Consulting-Specifying Engineer - February 2008 - (Page 37)

categories as defined by the NFPA. Per Point at which a choice of section 3.3.122.2 of the 2006 edition of Common path of travel 2 exits becomes available the Life Safety Code, a nursing home is defined as “a building or portion of a A building used on a 24-hour basis for the housing and nursing care of four or more persons who, because of mental or physical incapacity, might be unable to provide for their own needs and safety without the assistance of another person.” Nursing homes often fall under the same strict codes and standards as hospitals and other ambulatory care facilities due to the level of services they provide, Exit Exit B and typically are seen as separate occupancies from assisted-living facilities. Common path of travel By contrast, a residential board-andcare occupancy receives the following Figure 1: Common path of egress travel is the portion of exit access the occupants must definition from chapter 3 of the Life Safety travel before a choice of two separate paths of egress are available. Source: NFPA Code: “A building or portion thereof that is used for lodging and boarding of four or higher concentration of residents using assisted devices, such more residents, not related by blood or marriage to the owners as walkers and wheelchairs, can lead to a resident population or operators, for the purpose of providing personal care ser- moving from a “prompt” rating to a rating of “slow” or even vices.” Appendix A.3.3.168.12 expands this definition through “impractical.” The onset of mental disorders and diseases, such example to include “assisted-living facilities” and “group hous- as Alzheimer’s, also creates logistical strains on the staff during ing for the elderly that provides personal care, but not nursing an evacuation. Even the time of day that a fire occurs has a care.” By definition, most senior assisted-living facilities fall larger impact on board-and-care facilities due to the increased under the classification of residential board-and-care occupan- use of nightly medications and drug therapy. cies with respect to the Life Safety Code and are referred to as Even though this evacuation classification is no longer the such throughout this article. primary method of determining applicable standards, egress capability is still used as a sub-classification for assessing code A history of assisted living requirements. From 1990 to 2003, the NFPA documented 23 multiple-death fires (three or more fatalities) in board-and-care occupancies The 2006 update for a total of 122 deaths. NFPA’s analysis of these fires reveals Moving on to the updated 2006 Life Safety Code, chapters that the major contributing factors included a lack of automatic 32 and 33 are based on two main concepts: sprinklers, unprotected vertical openings, doors that open to 1. Larger buildings are more difficult to evacuate than smallthe room of fire origin, and ineffective staff or resident training er buildings and require more built-in fire protection. or response. Based on the survey results, NFPA re-evaluated 2. Occupants who are more difficult to evacuate require more the methodology of the existing Life Safety Code as part of the built-in fire protection than occupants who are more easily development of NFPA 5000 Building Code. evacuated. Prior to the 2003 Life Safety Code, requirements for boardAs intrinsically simple as these statements sound, the and-care facilities were based primarily on the occupant’s evacimpact on fire protection and life safety strategies is prouation capability—the amount of time required to evacuate found. On the topic of egress, the current 2006 code uses the building during a fire drill. When first classified, a building more of a “defend-in-place” approach than the pre-2003 would receive a capability rating on a three-tiered scale: codes. The defend-in-place concept uses smoke and fire bar• Prompt for evacuation times up to 3 min riers in combination with automatic sprinkler systems to • Slow for evacuation times above 3 min but less than 13 min divide a facility into isolated compartments. This allows the • Impractical for facilities with evacuation times of 13 min building’s occupants to be moved to a safe location within or more. the structure while the fire department responds to the The problem with this approach is that as residents increase fire in a different area. Traditional egress designs centered on in age, their capabilities change. Decreased mobility and a evacuation. But similar to hospitals, board-and-care facilities * * * Consulting-Specifying Engineer • FEBRUARY 2008 37

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Consulting-Specifying Engineer - February 2008 Contents Viewpoint News M/E Roundtable How To Write Control Sequences Mentoring Engineers: Myths, Motivations, and Models Keep Young Electrical Engineers Grounded Protecting a Vulnerable Population Codes & Standards Case Study New Products Equipment Lifecycles Advertisers Index Green Space

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - February 2008

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