What are flammable and combustible liquids?
Control Areas
Dispensing Flammable Liquids
What are flammable and combustible liquids?
In general, flammable and combustible liquids are any liquid and/or aerosol that can be ignited at room temperature. This includes solvents, cleaning products, spray paints, oils and lubricants, and many laboratory chemicals.
Flammable and combustible liquids can be found in use in nearly every work environment on campus. Flammable liquids regulations apply to all such products, whether in a lab or office environment.
In order to reduce the probability of fire involving flammable liquids and gases, quantities must be limited, and storage must be restricted to fire resistant cabinets when not in use.
Control Areas
Flammable liquids stored and used in buildings have quantity limitations prescribed by the International Fire Code, based on the building occupancy type. Areas within buildings that are separated from the rest of the building by fire-rated construction create compartments that will resist the spread of fire to the rest of the structure. Each of these compartments is treated as a separate storage area in regard to flammable liquids.
These compartments, or fire areas, are known as 'control areas' because they are intended to control the spread of fire through the building. Commonly, control areas are wings of buildings, individual floors separated by stairwells and fire doors, or a portion of these.
If the storage limitations are exceeded, the fire classification of the building is deemed a 'hazardous occupancy,' and the resulting fire safety regulations that must be met are extensive and costly because few buildings are designed or built to these standards, and must be renovated.
Many buildings will consist of multiple control areas. To ensure that the control area limitations are not exceeded it is important to maintain a thorough and accurate inventory, and routinely assess the necessity of quantities stored.
The code limits for storage within each control area can be viewed
here.
For more information on the control areas within your building, and the limitations that might apply, contact your building administrator or department head.
Dispensing Flammable Liquids
Many liquids will create an electrical potential when poured or pumped that will result in static electricity buildup. It is important when dispensing to equalize this potential to prevent sparks that might ignite vapors. To eliminate the possibility of static discharge during dispensing, bonding of the vessels is required.
