Consulting-Specifying Engineer - February 2008 - (Page 38)

Traditional emergency evacuation plan Defend-in-place evacuation plan Rated fire and smoke barrier Origin of fire Origin of fire Figure 2: Typical egress for a floor without “defend-in-place” compartments available for evacuation of occupants. Source: NFPA Figure 3: Rated fire and smoke barriers to create multiple compartments allows partial evacuation or relocation of occupants. Source: NFPA Residential board-and-care multiple-death fires Year 1990 1990 1990 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1994 1995 1995 1995 1995 1996 1996 1996 1996 1996 1996 1997 1998 2000 2003 Location Georgia Texas Bessemer, Ala. Wisconsin Colorado Springs, Colo. Detroit Texas Alabama Broward County, Fla. Mississauga, Ontario Oregon California Michigan Connecticut California Laurinberg,N.C. Shelby County, Tenn. Ste. Genevieve, Quebec Pennsylvania Harveys Lake, Pa. Arlington, Wash. Pennsylvania California Fatalities 4 4 4 3 10 10 3 6 6 8 4 3 3 3 3 8 4 7 4 10 8 3 4 benefit from the “defend-in-place” approach, which accommodates the limited or restricted mobility of residents. To further define the fire protection for a building, the code requires classifying the occupancy based on the total number of residents being housed in each building. Small facilities provide accommodations for as many as 16 residents and are covered under NFPA 101 sections 32.2 and 33.2 for new and existing facilities. The large facility designation, which covers all residential board-and-care occupancies designed to accommodate more than 16 residents, is covered in sections 32.3 and 33.3 of the Life Safety Code. A principle distinction between small and large board-and-care facilities is that large facilities have specific height and area limitations based on construction type—similar to chapters 5 and 6 of the IBC. As an example, a new, large residential board-and-care facility of 1-hour fire resistance rated construction (Type II -111) is allowed to be built as high as 3 stories with a maximum area per floor of 19,000 sq. ft. By contrast, an existing facility of similar construction can be 6 stories high, provided that the building egress capability is rated as either “prompt” or “slow.” A caveat is that a change to the egress capability rating of a building to one of a lesser rating requires the building to adhere to the requirements and standards of the new rating for a newly constructed building. This is especially true if the rating drops to “impractical” for a large board-and-care facility. Code would then require the facility to adhere to chapter 19 for healthcare occupancies. The impact of this change in egress capability has the potential for distinct repercussions over the course of a facility’s lifecycle. Other considerations Beyond construction type, height, and area limitations, both small and large board-and-care facilities have other similarities and differences within the current code. Fire protection is fairly similar in application regardless of the size classification a facility falls under. Fire sprinklers in new construction for Source: NFPA, Fire Incident Data Organization (FIDO) Analysis of these fires reveals that the major contributing factors included a lack of automatic sprinklers, unprotected vertical openings, doors that open to the room of fire origin, ineffective staff or resident training, and ineffective response. Accordingly, NFPA reevaluated the methodology of the existing Life Safety Code. 38 Consulting-Specifying Engineer • FEBRUARY 2008

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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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