NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 37

CODES, STANDARDS
AND COMPLIANCE

controls in a constantly attended
alarm receiving station.
The 2015 edition of NFPA 101®, Life
Safety Code®, requires that occupant
notification consist of voice announcements initiated by the person in the
constantly attended receiving station.
NFPA 101 permits the delivery of these
announcements by either a voice communication or public address system,
either of which may use automatically
recorded or live voice announcements
provided the initiation comes from the
constantly attended receiving station
by personnel trained to respond to an
emergency. In certain cases, the authority having jurisdiction may determine
that it would be impractical to provide
a constantly attended receiving station. In this case, the system may use

automatically transmitted evacuation
or relocation instructions and, in accordance with NFPA 72, a supervising
station must monitor the system.
Of course, both NFPA 72 and NFPA
101 require that emergency announcements take precedence over any other
use. NFPA 101 requires that the audibility of the notification announcements
must exceed the expected ambient
noise level. NFPA 72 also addresses
audibility, but permits the automatic
reduction of the ambient noise level
upon the receipt of an alarm. The
designer will discover that NFPA 72 has
new requirements for intelligibility that
may not have existed at the time of the
initial construction of the building.
The codes do not require visible signals in the assembly seating area, or
the floor area used for any contest, performance, or entertainment. However,
in high-capacity assembly areas such
as airports, notification must be provided by alternative visible means such
as scoreboards, message boards, flat
screens, and other electronic devices.
When such buildings require a
smoke control system actuated by
smoke detection, stakeholders must
take special care. Generally speaking,
high-capacity assembly areas will have
higher ceilings than normal. Designers
should review the ceiling heights of
each space and avoid placing spot-type
smoke detectors on high ceilings. In
these cases, designers should provide a
more thorough review of the detection
goals for any smoke detector used.
The widely held belief is that any
smoke detector can provide early warning in these types of spaces-but that
isn't necessarily true. Designers must
consider ceiling height and configuration and all other influences, such
as air flow and expected fire size, that
affect smoke movement and thus detection. Be aware of the challenges in this
special occupancy and your designs will
likely prove more reliable.
Wayne D. Moore is vice president at Jensen
Hughes. NFPA members and AHJs can use the
Technical Questions tab to post queries on NFPA 72
at nfpa.org/72.

NFPA 101

Life safety in new
and existing structures

Why it takes a village to
recognize and remediate
safety hazards
By Ron Coté

n March, a new combination brewery, restaurant,
and tavern opened in a
small Massachusetts city
not far from where I live.
I visited the facility on its third day of
operation, along with a friend of the
brewer. The large, open-plan drinking
and dining area, with window walls
fronting onto two streets, was occupied by more than 100 persons. Patron
ingress was restricted to a door opening on one of the two outside walls. The
other outside wall had a door opening
with an interior EXIT sign positioned
above the door. The door was in-swinging, rather than outward-swinging;
more importantly, the door was locked
against egress.
I located the manager, introduced
myself, and explained that the locked
door should be unlocked immediately
because the facility was not in compliance with the state's fire code-NFPA 1,
Fire Code-and could be endangering
patrons. He unlocked it and we continued our dialog. He told me that the
building had two exits, one from the
dining area and one from the brewery.
I explained the concepts of remoteness
of means of egress, common path of
travel, exit access through an auxiliary
space, and the misleading message
provided to patrons by the EXIT sign
positioned above the locked door. The
manager advised that he would leave
the door unlocked and meet with the
business partners. A few days later I
learned from the friend of the brewer
that the door would be replaced with
one that swings outward and that it

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2017
