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Indian StandardPROVISION AND MAINTENANCE OF WATERSUPPLIES FOR FIRE FIGHTING - CODE OFPRACTICE

( First Revision )

UDC 614842620045 : 00676

@ BIS 1990BUREAU OF INDIAN STANDARDSMANAK BHAVAN, 9 BAHADUR SHAH ZAFAR MARC

NEW DELHI 110002September 1990 Price Group 3

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Fire Fighting Sectional Committee, CED 22

FOREWORDThis Indian Standard was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards on 24 January 1990, afterthe draft finalized by the Fire Fighting Sectional Committee had been approved by the CivilEngineering Division Council.Water has been the main fire extinguisher media used to contain and extinguish fires from timesimmemorial. Water and foam in which water is used in large quantities also continue to be mostcommonly used extinguish media. For adequate fire fighting appliances are normally used withthe water. Water is also used for the internal hydrants system, sprinkler systems and externalhydrants therefore suitable guidelines for the provision of water supply so was o cover various firerisk areas are being covered in this standard. The requirements in this code have been keptminimum possible level in view of the shortage of water (was in some areas water for drinking isalso not sufficiently available > however where circumstances need considering the safety aspectsthe requirements may be suitably increased.This standard covering provision and maintenance of water supply and external hydrant systems,( covering installation inspection and maintenance ) issued in year 1980. In this revision theprovision of external hydrant system etc, have been separated and are being covered in detail in aseparate new Indian Standard aligning with the provision of internal type fire hydrant systemscovered in IS 3844 : 1989 Code of practice for installation and internal hydrants and hose-reel onpremises ( Jirst revision ) on the experience gained in the use of this standard, the requirements inrespect of the provision of water supply has been up-dated keeping in line with the TAC require-ments. The provision in respect of water supply requirements for sprinkler systems are beingcovered in a separate Indian Standard.

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IS 9668:1990

Indian StandardPROVISION AND MAINTENANCE OF WATERSUPPLIES FOR FIRE FIGHTING - CODE OFPRACTICE

( First Revision )1 SCOPE1.1This standard covers guidelines for theprovision and maintenance of water supply forfire fighting.2 GENERAL2.1 Water supply requirements for fire fightingwill depend on various factors like type of con-struction, nature of occupancy, type and quan-tities of materials handled or stored, processrisks involved, neighbouring fire risks, firedetection and alarm arrangements, time likelyto be taken for the fire brigade(s) to come intooperation and so on. All these factors maydiffer very widely and so will be the requirementof water supplies. Requirement for each areamay therefore vary and has to be worked outjointly by water supply engineers and fire expertsafter considering these factors.3 SOURCE OF WATER SUPPLY3.1 The essential requirements for any sourceof water for fire fighting are as follows:

a) Ready availability of the supply at alltimes,b) Sources easily approachable and workableby the normal fire appliances, andc) Sources located within a workable distancewhich should in no case be more than1 km from the risk to be protected.

312 Normally such requirements are met withtwo types of water supply namely piped watersupply ( hydrant system) and static water tanks.However, on some occasions natural and man-made sources if available could be utilised forfire fighting in emergencies. The commonlyfound natural sources are rivers, canals, streams,ponds, lakes, pools, spring wells, etc, and man-made sources are reservoirs, pooling waterbasins etc. Therefore, while planning any systemfor water supply requirements such sources mayalso be considered and suitable arrangementsmade for their effective and quick use by thefire services like all weather approach routes,hard standing platforms, provision of suitablesumps, portable pumps in deep wells etc. Incase of overhead reservoirs suitable number of100 mm round thread or 63 mm instantaneousoutlets may be provided on the main, outletsbeing controlled by separate control valves.

4 WATER SUPPLY4.1 For Towns/Cities4.1.1 The fire risk in

REQUIREMENTS

any town/city is seldomuniform throughout and it may vary widely indifferent areas. It may be the lowest in well laidout predominently residential locality, withsmall shopping centres and go on increasing inthickly populated congested areas, commercialcentres, warehouses and industrial complexes.In addition to normal peace time requirements,some vulnerable towns/cities may require verylarge extra quantities to deal with special situa-tions that may arise in war time or other emer-gencies to which the towns/cities may be exposed.These are generally termed as civil defencetowns. With so may variants, it may be desir-able to work out the water supply requirementsarea-on locality-wise after considering variousfactors, but, this may not be possible in eachand every case.The overall requirements may, therefore, beworked out on population basis. But, whileworking out the detailed distribution system,the peculiar requirements for each area shallbe examined and extra ~provision made whererequired.4.1.2 It is recommended that generally fortowns/cities, water for tire fighting shall be pro-vided at the scale of 1800-l/min for every 50 000population or part thereof for towns up to3 lacs population and an additional 180%llminfor every 1 lac population of more than 3 lacs.The requirement should be on the basis of2 hours duration.In-addition to the population criteria, it shouldbe ensured that sufficient water at the abovescale is made available within every 1 km areaof the city/town and it should be ensured thatit is equitably distributed. In the case of smallertowns with population of 1 lac and below thetotal requirements should be doubled.4.1.3 For high risk areas like bazars, commercialcentres, high rise buildings warehouses, indus-trial complexes, etc, extra provision shall bemade considering each risk area separately. Forextra high h,,zard risk like petrochemical chemi-cal complexes extra provisions, on the externalperiphery shall be provided on. The provisionin respect of highrise building are given inIS 3884 : 1989, there should be at least one

1

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IS 9668 : 1990statictank of 220 000 litres capacity for every1 km* area.4.1.4 For civil defence towns/cities, the scaleas prescribed under 4.1.2 may be doubled, bothin respect of per minute and total requirements.The extra provision on this account shall bemade in the form of static sources as far aspossible.4.2 For Industries4.2.1 Industries vary very widely in size andfire risk. There are small scale industrieslocated in small shed(s) employing only a fewpersons. On the other extreme, there may bebig industries which are spread over hundredsof acres and employ thousands of persons. Riskwise also, there are low to medium risk indus-tries hendling and storing mostly non-combus-tible or ordinary combustible materials againstthe very high fire risk industries handling andstoring sizeable quantities of highly combustibleand flammable substances. Therefore, theguiding factor shall be to determine the numberof fire fighting jet-s which are likely to be em-ployed in case of a major -fire outbreak in theindustry. For this purpose, the risk categoryof the industry should be first determined, whichwill quantify the number of fire fighting jetsvis-a-vis the quantity of water required to beprovided.4.2.2 The industries may be divided into threemain risk that islight hazard ( covering group Ato F ), moderate hazard ( covering group G andG-l ) and high hazard ( covering group H andJ ) ai

a)follows:For all risks coming under light hazardcategory and with single unobstructedfloor area not exceeding i 000 m2, it shallhave water storage for fire fighting equi-valent to 1 hour pumping capacity mini-mum, when using two strong water jetssimultaneously - each jet consuming600 lpm. Where the area exceeds 1000 m,additional quantity at the rate of 50 per-cent of above shall be provided subject toa minimum of 2 hours pumping capacity.

b) For all risks coming under moderatehazard category and with single un-obstructed tloor area not exceeding1 000 m2, it shall have water storage forfire fighting equivalent to 2 hours pumpingcapacity minimum, when using 4 strongwater jets simultaneously - each jet con-suming 600 lpm Where the area ex-ceeds 1 000 m2, additional quantity at therate of 50 percent of above shall be pro-vided, subject to a minimum of 2 hourspumping capacity.For ~a11 isks coming under high hazardcategory and with single unobstructedfloor areanot exceeding 1 000 m2, it shallhave water storage for fire fighting equi-

2

valent to 3 hours pumping capacity mini-mum, when using 6 strong jets simultane-ously - each jet consuming -600 Ipm.Where the area exceeds 1000 m2, additio-nal quantity at the rate of 50 percent ofabove shall be provided subject to a mini-mum of 4 hours pumping capacity.4.2.3 However, on singleunobstructed floor areanot exceeding I 000 m2, it shall have waterstorage for fire fighting equivalent to 4 hourspumping capacity minimum, when using 8 strongwater jets simultaneously - each jet consuming600 lpm. Where the area exceeds 1 000 mr,additional quantity at the rate of 50 percent ofabove shall be provided subject to a minimumof 4 hours pumping capacity.4.2.4 The quantity of water requirement asmentioned above, shall be stored in the form ofone or more static tanks.

NOTE --In case of one tank it should be in twoequal interconnected compartments.In case of an efficient municipal fire hydrantsystem, the quantity of water required to bestored in stat+ tanks could be halved, howeverthe capacity in any static tanks shall not bechanged.In case of any industrial unit which has its ownfire hydrant system installed, the entire quantityof water could be stored in a single large tank/compartmental tank/reservoir with a well design-ed ring main of adequate size on which hydrantscan be installed.4.2.5 For flammable liquid tank farms, theminimum water requirement for fire fightingshall be calculated separately for use of foam,and for cooling of the affected tanks and alsothe surrounding tanks, added together.4.2.6 For tank farms with fixed foam installa-tion system, the capacity of water tank shall beas follows:

a) At the minimum rate ~of water solutioncalculated at 45 lm2 of liquid surface area( tank surface j, for a minimum time of30 minutes. If fixed foam monitorsare installed, an additional quantity of900 litres per minute for at least another30 minutes duration shall be provided, ifnumber of monitors are many, provisionfor at least two monitors at the rate of900 lpm each to be calculated.b) For cooling purpose of adjoining tanks,additional quantity of water shall be pro-vided at the rate of 10 lpm/ m2 ofexposed surface of the next tank, for aperiod of at least 1 hour.

4.2.7 Process UnitsWater requirement for process units shall bedepending upon the risk, but in no case lessthan as laid down in 4.2.3 above.

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42.8 Administrative buildings in factories etc.shall be considered as light hazard, and thewater quantity and number of hydrants cateredaccordingly.4.2.9 Storage RisksFor storage risks engineering stores shall beclassified as light hazard category. Generalstores as ordinary hazard and combustible orflammable stores as high or extra high hazardcategory. In case of such combined risk, therisk category will be decided by its predominentrisk.5 STATIC WATER TANKS1.1 Static water tanks are very useful sources ofwater supplies for major fire fighting. They canbe provided to supplement the first hydrantsystem or independently where provision of firehydrants is not feasible economically or due tovarious other reasons. Static water system hasmany advantages over the hydrant system. Thissystem is much more economical, more reliable,less prone to damage or defects and helps tobuild huge reserve to meet any eventualities.While planning any water supply system for fire

IS 9668 : 1990fighting in towns, cities and industries, suitableprovision of static water tanks shall always bekept in view. For civil defence towns/cities andall type of industrial establishment, at least50 percent of the total water supply requirementsfor fire fighting shall always be in the form ofstatic water tanks.5.2 Static water tanks for fire fighting should beunderground with water at ground level. Theycan be of any shape and dimensions, but thedepth shall normally not exceed 25 m. Formulti-storey buildings terrace tank may beprovided.

NOTE - In case of deeper tanks, submersiblepumps be provided.5.3 For towns/cities and other locations wherethey are accessible to public, the static tankshould be completely covered and provided withsuitable manholes for lowering of the suctionhoses.5.4 Inside industrial establishments the staticwater tanks can be of open type having smallparapet walls of height not exceeding 50 cmabove ground level. Such tanks may, as faras possible, conform to Fig. 1. Where extra

/ RCC POST

3GOx75mm\ RCC POSJ

WATER PROOFING5ECTbN AA

All dimensions in millimetres unless otherwise specified.FIG. 1 A TYPICAL STATIC WATER TANK

3

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IS 9668 : 1990protection is required, barbed wire fencing,etc, may be provided with suitable openings, forlowering of the suction hose.5.5 All static water tanks for fire fighting shallnormally be located within 100 m of the risk tobe protected.5.6 The static water tanks shall be easily appro-achable by all types of tire appliances held at thefire station(s) providing fire cover in the area.All weather approach road of adequate size shallbe provided. Provision of suitable number ofmanholes shall be made available for inspection,repairs and inspection of static tanks, etc.5.7 Cement concrete platforms ( hard standings Jshall be provided at suitable locations aroundthe static water tanks for prolonged operationsby the fire pumps.5.8 Each static water tank should be providedwith sump(s) to allow the use of the total quan-tity of water for fire fighting and also to facilitatemaintenance and repair of tanks. The sump(s)may be of the size 1 m X 1 m x 4.5 cm ( depth).The sumps should be located on the side(s)from where the fire pumps are to come intooperation.5.9 U-shaped steel bar steps or any other suit-able arrangement shall be provided for mento enter the static water tanks as and whenrequired.5.10 All static water tanks shall be providedwith suitable filling arrangements to make upthe evaporation losses, refilling after cleaning/repairs and for replenishing water supplies du-ring fire fighting operations. The filling arrange-ments shall be of the maximum capacity possibleand the tanks shall be connected by the biggestsize. of mains available in their vicinity at therate of not less than 1 000 l/minute.5.11 Suitable indicating plates shall bc fixed tothe nearest wall or a suilable posts crccted forthe purpose near each static water tank. Theindicating plates can be made of vitreous ena-melled mild steel, cast iron, aluminium alloyor plastic. The plates shall be yellow in colourwith letter SWT and the capacity in litresmarked in black.6 INSPECTIONS, CHECKS AND MAIN-TENANCE6.1 Periodical checking and proper maintenanceof water supplies is as important as their pro-vision. Since special waler supply systems forfire fighting are not in daily USC, mnnv times,defects dcvcloping over a certain period maynot be observed unless periodical checks areexercised. The system fziling to come intooperaticn at the time of any fire can defeat thevery purpose for which the system has been pro-vided and also result in very embarrassing situa-tions to the fire and other tidministrativc autho-rities of the area. Such situations are to beavoided at all cost and this can be ensured only

when all parts of systems are constantly checkedand maintained in pzrfcct working order allthe time.6.2 Reservoirs6.2.1 Required level of water shall always bemaintained and this shall be checked daily bythe pump operators and incharge water worksin each shift before assuming charge.6.2.2 A monthly inspection of the reservoirsshall be carried out by a responsible officer ofthe water works to ensure that the reservoirsare constructionally sound and there is no see-page or leakage from any portion. At this time,note may be taken of any accumulation of mud,sand, weeds and other undergrowth which canreduce the capacity of the reservoir and obstructfree flow of water. The required remedial actionmay be taken.6.2.3 All reservoirs shall be periodically cleaned,periodicity for such cleaning to be determinedand laid considering the local conditions. Beforeemptying any reservoir for cleaning and/orrepairs, the other compartment/reservoirs shallbe kept full and duly connected to the system.6.3 Static Water Tanks and Natural Sources6.3.1 Static water tanks and other natural sourcesfor fire fighting shall be inspected as often aspossible. The periodicity for such inspectionsshall be determined and laid down dependingon the local conditions. However, for citiesand towns, each static or natural source shall beinspected at intervals not exceeding one monthand for industrial establishments once everyweek. The record of all such inspections shallbe maintained and remedial action for anydefects observed taken immediately or prioritybasis6.3.2 The following action shall be taken duringthe monthly/weekly inspection:

a>b)Cl

d)

4

Level of the water supply shall be checkedand noted.Causes for any unusual drop in the levelmay be investigated and reported to higherauthorities Tar further investigations andremedial action.In the case of static water tanks drop oflevel due to evaporation and other normalcauses, it shall bs mndc good by openingthe f!lIing valves. In the ca~,c 01 openstatic water tanks, somu waler shall bcallowed to overflow to avoid breeding ofmosquitos, clc.Static tanks, sumps and jack wells shallbe examined for any signs of cracks orother constructional c:images. Accum uh-tion of mud, send, weeds ;:nd olhcr u?ldcr-growth shall be noted and action tai.cnfor their removal.

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4

f >6.3.3well

Condition of approach roads, hard stand-ing platform, parapet walls, fencing,manhole covers, indicating plates, etc,shall be examined and recorded.Any obstruction in the approach of thefire appliance to the sources of supplyshall be removed.All static water tanks, sumps and jackshall be emptied, cleaned, repaired_ _and whitewashed at periodical intervals. upenstatic water tanks shall be so cleaned once every6 months For the covered static water tanks,periodicity may be determined according to the

IS 9668 : 1990local conditions, but they shall be thoroughlycleaned at least once every 2 years.6.3.4 While emptying any static water tank forcleaning or repairs, it shall be ensured that theother neighbouring tanks are full and in service-able condition. As far as possible, only onetank shall be taken for repairs and majntenanceat a time.6.3.5 The use of static water tanks and othernatural sources shall be made in drills andpractices as often as possible. Any difficultiesobserved in approach and working of the fireappliances recorded and remedial action taken.

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Standard MarkThe use of the Standard Mark is governed by the provisions of the Bureau of I ndian

St andards Act, 1986 and the Rules and Regulations made thereunder. The Standard Mark onproducts covered by an Indian Standard conveys the assurance that they have been producedto comply with the requirements of that standard under a well defined system of inspection,testing and quality control which is devised and supervised by BIS and operated by the pro-ducer. Standard marked products are also continuously checked by BIS for conformity tothat standard as a further safeguard. Details of conditions under which~a licence for the useof the Standard Mark may be granted to manufacturers or producers may be obtained fromthe Bureau of Indian Standards.

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_ IBnreao bf Indian StandardsBIS is a statutory institutiou established under the Bureau of Zndi an St andard Act, 1986 to promoteharmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification ofgoods and attending to connected matters in the country.CopyrightBIS has the copyright of all its publications. No part of these publications may be reproduced inany form without the prior permission in writing of BIS. This does not preclude the free use, inthe course of implementing the standard, of necessary details, such as symbols and sizes, type orgrade designations. Enquiries relating to copyright be addressed to the Director ( Publications ), BIS.Revision of Indian StandardsIndian Standards are reviewed periodically and revised, when necessary and amendments, if any,are issued from time 10 time. Users of Indian Standards should ascertain that they are in possessionof the latest amendments or edition. Comments on this Indian Standard may be sent to BISgiving the following reference :Dot : No. CED 22 ( 4793 )

Amendments Issued Since PublicationAmend No. Date of Issue Text Affected

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