal fire.
-Check and possibly permit laser

I will put this here and at the top. Please, everyone talk to each other rather go at each others throats about this, discussion is great but trying to attack each other gets us nowhere.

3 Likes
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Other then the venting issues for the plasma cutter and the kilns, that seems to be a fairly easy list to deal with. In short, no real show stoppers. Could have been much worse.

The only one of those items that seem, on its surface, to exceed the fire marshall’s authority is the shutting down of the brewing operations, which seems to be for commercial brewery’s not home or hobbyist, which I think would be more applicable to DMS. But it probably isn’t worth risking a more severe ‘review’ to argue the point. It wouldn’t be hard for a ‘diligent’ inspector to shut DMS down if they were inclined to.

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So we need an MSDS on hand for any container that is gallon size or more?

The offsite wood storage seems unclear, is that only for large individual piles of wood? (Such as oak or the stacks of 4x8 plywood next to clamp shelf) What about the made of wood scrap wood bin? How many sheets of 4x8 plywood would be acceptable before the pile becomes ‘large’? What if all of the projects on project storage during a timeframe are made of wood, such that 50% of all project storage volume is wood, does that then become a concern?

What equipment would we need to put out a large lumber fire and safely be able to keep large amounts of wood at DMS?

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I’ll make contact with other spaces to find out how they run brewing. This can’t possibly be a fire code issue, but my understanding of the tax code is that households are limited to 199 gallons per year. I need to find out how a maker space is viewed as far as the TABC is concerned.

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Second Class D fire extinguisher ordered. It’s unclear though: As written we’re required to have 2 extinguishers in each location.

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I think the FM is clearly stepping out of his jurisdiction on the brewing thing… but lets wait until this has blown over a bit before we start making any noise about it. Brewing/distilling is likely a personal bugaboo of his and there is no point in antagonizing him at the moment.

We can fix everything on his list, then later get a ruling from the City/County/State/Feds about what we can do for brewing.

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@Brandon_Green it was specifically the large stack in the woodshop and the two pallets one with the tree sections and one with the smaller wood stack. He said it would take a decent effort to ignite the tree sections right now since they are so fresh but if they did ignite it would be a bad result.

@bgangwere he wanted 1 in each location initially before he said the 1 overall was ok if we needed to.

@StanSimmons part of it was the books were never moved as someone said they would be.

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@txsmtlhd @StanSimmons Agreed, we discussed the state laws already to an extent and I’m positive we’re within legal bounds. Consulting with some of the other spaces will help us out, as well as some of the local brewers to make sure we’re in the clear. I think a key argument we can make is that we haven’t been pitching the yeast in the space, so it is not alcohol by any legal definition while on premise.

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Regarding the kilns:
The code cited is from the Internation Fire Code: 603.5.2 Heating appliance installation and maintenance. Heating appliances shall be installed and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, the International Building Code, the International Mechanical Code, the International Fuel Gas Code and NFPA 70.

From the International Mechanical Code: 502.1 General. An exhaust system shall be provided, maintained and operated as specifically required by this section and for all occupied areas where machines, vats, tanks, furnaces, forges, salamanders and other appliances, equipment and processes in such areas produce or throw off dust or particles sufficiently light to float in the air, or which emit heat, odors, fumes, spray, gas or smoke, in such quantities so as to be irritating or injurious to health or safety.

My understanding is that he mainly didn’t like that the kilns shared a vent with the former painting room, he wanted three feet clearance around the kilns, and we need to be permitted to run the kilns. I’m providing the manufacturer’s instructions for installing a kiln, which talks about the specs for clearance and venting: Paragon Industries Shop | Home Of Custom Kilns And, Industrial Furnaces For Ceramics, Pottery, Heat Treating, Enameling, Dentistry, Laboratory, And Glass Fusing. .

We can start re-arranging the space to provide the recommended clearance. Venting and permitting isn’t something I’m familiar with, but let me know what needs to be done down on the floor and I’ll work with John K. to make sure it gets done.

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@Nathan_Jones I would wait, we can plan it out and run it by home before doing it to ensure we don’t waste time and effort to have to redo it.

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I will contact the TABC tomorrow and see if they can give us any clarification on home brewing in a commercial space such as ours. From everything I have read/heard in the past wort doesn’t legally become beer until the yeast is pitched, so any wort that is cooked here, is simply a grain tea, as long as one waits to pitch their yeast until they get home.

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@Tony also check city code and international fire code as those apply as well. This will save you the headache later.

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Sounds like its time to revisit the safety commitee ideal.

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Sounds like its time to revisit the safety committee ideal.

And taking that 1st Aid/CPR course offered by the CFD last year @Opcode organized that ALMOST made it - but not quite. We needed 8 from my recollection but we were 1-2 people short. We certainly have enough members now.

JAG “Code 3 Bedside Manner” MAN

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Rather than rant, let me just say … thank you for handling all of this. I see from reading it that you (and several other people) completed a lot of the required actions already.

Thanks to all who helped,
Chris

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Might I recommend making it clear upfront that while the building is “commercial” the projects are “personal” and the product of the brewing is not sold.

I could easily see how a conversation on this topic could spiral out of control quickly! yikes

EDIT: to make it clear, I’m talking about the conversation with TABC. They’re not really known as a pleasant bunch.

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And seconding, thanks @ke5bud and Ops, et al. for dealing with the Fire Marshal and codes compliance issues. The Dallas Makerspace an amazing phenomenon and it’s a testament to its success that it is even getting noticed by the codes compliance people.

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@DanielHooper they know its personal projects thats part of the issue with this. It will be better discussed at the board meeting.

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@JAGMAN @Opcode I would definitely be in for a first aid class!

@ke5bud What confuses me is in what way does the Fire Marshal have any jurisdiction over this? If we’re brewing in the parking lot, not even pitching yeast, minding all OSHA safety rules, how does he have any say-so?

@Tony Thanks! Time for TABC fun times.

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My issue is the large off report requirements, I’ve attached them to the end of this message. I agree that much of what is on the report has sighted laws/codes we need to follow or explain how they do not apply to us. That is not a problem to for me. Justin explained to me yesterday that the fire marshal was doing us a favor by not putting everything on the report. I don’t know what that favor is? Unless there is some quota of of infractions on a report before you shut a space down, the none reported infractions feel like over stepping, especially the home brewing. My vote is that we do not correct anything that isn’t explicitly on the report, because without the sighted laws/codes that we are breaking we cannot be assured legally that we following the laws and codes.

Remember fellow DMS members, WE ARE SPECIALLY! We are probably unlike any other business that the fire marshal has or does deal with. We have no employees, We are not a commercial production facility, We are all volunteers, We are not for profit, and We are an educational facility. Also, we are the largest makerspace in the country, how we handle this will most likely be the example for others to follow. So we need to be respectful and not antagonistic, but where the law/codes end and personal opinion begins to dictate what we can and can’t do, we need to stand up and correct that. That way when the next groups all over the US stumble into the same issues they have a source to refer to and an example to follow. These are just some of the ways your involvement in DMS can actually CHANGE things on a larger scale.

Off Report Requests:
-GFCI sockets for anything within 6 ft of water source. Specifically the bio area water tank.
-Brewing is a no go at all, no books no equipment or we meet and permit for brewery or distillery.
-We need to schedule weekly cleanup on the space to ensure it stays clean and safely accessible such as pathways and equipment. Have this posted.
-Look at having laser C02 cans tagged and inspected.
-Check sprinkler heads in metal and workshop to ensure it is correctly rated for the area.
-Get all alarms and fire detectors wired in and connected to fire panel.
-Anything with potential for fire such as kilns and electrical panels and welders need 3ft clearance around it.
-MSDS for Gallon size and up
-Propane external storage meeting Texas Railroad commissions standards suggest at least 5 ft from exit door and in locked cabinet.
-Extension cords not being used as permanent supply lines store them when not in use or possibly get higher rated cords for certain uses
-Mark forging as storage only
-Wood storage should be moved off site, personal small storage not an issue but storing large amounts of lumber not okay. If it catches we don’t have the equipment to put it out quick enough.
-Keep milling cleaned up to much mess and risk of metal fire.
-Check and possibly permit laser

2 Likes