“The primary objective for the system was to knock down flames and or vapors emitting from the storage area and contain a localized fire event from spreading beyond the battery limits”, says Chauncey Naylor — 20 year veteran with Williams Fire & Hazard Control. “In the event of a fire involving the LPG vessels we Mark West needed a system that would automatically trigger to mitigate an event and allow follow on responders to move in safely to assess the incident for additional response applications as necessary.”

Positioned near the facility’s process area the at risk assets were the process operations and of course personnel who are working on shift.

Our first challenge on developing the system was th lack of water access for the area.

The solution initially took shape around the facility’s plan to build a 1 million gallon tank which was cut back to ½ million gallon tank due to timeline demands. As an intermediate solution, we recommended a series of 26 FRACT tanks that would tie into a 24” manifold to source our system with water equal to the calculated response duration.

Following the tie in to the manifold, water was moved by a Williams Fire & Hazard Control transportable DependaPower 4,000 gpm pump. The pump maintained pressure and flow to move water approximately 1,500 feet down and up to a “drop manifold” which split the 4,000 gpm firewater source equally to 4 Screaming Eagle moveable monitor stations positioned strategically in and around the tank battery.

“The system worked flawlessly”, Chauncey says. “Our 12” TAIGA hose provided a zero friction loss water main that allowed us to overcome 100 feet in elevation with only 3 pounds of pressure drop at the end of line device!”

Covering two rows of propane bullets the Screaming Eagles were positioned at the upwind corners of each row. With a nozzle height at 7’, the Screaming Eagle is a moveable monitor station that offers an elevated attack position that we have used in congested process area. These units were ideal for this application to throw water up and over the tanks without the additional investment and time to install ring mains and fixed stand pipe throughout the area. We added a throw down Daspit to each station for addressing the ground level flammable range.

Williams Fire & Hazard Control mounted the Chemguard automatic hydraulic powered oscillating monitor on each Screaming Eagle. When we tested the system days prior to the deadline, all the equipment performed flawlessly and the EPA inspectors were very pleased — as of course were Mark West management personnel.