CASE STUDY

How Chamco Built the “Cadillac” of Fire Pump Packages for a B.C. Natural Gas Facility

Exterior of a fully assembled Chamco fire pump package elevated on structural pilings, ready for transport from the Calgary facility.

Project Background

A large liquefied natural gas facility under development on the coast of B.C. needed a fire pump package, and the scope was clear: 10,000 GPM of fire suppression capacity, built to operate in a remote coastal environment with zero tolerance for risk.

The Challenge

As Chamco’s largest fire package build to date, this project posed significant challenges.

  • Aligning Complex Specifications with NFPA Requirements

    Fire pump packages must comply with strict NFPA requirements, but this project went well beyond standard interpretation. One of the early challenges was aligning a highly detailed, heavily scrutinized specification set with NFPA requirements for firewater package design.

    While NFPA standards define the baseline, the initial project specifications reflected a more refinery-style approach, which introduced complexity in interpretation and required careful reconciliation with fire pump package design principles.

  • A No-Risk Philosophy

    The customer’s no-risk procurement approach meant specifying every component at the highest available tier. Chamco walked the team through several of these choices, including top-of-the-line batteries specified at six to seven times standard cost.

  • Demanding Physical Requirements

    The facility required human factor engineering principles throughout the package design. Every internal pathway had to accommodate a stretcher around all equipment at all times. These requirements posed significant complexity in the piping layout.

  • Shipping constraints

    Moving a fully assembled fire pump package of this size and complexity from Calgary to the B.C. coast required adjustments to comply with stringent provincial transport limits.

Why The Customer Chose Chamco

Fire pump packages are subject to stringent standards, and getting them right from the start requires experience. During the proposal phase, Chamco worked closely with the engineering team to align the specifications to NFPA fire pump standards, walking through the differences in detail. That technical dialogue and documentation were extensive, given that the client put a significantly larger team on the file than Chamco typically works with during proposals.

By the time the purchase order was issued, it was clear that Chamco had the deepest knowledge of fire pump standards among the bidders. Chamco had identified the specification problems early, answered the technical questions in detail, and never left a question unresolved.

The Solution

Interior of a Chamco fire pump package showing diesel engines and red fire pumps with wide aisle clearance for stretcher access.

  • A 10,000 GPM Fire Pump System Built Around Redundancy

    To meet a 10,000 GPM demand, Chamco engineered a package around three 5,000 USGPM Peerless horizontal split-case pumps, the largest listed fire pumps available under NFPA standards. The system was built with two diesel and one electric unit. It was configured to run one diesel and one electric each under normal operation, with the second diesel as a spare if grid power failed. Pairing two pumps at that capacity in a single package is something very few fabricators have experience building.

  • Engineered for Extreme Conditions

    Every internal pathway was designed wide enough to maneuver a stretcher around all equipment, a human factor engineering requirement that shaped the entire floor plan, which had to accommodate both the stretcher clearances and the interconnections among three pumps without making the package too long to ship.

  • Turnkey Delivery from Calgary to the B.C. Coast

    To avoid field assembly at a remote coastal site, Chamco built the package completely at our Calgary facility. The unit shipped at the maximum legal transport envelope for Alberta-to-B.C. highway movement. On arrival, the only field work required was reinstalling items removed to prevent shipping damage, such as door canopies.

    The customer understood the advice and proceeded with the best of the best, without budget being a major factor, to ensure the build met the highest standards.

The Results

Interior of a Chamco fire pump package showing red piping, electric motors, and jockey pumps with an open floor plan designed for equipment access and maintenance.

The fire pump package was delivered on schedule and within budget, and the customer reported full satisfaction with both the product and the process.

This fire pump package stands as one of the most technically demanding projects Chamco has completed, from the scale of the fire demand to the complexity of the specifications and the logistics of getting a fully assembled package to a remote coastal site. It serves as a direct example of Chamco’s ability to work with very difficult specifications and customer demands, and to deliver a successful product.

Interior of a Chamco fire pump package showing large red electric motors, red piping, jockey pumps, and fire pump controllers, with a clear central aisle maintained throughout the length of the building.

For the customer, the outcome was a fire protection system built to their exact specification, fully assembled before it left the shop, and ready to connect on arrival at one of the most remote industrial sites in British Columbia.

Quotation Mark

“They bought every Cadillac item you could buy in a firewater package. They did not spare anything. I’m sure 50 years from now, that firewater package will still be operating.”

Steve Sims, Manager, Proposal and Applications

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By |2026-06-17T13:37:31-06:00June 15th, 2026|Comments Off on How Chamco Built the “Cadillac” of Fire Pump Packages for a B.C. Natural Gas Facility
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