NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 18
» IN COMPLIANCE
equipment, making it safer for electricians and other maintenance personnel to work within these enclosures when following all of the necessary safe work practices specified
in NFPA 70E, Electrical Safety in the
Workplace.
It should be stressed that this isolation provides a degree of shock protection but is not intended to provide
protection against arc-flash incidents.
A risk assessment of the hazards
associated with any justified energized tasks performed within a service panelboard is necessary to establish the requisite level of personal
protective equipment.
Jeffrey Sargent is a regional
electrical code specialist for NFPA.
NFPA members and AHJs can use
the Technical Questions tab to post
queries on NFPA 70 at nfpa.org/70.
FIRE ALARMS, SIGNALING + EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
nfpa.org/72 | by Wayne D. Moore
Back to School
Fire alarm systems for K-12 schools
M
ost state building, fire, and life
safety codes now require all
new K-12 schools to have manual
fire alarm systems. In schools with
more than 100 occupants, these systems initiate the occupant notification signal utilizing an emergency
voice/alarm communications system
that meets the requirements of, and
is installed in accordance with, NFPA
72®, National Fire Alarm and Signaling
Code. NFPA 72 does not require any
type of fire alarm system to be
installed in a building, but once a
governing building code, fire code,
or NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®,
requires any type of fire alarm system, the design and installation of
the system must meet the requirements of NFPA 72.
Given the fact that the code only
requires a manual fire alarm system
in K-12 occupancies, the actuation of
any manual fire alarm box will
annunciate at the fire alarm system
control panel, at any remote annunciator, and initiate a prerecorded notifi-
18
NFPA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
cation message throughout the building. Under most circumstances, this
notification message will indicate that
all occupants should immediately
evacuate. However, in certain circumstances, the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) may approve or require
other messages, such as the message
appropriate for a high-rise building.
In addition, NFPA 72 permits the
emergency voice/alarm communications system to provide other uses,
such as for public address (PA) or
mass notification purposes. When
the system also serves a public
address function, it might seem as if
some features required for the PA
system would violate NFPA 72
requirements. However, as long as
emergency messages have priority
over nonemergency messages, and
all individual or zone speaker volume controls default to the emergency sound level when used for a fire
alarm or an emergency mass notification message, the system will
remain code compliant.
NFPA 72, Chapter 24, provides
guidance regarding messaging. Subsection 24.3.6 requires first that
stakeholders develop messages for
each scenario noted in the emergency response plan, meaning that
schools must have emergency
response plans. Using a message
template as defined in NFPA 72 and
based on the emergency response
plan, emergency messages must
have content that provides information and instructions to the people
in the building. An evacuation message must use the standard alarm
evacuation signal consisting of a
three-pulse temporal pattern with a
minimum of two cycles preceding
and following the voice message.
The codes also provide specific
design requirements for the K-12
emergency voice/alarm communication systems. For example, the
emergency voice/alarm communications system must have the capability to broadcast live voice messages by paging zones on a selective
and all-call basis. Additionally, the
codes permit the use of the emergency voice/alarm communications
system for other announcements,
provided the manual fire alarm use
NFPA 72 permits the
emergency voice/alarm
communications system to
provide other uses, such as
for public address or mass
notification purposes.
takes precedence over any other use.
Both NFPA 72 and the codes require
an emergency power supply-with
the capacity to power the required
load for a duration of not less than
24 hours-for the emergency voice/
alarm communications systems.
It is important for designers,
installers, and AHJs to understand
that although all emergency voice/
http://www.nfpa.org/70
http://www.nfpa.org/72
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2016
Contents
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - Contents
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 3
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 4
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 5
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 6
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 7
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 8
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 9
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 10
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 11
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 12
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 13
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 14
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 15
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 16
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 17
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 18
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 19
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 20
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 21
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 22
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 23
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 24
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 25
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 26
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 27
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 28
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 29
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 30
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 31
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 32
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - I1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - I2
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 33
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 34
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 35
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 36
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 37
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 38
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 39
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 40
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 41
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 42
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 43
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 44
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 45
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 46
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 47
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 48
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 49
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 50
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 51
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 52
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 53
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 54
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 55
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 56
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 57
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 58
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 59
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 60
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 61
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 62
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 63
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 64
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 65
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 66
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 67
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 68
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 69
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 70
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 71
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 72
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 73
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 74
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 75
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 76
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 77
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 78
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 79
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 80
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - Cover4
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