American Fire Sprinkler Association
12750 Merit Dr., Suite 350 Dallas TX 75251
Ph: (214) 349-5965 Fax: (214) 276-0908
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TECHNICAL UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
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"I have a retail shell building approximately 12,000 sq ft, with the
possibility of having six future tenants. Am I required to zone
tenants with their own system?"
We have reviewed the 2007 Edition of NFPA 13 and the 2006 Edition of
the IBC as the applicable standards. Our informal interpretation is
that the system does not have to be divided into separate tenant zones.
There is no requirement in NFPA 13 and the IBC states in 402.8 that
"Sprinkler protection for the mall shall be independent from that
provided for tenant spaces or anchors." The real key to this issue is
the definition of MALL in 402.2. This section indicates that the
provisions of this section shall apply to buildings or structures
defined herein as covered mall buildings not exceeding three floor
levels at any point nor more than three stories above grade plane. In
addition, a mall is a roofed or covered common pedestrian area within
a covered mall building that serves as access for two or more tenants
and not to exceed three levels that are open to each other. Due to the
openness between floors and the tenant spaces, there is a greater
dependence on the sprinkler system within the mall. For this reason,
section 402.8 requires the mall to have either an independent
sprinkler system or individual control valves to each tenant space.
This way the sprinkler system within a tenant space can be modified
without taking the mall system out of service. The NFPA 101 Life
Safety Code is consistent with a requirement just for malls and it
states in 36.4.4.10.2 that "The system shall be installed in such a
manner that any portion of the system serving tenant spaces can be
taken out of service without affecting the operation of the portion of
the system serving the mall." Thus the need to be able to
individually control tenant spaces does not apply to the typical
building you described with separation between the tenant spaces.
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Technical Update is prepared by the Technical Services Dept. of the
AFSA: Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services Roland
Huggins, a PE registered in fire protection engineering; Phill Brown,
a NICET IV certified automatic sprinkler technician and NFPA Certified
Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS) and Tom Wellen, a degreed fire
protection engineering technologist. This is provided with the
understanding that the AFSA assumes no liability for this opinion or
actions taken on it and they are not to be considered the official
position of the NFPA or its technical committees.
Copyright (c) 2008, American Fire Sprinkler Association. All Rights
Reserved
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