Sim Fire Safety Issues

[sagrada737]

Hi Guys,

I was talking with Scott the other day and the issue of fire safety for our simulators came up.  This is an important issue to take seriously.  I can speak from experience, having encountered electrical fires in-flight, and on the ground - not to mention I was in the MGM Grand Hotel file back in 1980 - all of these were scary experiences!

Fortunately, I was able to eliminate the source of the electrical fire and terminate it before it got terribly out of control.  One thing I can tell you is that things happen very quickly inside the cockpit when an electrical fire starts.  The main issue is not necessary the fire, but the smoke and toxic gases!  It fills the cockpit very quickly and requires quick action to cut the source of power to the failed circuit/wiring.  As far as the MGM fire was concerned, I was on the 14 floor in the east wing and lucky enough to escape, but there were those a few doors down the hallway more near the elevators that were not so fortunate and they perished.

One thing I can tell you is that electrical fires in enclosed spaces can overcome a person very quickly - in less than a minute if proper action is not taken immediately.  With the MGM fire, I was almost ovecome by the black smoke/fumes as I escaped down the hall to the fire escape - the smoke has an almost paralyzing effect.  With the cockpit electrical fires, the smell of electrical wires burning has a similar effect.

OK...  enough of that.  What if anything does this have to do with our home cockpit simulator?  Simple, take precautions to ensure that all our wiring is properly routed and properly grounded.  Ensure that proper wire gauge is used to handle the current for a given circuit.  Ensure that 120/220 AC voltages and distribution are cleanly routed to the power supplies and properly secured to the structure and properly grounded.  Also, don't forget to double-check that your AC power source to your simulator is properly grounded and that it is properly fused/circuit breaker for what you are drawing from the AC panel.  Don't block your AC panel with a lot of stuff making it impossible to get to if you need to kill AC power.  Same for inside the cockpit - ensure you can kill primary power immediately if necessary.

If for some reason you do encounter a fire while in or around your simulator, be sure to have a plan of action to deal with the situation.  That means you have thought about such an event, either electrical fire or open flames, and you have rehearsed a recovery/escape plan.  Some of our projects are in very tight places within our homes or shops, eg. basements, garages, upper attic, etc.  In that regard, you need to consider the overall structure and protection of other life within the building.  Most folks are really not prepared to deal with how fast a fire can spread, and it is truly amazing just what will burn.

Along with your fire control plan, ensure that you have adequate fire extinguishers on hand, and that they are the right type.  Here is where it might be somewhat subjective, but you do not want to set off the wrong type of fire extinguisher in a tight, enclosed space like a cockpit - whether the real deal or our home simulators.  My suggestion is to use Halon for your cockpit environment.  Here is a link and a general whitepaper on aviation fire extinguisher.

http://www.h3raviation.com/news_Aviation_Consumer_Dec08.htm

For my home cockpit, I will have two small Halon extinguisher in/near the cockpit, and a couple of general purpose dry chemical type extinguishers for the sim-room and home/shop/garage areas.

I don't want anyone to take me as alarmist, but as I opened this thread, I have "been there and done that" having been through real world experiences concerning fire safety.  I hope you might take this seriously if you have not yet considered for you home cockpit and your home or shop.

Mike

[Maurice]

Scary experiences indeed and I fully agree with the importance of taking fire safety seriously. I too had a scary experience when I was still working. I was alone in our office on the sixth floor when the alarm bell rang. Being much younger at that time and therefore immortal, I elected to ignore it for a while until I saw all the commotion on the street below.

So I decided to go down after all and by the time I reached the main floor (only 6 floors below), I could hardly see anything and let alone breathe because the fire was in the basement and all the smoke was going up that particular flight of stairs. I will never forget that experience and I will never ignore a fire alarm again, especially in any multi storey building but everywhere else as well.

Anyway, good post and good reminder about fire safety. If you think it can't happen to you, think again.

Maurice

[Jetcos]

I would also suggest a Smoke Detector in the sim room and just outside the door as well.

Most important is fusing power supplies and having a quick way to shutdown power to the sim. Leave the PC's on there own circuit.

Just a few thoughts.

[sagrada737]

Good point about hving a smoke detector in the Sim-Room. 

Additionally, I forgot to mention that it is not a bad idea for those with "totally enclosed flightdecks", to have a Carbon Monoxide Detector that indicates status or has an alarm function.  Carbon Monoxide is called the silent killer for a reason - it sneaks up on you in those cozy 737NG seats!  You can't see it, and you can't smell it.

Mike

[jskibo]

Why not use the $5 CO2 dot we use in the planes?

http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/4420

[Maurice]

Good point about hving a smoke detector in the Sim-Room. 

Additionally, I forgot to mention that it is not a bad idea for those with "totally enclosed flightdecks", to have a Carbon Monoxide Detector that indicates status or has an alarm function.  Carbon Monoxide is called the silent killer for a reason - it sneaks up on you in those cozy 737NG seats!  You can't see it, and you can't smell it.

Mike

If your sim is generating carbon monoxide, then you've got a much bigger problem than carbon monoxide ...check for a real fire somewhere quick, especially the APU at the back of the cabin  . 

And besides, every floor in the house should have a carbon monoxide detector anyway regardless of whether there is a simulator in there or not.

Maurice

[sluyt050]

Important subject I think. I am presently building my SIM in a side part of the living room. Smoke detector is already there. A long time ago I bought a halon fire extinguisher and fortunately it is still unused. They are prohibited nowadays in the Netherlands since it is bad for the ozone layer (however, very friendly for electronic equipment).

(What about a real oxygen mask, to get it even more realistic? 

[geneb]

Circuit breakers, circuit breakers, circuit breakers!

If you're using fuses, fuse BOTH the positive and negative leads!

g.

[Maurice]

Circuit breakers, circuit breakers, circuit breakers!

If you're using fuses, fuse BOTH the positive and negative leads!

g.

Isn't that a bit of paranoia here?  . If not, please explain why you are saying that when even house wiring or any other equipment I have ever seen protects only the live wiring and not the ground wiring. Did I misunderstand what you are saying or am I missing something here?

Maurice

[geneb]

I'll give you a great example of why doing this is a good idea.

MANY years ago, I had a Volvo 244S.  Awesome car.  However, it had a ground problem.  The ground wire from the battery wasn't making good contact to the engine block for some reason, so when you cranked the car, it would use the throttle linkage to the carburetor as the ground path.  This resulted in the car not wanting to start (cranked very slowly) and REALLY heated up the linkage.  Had the ground side been fused as well, that fuse would have blown and it would be obvious something odd was amiss.  As it was, it took weeks of screwing with it before I added a new ground wire out of desperation, and TADA! instant starting car.

Putting a fuse on the ground side may be over kill, but frankly I'd much rather over do it than burn my shop down.

g.

[Maurice]

Putting a fuse on the ground side may be over kill, but frankly I'd much rather over do it than burn my shop down.

But that's a great opportunity to start fresh and milk the insurance company for a well equipped shop (yeah right!)    But I do detect a flaw in your analysis about your Volvo. If there was a fuse on the throttle linkage to the carburetor, it would not have blown anyway unless it was fused at a lower amperage than what is required for the starter.

The reason that wire got hot was because the starter was drawing more current than what that other wire was capable of carrying. And by that theory, every other ground wire in the car would also have to be fused and I can't see car companies ever doing that. And one last point; car battery can supply very high amperage and will not shut itself down if it exceeds any amount of current. Computer power supplies on the other hand will shut themselves off if detecting a higher amperage than what they are rated for.

Anyway, moot point and I'm not really trying to be argumentative but rather informative if possible.  Ignore my ramblings and do what makes you feel good    I would not want to take the blame for your shop burning down because you listened to my misguided suggestions 

Maurice

[sagrada737]

Some of the recent comments prompts me to bring up an inexpensive test for your home or shop to ensure that your primary AC wiring is correct.  Most hardware stores sell a low cost "Outlet Tester" that you plug into your AC outlets anywhere in your home or shop, and will quickly show status if the outlet is wired incorrectly or is lacking a Ground (big problem).

You would be surprised at how many outlets are incorrectly wired in the typical home - old or new construction.  I had a couple of AC outlets in my home that had problems - turned out to be wires that were not secured to the outlet hardware (shoddy electrical work by the electrician).  In any case, I easily fixed the problem, but the point is, you want to make sure that the AC outlets you are using are properly configured and most of all, properly Grounded.

Another consideration that may be good for some parts of your home, are the use of Ground Fault Interrupters.  Required by Code in many areas.  This device will protect as many outlets that are connected to the same circuit.

By the way, another consideration is the use of UPS systems to help protect expensive equipment from electrical spikes and power outages.  I'm sure that most folks are using these.  If you are located in an area that frequently gets "brown-outs" or prone to lightning strikes, then I would suggest adding a more robust "On-Line Double-Conversion" type of UPS system.   Eaton and APC have these high-end UPS solutions in a variety of VA capacities.  I use these up in the mountains to condition/protect primary AC poser for everything AC in my remote robotic observatories.  They have paid for themselves over the years by protecting expensive computers/astronomy equipment.  They do a great job of providing clean sine-wave power under the most harsh electrical conditions.

Mike