NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 49

VIEWPOINTS ON FIRE
AND LIFE SAFETY

How might the scope of NFPA 101 change for
the 2018 edition?
The committee has proposed to expand the scope
of the document in three areas. The first is to
address occupant protection while egressing during
an event involving hazardous materials. The second
is to address reducing injury to building occupants from falls. The third is to address providing
communication to occupants under emergency
conditions which may or may not be a fire event.

GUTTER CREDIT

Are any of these proposals contentious?
In addition to changing the scope of NFPA 101 in
Chapter 1, there are recommendations for adding
requirements for grab bars in shower enclosures
and bathtubs in certain occupancies. Some people
don't think the code should include grab bars, and
there are some people that think the requirements
should be limited just to residential occupancies
and not to other occupancies like health care and
assembly occupancies. One of the main questions
for this proposal is, what defines a means of egress?
Is a shower or bathtub part of the means of egress?
If so, grab bars might be appropriate to help people
egress in an emergency. While these questions garnered a lot of discussion with both the technical
committee and the correlating committee, it looks
like it will remain in the code for the new edition.
What are some of the technical changes under
discussion for the 2018 edition of NFPA 101?
One proposal is to address safety and security concerns in educational facilities. For example, during
an active shooter situation, if your plan is to try to
secure people in a safe area like a classroom, that's
going to require some locking of the classroom
door. What's being proposed for the Life Safety
Code is to introduce language recognizing the
increased need for security but do it in a way that
is still going to provide an acceptable level of life
safety in the event of a fire. It was interesting to see
the provisions that were developed specifically for

the educational occupancy chapters also be picked
up by other committees, including the committee
that deals with business occupancies. It is clear that
this type of threat is not limited to schools.
If that proposal isn't approved, what happens?
It's not like the threat of active shooters is
going away anytime soon.
There are after-market products that are available
that schools can purchase and put on these doors,
but there's concern that these products don't provide an acceptable level of life safety. For example,
with these products installed, you might not be
able to open a classroom door from the corridor
side, so as a first responder, if you have a rescue to
perform, it's going to take additional time to access
that space. With the proposed changes, the committees are trying to balance the need for additional
security to address our changing environment, yet
do it in a manner where we're still providing a reasonable level of life safety.

One proposal would
introduce language to
NFPA 101 recognizing the
need for security in active
shooter situations while
providing an acceptable
level of life safety in the
event of a fire.

Are these after-market products currently
causing any problems?
I know that some of these products are clearly
being purchased and they're being placed in educational facilities. I personally am not aware of any
incidents where they have hindered the response of
any emergency personnel. But we know the products are out there and they are not code compliant.
What are some other key technical changes
proposed for the code?
One proposal from three years ago that is being
proposed again is increasing the allowable area of
hospital smoke compartments, which is the space
separated from adjacent areas by smoke barriers.
The proposal would increase the allowable area
from 22,500 square feet to 40,000 square feet.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

| 49

GETT Y IMAGES

Bill Koffel, chair of the Life Safety Correlating
Committee, will speak about the expected changes
and certified amending motions to NFPA 101
during an education session at the Conference
& Expo. A number of other conference sessions
will also explore issues related to NFPA 101. NFPA
Journal spoke with Koffel about a few of the key
changes that have been proposed for NFPA 101, the
proposals he thinks will be the most contentious,
and what might be in store for future editions of
the code.

http://nfpa.org/journal

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - May/June 2017