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• HTS Alternative Methods Construction October 25, 2010 (revised 11-7-1 I) Page 2 C 4. Place one 33 gallon foam cart 20-A:160-B in each of the four corners of the hangar and establish an annual training program for all FAA licensed mechanics in the facility as to the use of those foam carts(see attached sample catalog cut). Invite fire staff from the Aurora Fire District to each annual training session. This will ensure that the foam carts, staff, and local fire staff are well coordinated. Note that this size foam extinguisher is the standard fire protection for a rooftop helicopter landing facility of H-1 category helicopters per Section 5.7 NFPA 418. Reason for Alternative: 1. The HTS hangars will normally involve only defueled aircraft. So on that basis there is no requirement for foam under NFPA 409. 2. From a practical matter it is desirable to occasionally have an aircraft in the hangar with some minimal amount of fuel. In that way an aircraft can be taken out of the hangar, fuel added, flight tested, and then brought back into the hangar for any minor adjustments needed. This amount of fuel can be kept low similar to the level of cars,trucks, and buses that would be allowed in a similar facility without the need for foam. 3. The State Fire Marshal and State Building Officials in discussion about general hangar fire codes agree that the idea of upping the sprinkler flow is a good preventative approach because it more quickly extinguishes fires that could lead to causing fire to reach an aircraft fuel tank. They searched the fire records and could find no record of an actual pool fire" in a hangar(which in part begs the question of whether the foam is really needed in these smaller general aviation hangars). However they did find records of other fires. Better sprinklering would have helped put out all of those fires (in fact all the fires were in hangars with no fire water sprinklering at all—many of them wood hangars). 4. Foam is corrosive to aircraft and requires that the engines, avionics, etc. all be disassembled if it comes in contact with foam. NFPA says that the reason for the foam is to protect the hangar, not for protection of human life. However,the value of the aircraft are typically many times the value of the hangar, so HTS would prefer to risk losing the hangar,over the risk of the foam going off and damaging the aircraft. The only cases known in Oregon where the foam went off were by human inadvertent accident, and it caused massive damage to aircraft. Additional Information: Please let me know if I can provide additional information that helps in understanding this issue. Attachments: • State Fire Marshal John Caul data on hangar fires • Sample 33 gallon foam cart manufacturer data sheet