Take Advantage of No-cost Fire Suppression System Design Review in Construction Planning

MCIT’s partnership with Travelers Insurance Company for property reinsurance includes no-cost design reviews of building sprinkler systems, fire pumps and special extinguishing systems to ensure that they will sufficiently suppress fires for proposed structures.

Early identification of risk control concerns enables members to account for them in the design and to plan for estimated costs in budgets. The earlier in the process that the member engages Travelers for a plan review, the better.

Automatic Sprinkler Protection

Travelers reviews automatic sprinkler protection plans to ensure that:

• Proposed system provides adequate protection for the covered occupancy and hazard
• Available water supply can meet the system demand
• Equipment and materials are properly rated and listed
• System will be installed per National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) guidelines and any interpretations and formal positions of Travelers

Travelers also recognizes FM Data Sheets as a sufficient basis of design. Should a member decide to continue to utilize FM Data Sheets, Travelers will perform reviews accordingly. FM Data Sheets are mostly in agreement with NFPA, but may differ in certain areas providing a higher level of property protection.

Members should provide the following to Travelers for an automatic sprinkler system review:

• Contractor’s shop drawings for proposed automatic sprinkler system
• Hydraulic calculations
• Equipment cut sheets or product specifications (sprinkler heads, piping, valves, etc.)
• Water supply test data within one year
• Occupancy details

Fire Pump Installations

Travelers reviews fire pump installation plans to ensure that the resulting water supply will meet the system demands, that all components are properly rated and listed, and that the installation is in accordance with the latest edition of NFPA 20, “Standard for the Installation of Centrifugal Fire Pumps.”

Members should provide the following to Travelers for a fire pump plan review:

• Contractor’s shop drawings
• Pump curve (manufacturer’s bench curve for the pump)
• Equipment specifications and cut sheets (for the pump, driver and controller)
• Pump house design and layout
• One-line electrical diagram (depicting electrical feed arrangement to the pump)

Special Extinguishing Systems

Travelers reviews special extinguishing system plans for installation to ensure adequate protection is provided for the specific hazard and the system is installed per the applicable NFPA standard. Special extinguishing systems may include clean agent (gaseous) systems, carbon dioxide, dry chemical, water spray and foam systems.

Members should provide the following to Travelers for a special extinguishing system review:

• Contractor’s shop drawings
• Calculations (indicating the extinguishing agent concentrations or densities and durations)
• Equipment specifications and cut sheets
• Occupancy and hazard details
• Contractor’s application for acceptance (for the specific special extinguishing system)

How to Submit Plans for Review

Members should submit electronic plans (PDF format is preferred) to Stacy Friling at sfriling@travelers.com. Members typically receive a plan review letter approximately three weeks after submission.