Sharon O'connor on sprinkler systems
From CTBUH 2012 Shanghai Congress - O'Connor, "Considerations for Refuge Areas in Tall Buildings" · · CTBUH
“If you have a fully sprinkler building, most if not all floors can serve as Refuge space. And also, if you're going to institute Refuge floors in buildings, can we really, in terms of the financial model and sustainability of tall buildings, have some kind of use for those spaces rather than them sitting there as empty shells?”
On , Sharon O'connor, Vice President of Legal Services at CORVEL CORP, spoke about sprinkler systems during CTBUH 2012 Shanghai Congress - O'Connor, "Considerations for Refuge Areas in Tall Buildings" on CTBUH.
About Sharon O'connor
Sharon O'Connor, Vice President of Legal Services at Corvel, presented at the 2012 CTBUH Shanghai Congress on considerations for refuge areas in tall buildings. She discussed the financial and sustainability impacts of refuge floors, noting costs such as additional construction time, cleaning, HVAC, loss of efficiency, and impacts on leasing plans. O'Connor suggested that in fully sprinklered buildings, most floors could serve as refuge space, and advocated for redirecting cost savings from not building refuge floors toward sprinkler system reliability, testing, and maintenance. She described sprinklers as an "on-demand firefighter" and emphasized the need for regular maintenance to ensure reliability. O'Connor also raised concerns about human behavior in fires, including potential overcrowding on refuge floors and the risk of moving occupants to a refuge floor directly above a fire. She reported feedback from her fire safety working group that people often ignore refuge floors and do not use them. Additionally, she characterized helicopter evacuation from rooftops as a "very high-risk strategy," citing obstacles such as thick smoke, flight safety, weather, turbulence, and the risk of helicopter crashes in urban settings.