Assignment Prompt & Instructions
help understanding the difference between right and wrong
– a year ago
**files (1)**
– ## pipefittingassignment.docx
**## pipefittingassignment.docx**
**Assignment objective:** For this assignment, you will submit a scenario-based case study course project. Look at fire protection technology in a holistic way that is significantly different from what was previously designed by thinking in isolation. You will evaluate and develop recommendations to resolve potential fires in the future.
**Details: Section I**
As we saw in the Unit III lesson, written plans, procedures, and work practices are needed in any organization, no matter how large or small they may be. Written plans and procedures point out unforeseen hazards or emergencies to the organization, employees, or even the public. Based on the scenario in the unit lesson and the information above, discuss what is an emergency action plan. What are procedures and work practices? Describe the designated actions employers and employees should take to ensure employee safety from fire and other emergencies after the warehouse is rebuilt.
**Section II**
Prepare a well-organized narrative addressing the existing fire protection, detection, and suppression systems for the warehouse in the Points to Ponder Scenario. Your discussion will consist of your evaluation of the previous fire protection, detection, and suppression systems. In addition, your recommendations for the rebuild of the warehouse should include the advantages that these systems have on life safety and loss prevention. Make sure to include emerging technologies related to fire protection systems that you recommend, and differentiate between the types of fire protection systems you believe would protect employees and visitors.
As you make suggestions to improve life, safety, and fire protection, refer to the background information, if needed, to provide you with the necessary material to identify the basic components common to fire protection for the City of Washington Distribution Warehouse.
Building upon the background information, as firefighters entered the structure, they had to wade through large amounts of product debris falling from the high-rack storage, and smaller debris was floating out of the loading dock doors. The products piled in the high racks hindered the operation of the in-rack sprinkler heads, allowing the products on the lower shelves to continue burning.
Note: On the fire scene, in order for the firefighters to understand where the fire is located, sides and quadrant designations have been identified as A, B, C, D. The structure faces the street (i.e., the address side), which is normally the front door; this is referred to as Side A. Facing the front door going clockwise, each side then has a letter designation of B, C, D. This means that Side B is on the left, Side C is the rear, and Side D is the right.
**Section III**
It is critical for fire protection design engineers to understand the dynamics of fire and fire behavior. In this section, you should address the areas listed below.
· Briefly describe the stages of fire from the ignition phase through decay.
· Discuss heat, fuel, oxygen, and a chemical chain reaction (fire tetrahedron) and how it produces flaming (visible fire).
· Summarize the benefits of fire protection systems in different types of structures based on fire behavior.
**Section IV**
As you make suggestions to improve fire detection and alarm systems, refer to the background information of the scenario, if needed, to provide you with the necessary material to identify the basic components common to fire protection for the City of Washington Distribution Warehouse.
This assignment is not looking for compliance with building codes nor expecting you to be a fire protection system designer. However, the purpose of this assignment is for you to apply the concepts and knowledge you learned in this unit, which will cover protection systems that will detect, contain, control, and extinguish a fire. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to use your skills, expertise, and experience to enrich your response.
Prepare a well-organized narrative addressing the fire detection and alarm system, and provide your recommendations after reviewing the background information and information above. Your discussion will consist of your evaluation of the previous fire detection and alarm system. In addition, from reading the textbook chapters and any additional research you conduct about detection and alarm systems, discuss your recommendations for the rebuild of the warehouse. Be sure to include the information below.
· Briefly explain the function of a fire alarm control unit.
· Categorize the types of audible notification appliances.
· Discuss the three types of specialty signals.
**Length:** For this assignment, you will write a four-page narrative (one page per section) supporting your position.
**References:** Use level one headings in APA Style for each section. The heading should be indicative of the major section to follow. You must have a title page and references page. You may use information from reputable, reliable journal articles; case studies; scholarly papers; and other sources that you feel are pertinent. You should use at least three sources, of which one must be your textbook. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations following proper APA Style
**Submission:** Save your assignment as a Word document and upload the document to Blackboard.
**Grading:** The project will be reviewed in alignment to the criteria, focused on an understanding and analysis of the assignment and application of the relevant theories.
Points to Ponder Scenario
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a fire protection engineer designing the fire protection for an addition to a large warehouse distribution center in the fictional City of Washington. During renovation of the building, you need to add a fire pump due to the water supply system’s inability to provide sufficient pressure to meet the design requirements of the additional square footage. Due to the strict time frame of completing renovations and the unavailability of fire pumps required for the system designed, the contractor substitutes a foreign made fire pump that is not a part of specifications listed.
The fire pump is a horizontal split-case centrifugal pump, which complies with foreign regulations and international codes of practice that are similar to the codes of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In addition, the fire pump meets International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System standards specifically for centrifugal pumps and jockey pumps used in automatic water-based sprinkler installations. However, the foreign-made fire pump is not Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approved. The pump meets compliance with the engineer’s design specifications and calculations outlined on the shop drawings. Based on the specifications, the fire pump will develop more than 140% of its rated pressure and will operate at a minimum of 100% of its rated capacity at 100% of its rated pressure. However, when the fire pump arrives, the inlets for the water lines on the suction side require elbows to connect to the potable water source. NFPA 20 strictly prohibits the installation of elbows on the suction side. You realize that elbows on the suction side could allow air to be trapped and affect the overall performance of the fire pump as well as cause the loss of prime during operation. Even though you know this is wrong, you rationalize that the fire pump will provide fire protection, even though this is not in compliance with NFPA. You do not alert the property owner or even the owner’s authorized representative, and you approve the change by signing off on it.
Is justifying an unethical behavior the right thing to do? Is meeting the code for fire protection, even with elbows and the wrong pump, better than none? After all, due to the shortage of fire pumps, at least they have one, and it meets the legal requirement of providing a fire pump and suppression system. Did using the foreign-made pump preserve the trust and confidence of the owners of the warehouse and those using the facility in the future? Unethical behaviors are justified or even rationalized many times, as seen in the scenario. Gagnon (2008) suggests that people rationalize to avoid dealing with their internal values, which, in turn, allows for the unethical behavior to be repeated. In the scenario above, the fire protection engineer was trying to meet the intent of the code in order to provide fire protection. You convinced yourself that no one would be injured as a result of signing off on the foreign-made pump even though elbows were used on the suction side. You rationalized the decision was the right thing to do because there were no UL-approved fire pumps available to meet the strict time frame requirements of opening the warehouse. As a part of the rationalization, one may be convinced that during the inspection, the inspector would identify any issues or problems. However, NFPA 25 only requires inspectors to test the system and does not require inspectors to have complete knowledge of the system's design. Therefore, is using the foreign-made fire pump a dilemma for right versus right action? Is providing fire protection wrong, even if the fire protection engineer cared enough to provide protection for others who want right to prevail? If this is wrongdoing, does it deviate from moral rectitude? Ethics is an activity that wants right to prevail over wrong because it is the right thing to do, not because of some canon of age-old law (Kidder, 1995). Would using the fire pump be considered caring for others even when using the elbows to make the connections is against NFPA 20 code? After all, the fire pump complied with foreign regulations and international codes of practice similar to the NFPA codes.
Some may suggest that the decision to use the fire pump was an ethical decision involving two rights. Is it two rights? What are the two rights in an ethical dilemma? Is it right to use the foreign-made fire pump with the elbows on the suction side? Is it right to provide fire protection with a foreign-made fire pump that meets the appropriate supplemental calculations? Kidder (1995) stated that when an ethical dilemma involves two rights, the right action will always be chosen by an ethical person. Kidder (1995) also suggested that it is very hard to make tough choices involving ethical dilemmas. Using the foreign-made fire pump does have value and merit in life safety under the right conditions. Kidder (2005) stated that most ethical dilemmas involve four paradigms of right versus right action: individual versus community, truth versus loyalty, short-term versus long-term, and justice versus mercy. As we weigh right versus right action, the use of the foreign-made fire pump falls under the rules and obligations of the National Society of Professional Engineers (2007) to resolve ethical dilemmas or conflicts. The two points below are paraphrased from the “Rules of Practice” in the Code of Ethics for Engineers.
· Engineers must always consider the safety, health, and welfare of the public first.
• Engineers will not sign any plans or documents for areas in which they are not completely competent or those that they did not have control in preparing (National Society of Professional Engineers, 2007).
As you read these points, did the professional engineer hold the safety, health, and welfare of the owners and public to the highest esteem both legally and ethically? Is there an unarguably right answer using the excerpts? The rules within the Code of Ethics for Engineers work as a legal requirement today for fire protection engineers, and it is different from other codes of ethics. The question to consider is if the law surpasses ethical behavior or if ethical behavior surpasses the law. When there is a similarity between ethical values and laws, conflicts will arise (Gagnon, 2008). Gagnon (2008) lists these ethical conflicts as disagreements, such as inspecting a nightclub in the daytime versus inspecting it at night when the occupancy load is different. By law, the inspector met the legal requirement of inspecting the club during daytime hours. However, ethically, the inspector failed to take the right action because the occupancy loads are different. Is using a foreign-made fire pump that is certified in other countries and meets all safety requirements legal in the United States? Is it ethical to use the fire pump? With technology changing, design professionals are having a harder time determining ethical behavior as conflict between our laws and codes of ethics are becoming more frequent and noteworthy (Gagnon, 2008).
Conclusion
Ethical behavior is driven by our moral principles; many times, outside forces or pressures may sway our moral principles to be rationalized when we get caught in a dilemma of right versus right action or even right versus wrong. Every decision made in fire protection technology may have ethical consequences if we do not adhere to a strict code of ethics. As Gagnon (2008) postulated, future technologies will endanger fire protection engineers to do the right thing in making morally correct and ethical decisions.
References
Gagnon, R. M. (2008). Design of special hazard and fire alarm systems (2nd ed.). Delmar Learning.
Hurley, M. J. (2006, Summer). SFPE's canons of ethics. Fire Protection Engineering, 31, 2. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=tsh&AN=21711202&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Kidder, R. M. (1995). How good people make tough choices. Harper Collins.
Kidder, R. M. (2005). Overview: The ethics of right versus right. In How good people make tough choices: Resolving the dilemmas of ethics (pp. 12–29).
[https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib7/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/352/ethics%20book.pdf](https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib7/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/352/ethics%20book.pdf)
Maxwell, J. C. (2003). Ethics 101: What every leader needs to know. Center Street. National Society of Professional Engineers. (2007). Code of ethics for engineers [Publication No. 1102]. https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/CodeofEthics/Code-2007-July.pdf
Text book
[VitalSource Bookshelf: Fire Protection, Detection, and Suppression Systems](https://online.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9780879396015/pageid/42)
## image1.png
**## pipefittingassignment.docx**
**Assignment objective:** For this assignment, you will submit a scenario-based case study course project. Look at fire protection technology in a holistic way that is significantly different from what was previously designed by thinking in isolation. You will evaluate and develop recommendations to resolve potential fires in the future.
**Details: Section I**
As we saw in the Unit III lesson, written plans, procedures, and work practices are needed in any organization, no matter how large or small they may be. Written plans and procedures point out unforeseen hazards or emergencies to the organization, employees, or even the public. Based on the scenario in the unit lesson and the information above, discuss what is an emergency action plan. What are procedures and work practices? Describe the designated actions employers and employees should take to ensure employee safety from fire and other emergencies after the warehouse is rebuilt.
**Section II**
Prepare a well-organized narrative addressing the existing fire protection, detection, and suppression systems for the warehouse in the Points to Ponder Scenario. Your discussion will consist of your evaluation of the previous fire protection, detection, and suppression systems. In addition, your recommendations for the rebuild of the warehouse should include the advantages that these systems have on life safety and loss prevention. Make sure to include emerging technologies related to fire protection systems that you recommend, and differentiate between the types of fire protection systems you believe would protect employees and visitors.
As you make suggestions to improve life, safety, and fire protection, refer to the background information, if needed, to provide you with the necessary material to identify the basic components common to fire protection for the City of Washington Distribution Warehouse.
Building upon the background information, as firefighters entered the structure, they had to wade through large amounts of product debris falling from the high-rack storage, and smaller debris was floating out of the loading dock doors. The products piled in the high racks hindered the operation of the in-rack sprinkler heads, allowing the products on the lower shelves to continue burning.
Note: On the fire scene, in order for the firefighters to understand where the fire is located, sides and quadrant designations have been identified as A, B, C, D. The structure faces the street (i.e., the address side), which is normally the front door; this is referred to as Side A. Facing the front door going clockwise, each side then has a letter designation of B, C, D. This means that Side B is on the left, Side C is the rear, and Side D is the right.
**Section III**
It is critical for fire protection design engineers to understand the dynamics of fire and fire behavior. In this section, you should address the areas listed below.
· Briefly describe the stages of fire from the ignition phase through decay.
· Discuss heat, fuel, oxygen, and a chemical chain reaction (fire tetrahedron) and how it produces flaming (visible fire).
· Summarize the benefits of fire protection systems in different types of structures based on fire behavior.
**Section IV**
As you make suggestions to improve fire detection and alarm systems, refer to the background information of the scenario, if needed, to provide you with the necessary material to identify the basic components common to fire protection for the City of Washington Distribution Warehouse.
This assignment is not looking for compliance with building codes nor expecting you to be a fire protection system designer. However, the purpose of this assignment is for you to apply the concepts and knowledge you learned in this unit, which will cover protection systems that will detect, contain, control, and extinguish a fire. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to use your skills, expertise, and experience to enrich your response.
Prepare a well-organized narrative addressing the fire detection and alarm system, and provide your recommendations after reviewing the background information and information above. Your discussion will consist of your evaluation of the previous fire detection and alarm system. In addition, from reading the textbook chapters and any additional research you conduct about detection and alarm systems, discuss your recommendations for the rebuild of the warehouse. Be sure to include the information below.
· Briefly explain the function of a fire alarm control unit.
· Categorize the types of audible notification appliances.
· Discuss the three types of specialty signals.
**Length:** For this assignment, you will write a four-page narrative (one page per section) supporting your position.
**References:** Use level one headings in APA Style for each section. The heading should be indicative of the major section to follow. You must have a title page and references page. You may use information from reputable, reliable journal articles; case studies; scholarly papers; and other sources that you feel are pertinent. You should use at least three sources, of which one must be your textbook. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations following proper APA Style
**Submission:** Save your assignment as a Word document and upload the document to Blackboard.
**Grading:** The project will be reviewed in alignment to the criteria, focused on an understanding and analysis of the assignment and application of the relevant theories.
Points to Ponder Scenario
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a fire protection engineer designing the fire protection for an addition to a large warehouse distribution center in the fictional City of Washington. During renovation of the building, you need to add a fire pump due to the water supply system’s inability to provide sufficient pressure to meet the design requirements of the additional square footage. Due to the strict time frame of completing renovations and the unavailability of fire pumps required for the system designed, the contractor substitutes a foreign made fire pump that is not a part of specifications listed.
The fire pump is a horizontal split-case centrifugal pump, which complies with foreign regulations and international codes of practice that are similar to the codes of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In addition, the fire pump meets International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System standards specifically for centrifugal pumps and jockey pumps used in automatic water-based sprinkler installations. However, the foreign-made fire pump is not Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approved. The pump meets compliance with the engineer’s design specifications and calculations outlined on the shop drawings. Based on the specifications, the fire pump will develop more than 140% of its rated pressure and will operate at a minimum of 100% of its rated capacity at 100% of its rated pressure. However, when the fire pump arrives, the inlets for the water lines on the suction side require elbows to connect to the potable water source. NFPA 20 strictly prohibits the installation of elbows on the suction side. You realize that elbows on the suction side could allow air to be trapped and affect the overall performance of the fire pump as well as cause the loss of prime during operation. Even though you know this is wrong, you rationalize that the fire pump will provide fire protection, even though this is not in compliance with NFPA. You do not alert the property owner or even the owner’s authorized representative, and you approve the change by signing off on it.
Is justifying an unethical behavior the right thing to do? Is meeting the code for fire protection, even with elbows and the wrong pump, better than none? After all, due to the shortage of fire pumps, at least they have one, and it meets the legal requirement of providing a fire pump and suppression system. Did using the foreign-made pump preserve the trust and confidence of the owners of the warehouse and those using the facility in the future? Unethical behaviors are justified or even rationalized many times, as seen in the scenario. Gagnon (2008) suggests that people rationalize to avoid dealing with their internal values, which, in turn, allows for the unethical behavior to be repeated. In the scenario above, the fire protection engineer was trying to meet the intent of the code in order to provide fire protection. You convinced yourself that no one would be injured as a result of signing off on the foreign-made pump even though elbows were used on the suction side. You rationalized the decision was the right thing to do because there were no UL-approved fire pumps available to meet the strict time frame requirements of opening the warehouse. As a part of the rationalization, one may be convinced that during the inspection, the inspector would identify any issues or problems. However, NFPA 25 only requires inspectors to test the system and does not require inspectors to have complete knowledge of the system's design. Therefore, is using the foreign-made fire pump a dilemma for right versus right action? Is providing fire protection wrong, even if the fire protection engineer cared enough to provide protection for others who want right to prevail? If this is wrongdoing, does it deviate from moral rectitude? Ethics is an activity that wants right to prevail over wrong because it is the right thing to do, not because of some canon of age-old law (Kidder, 1995). Would using the fire pump be considered caring for others even when using the elbows to make the connections is against NFPA 20 code? After all, the fire pump complied with foreign regulations and international codes of practice similar to the NFPA codes.
Some may suggest that the decision to use the fire pump was an ethical decision involving two rights. Is it two rights? What are the two rights in an ethical dilemma? Is it right to use the foreign-made fire pump with the elbows on the suction side? Is it right to provide fire protection with a foreign-made fire pump that meets the appropriate supplemental calculations? Kidder (1995) stated that when an ethical dilemma involves two rights, the right action will always be chosen by an ethical person. Kidder (1995) also suggested that it is very hard to make tough choices involving ethical dilemmas. Using the foreign-made fire pump does have value and merit in life safety under the right conditions. Kidder (2005) stated that most ethical dilemmas involve four paradigms of right versus right action: individual versus community, truth versus loyalty, short-term versus long-term, and justice versus mercy. As we weigh right versus right action, the use of the foreign-made fire pump falls under the rules and obligations of the National Society of Professional Engineers (2007) to resolve ethical dilemmas or conflicts. The two points below are paraphrased from the “Rules of Practice” in the Code of Ethics for Engineers.
· Engineers must always consider the safety, health, and welfare of the public first.
• Engineers will not sign any plans or documents for areas in which they are not completely competent or those that they did not have control in preparing (National Society of Professional Engineers, 2007).
As you read these points, did the professional engineer hold the safety, health, and welfare of the owners and public to the highest esteem both legally and ethically? Is there an unarguably right answer using the excerpts? The rules within the Code of Ethics for Engineers work as a legal requirement today for fire protection engineers, and it is different from other codes of ethics. The question to consider is if the law surpasses ethical behavior or if ethical behavior surpasses the law. When there is a similarity between ethical values and laws, conflicts will arise (Gagnon, 2008). Gagnon (2008) lists these ethical conflicts as disagreements, such as inspecting a nightclub in the daytime versus inspecting it at night when the occupancy load is different. By law, the inspector met the legal requirement of inspecting the club during daytime hours. However, ethically, the inspector failed to take the right action because the occupancy loads are different. Is using a foreign-made fire pump that is certified in other countries and meets all safety requirements legal in the United States? Is it ethical to use the fire pump? With technology changing, design professionals are having a harder time determining ethical behavior as conflict between our laws and codes of ethics are becoming more frequent and noteworthy (Gagnon, 2008).
Conclusion
Ethical behavior is driven by our moral principles; many times, outside forces or pressures may sway our moral principles to be rationalized when we get caught in a dilemma of right versus right action or even right versus wrong. Every decision made in fire protection technology may have ethical consequences if we do not adhere to a strict code of ethics. As Gagnon (2008) postulated, future technologies will endanger fire protection engineers to do the right thing in making morally correct and ethical decisions.
References
Gagnon, R. M. (2008). Design of special hazard and fire alarm systems (2nd ed.). Delmar Learning.
Hurley, M. J. (2006, Summer). SFPE's canons of ethics. Fire Protection Engineering, 31, 2. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=tsh&AN=21711202&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Kidder, R. M. (1995). How good people make tough choices. Harper Collins.
Kidder, R. M. (2005). Overview: The ethics of right versus right. In How good people make tough choices: Resolving the dilemmas of ethics (pp. 12–29).
[https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib7/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/352/ethics%20book.pdf](https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib7/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/352/ethics%20book.pdf)
Maxwell, J. C. (2003). Ethics 101: What every leader needs to know. Center Street. National Society of Professional Engineers. (2007). Code of ethics for engineers [Publication No. 1102]. https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/CodeofEthics/Code-2007-July.pdf
Text book
[VitalSource Bookshelf: Fire Protection, Detection, and Suppression Systems](https://online.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9780879396015/pageid/42)
## image1.png