Fire reservoir - refill/recharge/make-up requirements

[cht13er]

On a rural site with large buildings (conference centre, more or less) I'm doing some preliminary sizing to determine if a stormwater pond or a tank is more cost effective to provide the required firefighting water supply of one million litres or 250,000 gallons (round numbers).

I can't find anywhere any advice/requirements regarding the maximum rechage/refill/make-up time for a reservoir (pond or tank). Can you point me to something useful?

Obviously waiting weeks or months for rain to top the reservoir back up is a possibility - is it prudent or even legal? Or should we run a well full-steam for a week?


(Sidenote: neither the Fire Underwriters Study (FUS) - pdf here:

http://www.scm-rms.ca/docs/Fire Und...9 Water Supply for Public Fire Protection.pdf

nor the Ontario Building Code seem to consider this issue.)


Thanks for your thoughts!
Chris, Ontario Canada

 

[cvg]

you should plan on having the resrvoir full at all times. you can't afford to go without fire water for any amount of time can you? it is legal but you may have to supplement with another water source to keep the reservoir full. recommend you do a hydrology study to determine the time required to fill it up and that might help you determine if this is feasible or cost effective.

 

[cht13er]

I think I was unclear in my original post, sorry cvg.

Assuming there was a huge fire and the entire water supply was used ... what's the best way to fill it up again and how quickly should that happen?



Hope that questions conveys my thoughts better.
Thanks!

 

[cvg]

no, you were clear and I am suggesting that it needs to be full 100% of the time. how you fill it or re-fill it to replace leakage, evaporation or fire use is up to you. a feasibility study including hydrology study can help to estimate the cost and determine a feasibile way of filling the reservoir and you may find that a closed tank is more feasible than stormwater. partly depends on the hydrology of the site.

if you can't collect and store enough rainwater than you will need to bring in water either with a pipeline or by truck.