Exercising Fire Pumps

In the 2011 Edition of NFPA 25, Inspection, Testing and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, the frequency of exercising electric motor driven fire pumps was changed from weekly to monthly; exercising of diesel engine driven fire pumps remained at weekly. For the 2014 Edition of this standard, it appears that the frequency for electric motor driven pumps meeting certain criteria will be changed back to weekly. The criteria are:

• Fire pumps serving high-rise buildings.
• Vertical turbine fire pumps.
• Fire pumps with limited service controllers.
• Fire pumps taking suction from ground level tanks.
• Fire pumps taking suction from public or industrial water supplies that do or do not provide sufficient pressure to be of material value to the pump.

The NFPA 25 Committee’s decision to change was made based upon information provided by the NFPA Fire protection Research Foundation (www.nfpa.org/research/fire-protection-research-foundation). It was decided that pumps within this criteria would place the building and operations they protected at a greater risk if they failed to operate during a fire emergency, and thereby needed the higher level of attention. All other electric motor driven fire pumps not falling under the criteria can still be exercised on a monthly basis. Risk Logic can help to determine whether your electric motor driven fire pump needs to be exercised weekly or monthly.