It seems that semantics are everything in this industry; however, certain terms tend to be used interchangeably by certain people. Code vs. Standard, hazard occupancy vs. IFC occupancy group, etc. I've had very heated discussions with GC's and MEP's concerning the differences. I once had a full blown argument with an individual over a "community center" project in a small Texas town which was blanket classified as IFC Group A-3. As we later found out, every third weekend, this community center, which had a large, multi-court gymnasium would be hosting a swap-meet inside.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but what would have been considered a light hazard occupancy per the standard is being utilized as an IFC Group "M" or "S-1" occupancy which would necessitate a higher density requirement per the standard. Given that it's a "swap-meet" there is absolutely no telling what sort of commodities might be present. I imagine that the commodities would not exceed 8'0" under most any circumstance and the majority of the merchandising would be on collapsible tables, but I was attempting to apply a conservative approach by implementing an ordinary hazard II density. Curtis Tower -----Original Message----- From: Brad Casterline [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 10:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: occupancy classification vs occupancy hazard Humble enough, Sir Roland. I will have to think quite a bit more about everything else you said, however. > On Mar 10, 2014, at 10:09 AM, Roland Huggins <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I would encourage not embracing the defining examples that residential is > life safety and storage is property protection and everything else is mushy > in-between ground. It’s the system type that dictates the objective. All > NFPA 13 systems for all sprinkler types and for all occupancies and uses are > considered both life safety and property protection. > > As for the confusion over 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, that text has been in the standard > since Napoleon was a corporal. That means if one wanted an exact explanation > of what was meant, the folks that crafted this sentence are gone and the > current batch could / might / probably (pick one) will have something > different assigned to those words. My interpretation has always been that > the phrase occupancy hazard is a sprinkler term and does not address or > influence the building design as dictated by the building code and their > associated use of terms. > > The text in the annex has nothing to do with the issue of comparing what > these 2 sections are trying to say. Notice the asterisk is on the title 5.1. > so it’s discussing the assignment of an occupancy classification. It rightly > points out that an office is generally a light hazard occupancy but there can > and will be areas that exceed the fuel load for LH. As such, that area would > be a higher occupancy hazard classification. > > As Galen commented, it is unfortunate that the term occupancy was included. > Calling it simply X hazard classification would have worked just fine but > changing it now would take an act of congress. Ummm they may actually be > willing to look at this since they aren’t doing anything else of significance. > > As a member of NFPA 13, I probably should add the TC caveat that this is not > to be considered a formal interpretation of NFPA or any of its technical > committees but just my humble opinion. Well opinion anyways. > > Roland > > Roland Huggins, PE - VP Engineering > American Fire Sprinkler Assn. --- Fire Sprinklers Saves Lives > Dallas, TX > http://www.firesprinkler.org > > > > > >> On Mar 10, 2014, at 6:54 AM, Brad Casterline <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Yups. If it's not Residential or Storage, it's too mushy. > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
