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“Intriguing,” you muse, upon reading this headline. “But what the hell is a standpipe–and is it safe for workplace viewing?” Allow us to explain. (It’s G-rated.)
A standpipe is like a fire hydrant for an individual building. It often entails an extensive parallel plumbing system that comes into use only in case of a fire. The most familiar elements are the nubby fixtures that stick out of the facade or sidewalk–you probably use them to tie your shoe sometimes. For observant and knowledgeable urban pedestrians though, they are also like decoder rings that reveal how well a given structure is protected against fire.
An important thing to keep in mind is that, while expensive, standpipe and sprinkler systems are a remarkably effective way to save lives. According to the US Fire Association “statistics demonstrate that there has never been any multiple loss of life in a fully sprinklered building,” while an estimated 1.6 million fires occurred just in 2007. Conversely, when a modern fire suppression system is absent or not in good working order, things can get ugly fast, as illustrated by a recent pet store fire in the Bronx, the Deutsche Bank Building fire near Ground Zero and the tragic blaze at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island.
In a city, standpipes are generally fed by the municipal water system and include a central pipe (painted red) that typically rises up through a building’s internal stairwell. Often this central pipe will have valves on different floors for firefighter hose hookups. At times water pressure is an issue, so the street fixture provides a way for the fire department to connect a pumper truck.
Buildings with standpipes and or sprinklers can fall into three main categories: fully sprinklered, partially sprinklered, or not sprinklered. Often there is signage indicating which applies in a given structure. The standpipe fixtures also convey information via their color-coded outlet covers:
- Red means the standpipe does not feed sprinklers, or none are present;
- Green means an automatic sprinkler system is present and connected to the standpipe;
- Aluminum covers means sprinklers are present but require turn-on by the fire department;
- Yellow signifies a combination sprinkler and standpipe system both fed by the same pipe.
I wanted to do an informal survey of New York City: what types of buildings have complete fire sprinkler/standpipe systems installed? What building owners deem the occupants or property inside important enough to protect with a fire sprinkler system? What floors are protected, and which aren’t?
To find out, I walked around Manhattan, visiting various neighborhoods and taking pictures of standpipes along the way:
In New York, standpipes tend to become seats for drifters. The solution? Put spikes on the top!
A common “budget” configuration: protection in the lower levels of a building to ensure occupants can exit successfully in case of fire, but no coverage in other, more private, areas of the building.
I’d love to know more about the story behind the NYPD choosing to protect the floors they did in the ways they did… (what’s on floors 1, 2 and 10?)
This particular standpipe, belonging to the infamous Mr. Madoff, indicates that his older building on the Upper East Side only has a standpipe–no sprinklers. Hey, we know he likes to take risks…
The rockstar Sting, on the other hand, chooses a safer approach: a combination standpipe/sprinkler system. A safe bet.
Donald Trump cheaps out a little–only protecting up to the 17th floor. Unless there are other standpipes for his building that feed the upper floors?
This standpipe seems out of compliance with National Fire Protection Association specs–the sign says it feeds sprinklers, but no mention is made whether they are automatic (green) or not (yellow). Come on MTA.
Highly polished, this standpipe is this building super-intendents’s pride and joy. And it makes a good coffee holder.
Yeah, that seems to cover most places a fire could start in a theater…
With a name like Lazer Park, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of fire hazards they have…
Some standpipe/sprinkler systems can have foam pumped into them–ConEd discourages this practice when connecting to the standpipe/sprinkler system above their transformers. They must be delicate.
The “low hanging fruit” option–protect the high fire risk areas only. Fair enough–better than nothing.
St. Vincents Hospital protects their entire building with sprinklers and a combination standpipe–this, I suppose, is the “nuclear option.”
The only company that finds standpipe signs a branding opportunity: McDonalds. A nice touch.
Jeff Maki is a creative technologist, researcher and activist whose work examines and interprets the ordinary systems behind daily life
All photos are by Jeff Maki (except the top one, which is by Jebediah Reed)
Tags: EXPLORATIONS
Great article! Thoroughly enjoyed the commentary! Need more.
As a former firefighter of 32 years, I thank you for furthering public awareness of these proven life-safety systems and the importance of having fire sprinklers (and other fire protection devices) throughout all types of buildings, including one- and two-family homes. Fire sprinklers as we know them typically, have been around for over 130 years and there has NEVER been a multiple loss of life (meaning more than 2) in a fire where the building is properly fire sprinklered throughout! As a side note, these are “fire protection systems” not “plumbing”.
Where you live, work, or play…if you have a choice, pick places that have adequate fire protection. Patronize places such as estaurants, theaters, stores, etc that have fire sprinklers. If you walk into a place, it doesn’t feel “comfortable”, there are no fire sprinklers, you can’t readily see other exits or other exits are blocked and your instincts tell you, “this just doesn’t feel right”…listen to your instincts! Why do you think we are born with instincts? Trust them, they work most times. Get out of there and go somewhere else. Spend your money at businesses that CARE abot their patrons’ safety and welfare.
Retrofitting of all high rises is not yet on he books in NYC unfortunately. Business occupancies 100 ft and taller are presently required to retrofit by 2019. Residential occupancies (where the 80% of US fire deaths occur is long over due!
As a last note or two or three, the TOP picture is NOT a standpipe nor fire sprinkler connection for the FD, it is a test-header for doing flow tests by professional and licensed fire sprinkler contractors (not plumbers…not mechanics…unless they also have a fire sprinkler license…but professional and licensed fire sprinkler contractor). There are allowences for Master Plumbers in NYC to perform fire sprinkler work also under the licensure which is overseen by NYC Dept of Buildings.
In the MTA/LIRR picture, it is understood that it is an “automatic” fire sprinkler system. If a “manual” system of some type, it would be declared there and also where the valve is located. These connections are for th most part a “supplemental water supply”, not THE only water supply to these systems. NYC water pressure and volume is plenty for many systems. For high rise buildings, there will be fire pumps and water storage tanks on certain floors. So the public should understand that these sytems, for the most part, are atomatic and do not depend on the FDNY to show to operate these systems…FDNY hook up to the inlets, again, is only supplemental in the maority of buildings.
Also, it is the United States Fire Adminstration, an arm of the Dept of Homeland Security under FEMA.
Hello Dominick,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply–glad you found it interesting and much needed; I agree it’s overdue. I also agree with you that fire sprinklers are things that don’t get enough attention, but it does seem traction is being made. I just saw a report from the NFPA (can’t find the link now…), that more low-income housing projects are getting sprinklers through Habitat for Humanity; I’m personally interested in seeing this type of protection extend beyond houses for the rich and famous. That’s, in part, what this project hopes to impress upon readers.
Totally agree with you on instincts; possibly The Station incident could have been avoided if people were more aware of these safety decisions being made for them and the implications
Thanks for the clarification on the top picture–it was used as more of a “lure” to get people to read more, but I actually didn’t know it had a special purpose! To your comment that standpipes aren’t plumbing, totally understood–these are very specialized systems that require special knowledge; calling them plumbing was our way of making the content more accessible–simplification, if you will. We at the Infrastructurist definitely respect the special work fire suppression engineers perform.
Also thanks for the clarification on the LIRR pipe–I was a bit confused as to how to resolve that one!
-Jeff
So much fascinating information is encoded on and in the built environment, if we know how to read it. Yet the structures encoding the information are so commonplace that they become invisible to us most of the time — so thanks for making one more small piece legible, Jeff.
[...] mentioned my love for Infrastructurist’s field guides before; the latest, A Field Guide to NYC Standpipes, teaches you to read the relationship between standpipes and the fire control systems embedded in [...]
Jeff~
Believe it or not, the majority of Habitat for Humanity locations are FIGHTING installation of automatic residential fire sprinkler systems! It’s crazy! The Michigan HfH spent loads of time and resources fighting the new fire sprinkler requirement in the the 2009 Intl Residential Code.
It is true that some city ordinances only require fire sprinklers in homes of over 5,000 or 6,000 or 14,400 sq ft, hence only protecting the rich based on the false assumption by the National Assn of Home Builders saying people cannot afford homes if we raise the price $3 or 4,000. But rest assured, may communites around the country are requiring fire sprinklers in ALL new houses.
I’m very glad you brought that up and I continue to be impressed with your familiarity of the fire sprinkler issue.
Rob~
Very good point…fire protection is so much a part of the woodwork, no one notices. This in conjunction with two social issues; American apethy towards the fire problem in this country plus the average American’s lack of self responsibility and responsibility of one’s family members.
[...] via infrastructurist [...]
Amazing collection – How long did it take you to put all this together?
“Siamese” ? Did anyone else notice that? Sounds a bit derogatory to me.
Well one thing to keep in mind, NY City does not really do the NFPA codes, instead they take a really large sharpie marker, cross out half of the codes, and then call it the NY City Building Code. The old 1968 code, allowed many buildings to get away with a lot. They have just recently implemented the 2008 code, and things are starting to look up for the Fire Safety Aspects. The reason why NY City took so long to update their codes was for the simple reason of cost. Yes sprinklers are very effective, they are also very very expensive. You have to have inspections, installers, consultants, and lots of red-tape. In other countries, particularly the U.K. they do not do the shotgun style that we do here in America of Sprinkler everything. Instead they design their buildings in a different fashion so that they are not as necessary. The simple solution that has become the American Style to Fire Safety is to simply sprinkler everything, and it works very well, but is not always cost effective. Then again, how can you put a price on human life.
You did a very good job with this Jeff.
-Fire Protection Engineer
oh and twin, don’t take offense, Siamese is just the term for the sprinkler pipes, purely technical.
do master plumber know when they are installing sprinkler standpipes. that it must comply with the fire code as well or do they just install standpipes that do not match the main fdny track
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knows what the ID codes on most of these mean and whether there’s a system to them? e.g. the 3rd says: 99-38-6A another says: 764-38-A
Amos- I’m pretty sure those are the NYC BSA/MEA acceptance numbers. MEA is a testing and apprroval system that the buildings department has. They ensure things like these siamese connections have FDNY hose thread and are are 3 inch diameter as opposed to the 2 1/2 inch the rest of the country uses. Oh and the’re called “siamese” connections because there are 2 inlets merging into one pipe.
Very interesting and great idea. I’m a Fire Sprinkler manager in FL and always notice as I travel around the country on vacation different aspects and discrepancies of Fire protection systems. One thing I will point out though is the top picture is actually a test header for 1500GPM Fire Pump not an FDC (Fire Department Connection).
This article gives information to people about the standpipe, its color, types and how it works. The color differentiation helps fire fighters to know what kind of standpipe and sprinklers it is, and how it works. Buildings and homes should be installed with fire sprinkler with the help of licensed Los Angeles fire sprinkler contractor. The installed Fire sprinkler system should be in good condition to work at the time of fire outbreak for which it should be inspected in regular intervals.
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