Post 28
Certifications are for design, engineering, and installation. Spec'ing out requirements requires knowing what materials will be in the building, what's considered working materials and what's considered storage, and being truthful in what's where.
It includes random surprise inspections to ensure technicians aren't hiding solvents in the trunks of their cars during inspections in order to save money on facilities and time for their tasks (yes, that happened A LOT "back in the day").
We had hundreds of thousands of dollars of sprinkler equipment installed because our war reserve materials exceeded the capacity of what the hangars systems could handle.
I had to spec out multi-use facilities, and even vacate some storage rooms due to changes in codes. What had been up to code was no longer, due to fires in other buildings. They constricted the tolerances to where reducing our stock footprint made the storage areas non-viable.
I've had to do inspections for hazardous materials, where items had to be kept at certain minimal distances from each other, often to avoid one igniting the other. Some were behind controlled doors and some were in locked cages to prevent them from being stored too close to each other. Separately, the sprinklers could handle either burning. Combined would have been a real issue.
I've overseen storage in outdoor shipping containers instead of indoors because the cost of a sprinkler system capable of extinguishing the contents would never be recouped. We could continue with a blistered storage container and wouldn't have to risk the buildings.
But forget all that. What matters here is that in 2026 some third-world arsonist burned down a $5M building with just a cigarette lighter, as if the last century of fire safety standards and equipment never happened. But let's not question the building owner or operator. No, it's the mutant with the lighter and we're no smarter than him.
So what do we do with that mutant? Let him go after thanking him for exposing the poor design of the building?
L