[AusNOG] [AUSNog] : Re Data Centre Fire Suppression Safety

[Paul Wilkins]

See I would expect there would be an Australian Standard for Data Centre
Fire Suppression
 Systems, with regular inspections that were certified and the certificate
on display in the data centre.

And as I haven't noticed this, and Chris hasn't noticed this, I would guess
it's not a gap in places I've worked, but there's a more widespread lack of
governance around inspections.

Furthermore, the fire suppressant, may leak. Halon is poisonous and can
impair your judgement. So there ought to be an alarm that detects if Halon
is present. It's not good enough to rely on the fire alarm to warn you of
the presence of fire suppressant, because you could have a leak without a
fire.

One would have to assume the people in Antarctica knew what they were
doing, and yet, something went wrong and now they're dead.

Kind regards

Paul Wilkins


On Thu, 13 Dec 2018 at 11:00, Chris Ford <chris.ford at inaboxgroup.com.au>
wrote:

> As a university cadet working for IBM in the late 80s I remember getting
> inducted into the Westpac data centres and getting a long explanation of
> what to do when the halon system went off – where the breathing gear was,
> where the exits were, to basically just drop everything and run.
>
>
>
> Have been inducted into a few DCs in the last 3 years and can’t remember
> that being part of the induction at all – although given I already knew it
> I may have just glossed over that part.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Chris Ford
>
> Chief Technology Officer
>
>
>
> *INABOX GROUP*
>
> *m* 0401 988 844 *e* chris.ford at inaboxgroup.com.au
>
> *t* 02 8275 6871 *w* www.inaboxgroup.com.au
>
>
>
> *From:* AusNOG <ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net> *On Behalf Of *Paul
> Wilkins
> *Sent:* Thursday, 13 December 2018 10:53 AM
> *To:* AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> *Subject:* [AusNOG] [AUSNog] : Re Data Centre Fire Suppression Safety
>
>
>
> Every data centre has a fire suppression system. We're not used to
> thinking of this as a hazardous environment, but consequent to two techs
> being found dead working on a fire suppression system in Antarctica
> <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/12/antarctica-two-technicians-dead-mcmurdo-station-ross-island>,
> I find myself wondering yet again, why there aren't more stringent controls
> around the fire suppression systems in data centres: viz - when you enter a
> data centre, how confident can you be you're not going to be quietly
> asphyxiated?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Paul Wilkins
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