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The Science of Fire
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Life Safety Code
Today at the usual hour we sort through the NFPA stack for fire safety system aspects during renovation, alteration, or rehabilitation of buildings. Two sections come to mind:
Chapter 43 (NFPA 101): Building Rehabilitation
NFPA 241: Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Educational and Day-Care Occupancies (July 23, 2025 Second Draft Transcript)
The Life Safety Code addresses those construction, protection, and occupancy features necessary to minimize danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat, and toxic gases created during a fire. It is widely incorporated by reference into public safety statutes; typically coupled with the consensus products of the International Code Council. It is a mighty document — one of the NFPA’s leading titles — so we deal with it in pieces; consulting it for decisions to be made for the following:
(1) Determination of the occupancy classification in Chapters 12 through 42.
(2) Determination of whether a building or structure is new or existing.
(3) Determination of the occupant load.
(4) Determination of the hazard of contents.
There are emergent issues — such as active shooter response, integration of life and fire safety systems on the internet of small things — and recurrent issues such as excessive rehabilitation and conformity criteria and the ever-expanding requirements for sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers with which to reckon. It is never easy telling a safety professional paid to make a market for his product or service that it is impossible to be alive and safe. It is even harder telling the dean of a department how much it will cost to bring the square-footage under his stewardship up to the current code.
The 2021 edition is the current edition and is accessible below:
NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Free Public Access
Public input on the 2027 Revision will be received until June 4, 2024. Public comment on the Second Draft 2027 Revision will be received until March 31, 2026.
Since the Life Safety Code is one of the most “living” of living documents — the International Building Code and the National Electric Code also move continuously — we can start anywhere and anytime and still make meaningful contributions to it. We have been advocating in this document since the 2003 edition in which we submitted proposals for changes such as:
• A student residence facility life safety crosswalk between NFPA 101 and the International Building Code
• Refinements to Chapters 14 and 15 covering education facilities (with particular attention to door technologies)
• Identification of an ingress path for rescue and recovery personnel toward electric service equipment installations.
• Risk-informed requirement for installation of grab bars in bathing areas
• Modification of the 90-minute emergency lighting requirements rule for small buildings and for fixed interval testing
• Modification of emergency illumination fixed interval testing
• Table 7.3.1 Occupant Load revisions
• Harmonization of egress path width with European building codes
There are others. It is typically difficult to make changes to stabilized standard though some of the concepts were integrated by the committee into other parts of the NFPA 101 in unexpected, though productive, ways. Example transcripts of proposed 2023 revisions to the education facility chapter is linked below:
Chapter 14 Public Input Report: New Educational Occupancies
Educational and Day Care Occupancies: Second Draft Public Comments with Responses Report
Since NFPA 101 is so vast in its implications we list a few of the sections we track, and can drill into further, according to client interest:
Chapter 3: Definitions
Chapter 7: Means of Egress
Chapter 12: New Assembly Occupancies
Chapter 13: Existing Assembly Occupancies
Chapter 16 Public Input Report: New Day-Care Facilities
Chapter 17 Public Input Report: Existing Day Care Facilities
Chapter 18 Public Input Report: New Health Care Facilities
Chapter 19 Public Input Report: Existing Health Care Facilities
Chapter 28: Public Input Report: New Hotels and Dormitories
Chapter 29: Public Input Report: Existing Hotels and Dormitories
Chapter 43: Building Rehabilitation
Annex A: Explanatory Material
As always we encourage front-line staff, facility managers, subject matter experts and trade associations to participate directly in the NFPA code development process (CLICK HERE to get started)
NFPA 101 is a cross-cutting title so we maintain it on the agenda of our several colloquia —Housing, Prometheus, Security and Pathways colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [18-90]
Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier, Marcelo Hirschler
More
When lives are at stake, alternative approaches are welcome. #LifeSafety #AlternativeApproaches #Code #NFPA101 @NFPA
https://t.co/JvWyyZtuLP— ANSI (@ansidotorg) December 20, 2018
Higher Education Laboratories
The International Code Council (ICC) introduced dedicated provisions for higher education laboratories in 2018. This includes Section 428 in the International Building Code (IBC) (laboratory suites in Group B occupancies) and the new Chapter 38 in the International Fire Code (IFC). These provisions allow colleges/universities to use “laboratory suites” (instead of stricter control areas) with higher maximum allowable quantities (MAQs) of hazardous materials, without triggering a high-hazard (Group H) occupancy classification, provided enhanced fire safety, separation, ventilation, emergency power, and other requirements are met.
§
The 2027 revision of the IBC is in production and will be released for public use in early 2027.
Update: October 25, 2025
2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES: Complete Monograph (2658 pages)
Note the following changes in the transcript above:
Section 702 (Rated Construction), FS44-24 Installer Qualifications (typical marketmaking), Section 3801 (Materials exceeding the Maximum Allowable Quantity), F59-24 (Battery Containment Areas), F81-24 (Health Care Facility Plugs), F112-24 (Lithium Ion Battery Labs), F197-24 (Market making, laboratory oven protection study), F235-24 (Hazardous Materials Classifications & quantity limits).
Safety and sustainability concepts for research and healthcare delivery cut across many disciplines and standards suites and provides significant revenue for most research universities. The International Code Council provides free access to current editions of its catalog of titles incorporated by reference into public safety law. CLICK HERE for an interactive edition of Chapter 38 of the 2021 International Fire Code.
During today’s colloquium we will examine consultations for the next edition in the link below:
2021 International Fire Code Chapter 38 Higher Education Laboratories
We encourage our colleagues to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. The next revision of the International Fire Code will be undertaken accordingly to next ICC Code Development schedule; the timetable linked below:
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
We encourage directly employed front-line staff of a school district, college or university that does not operate in a conformance/compliance capacity — for example, a facility manager of an academic unit — to join a committee. Not the Fire Marshall. Not the Occupational Safety Inspector. Persons with job titles listed below:
- Fire Safety System Designer
- Fire Alarm Technician (Shop Foreman)
- Building Commissioner
- Electrical, Mechanical Engineer
- Occupational Safety Engineer
These subject matter experts generally have a user-interest point of view.
Contact Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for information about how to do so.
A warm welcome to our new master’s student, Prabhakar Bijalwan! Prabhakar enjoys performing new #Autocatalytic #Transamination #Metathesis reactions in our lab! #WasteReduction #Sustainability @UniFAU
Check out our first autocatalytic transamination: https://t.co/ZaA9TD787T pic.twitter.com/RLqrfxD4CR
— Svetlana Tsogoeva (@Tsogoeva_Group) April 3, 2024
Related:
2021 International Mechanical Code
2021 International Plumbing Code
2021 International Energy Conservation Code
Issue 16-69
Category: Fire Safety, Facility Asset Management
Colleagues: Joe DeRosier, Josh Elvove, Mark Schaufele
Ilisimatusarfik
The Top 10 Best Colleges in Greenland for Tech Enthusiasts
”Here at the University of Greenland, you are committed to shaping the Arctic through research and innovation.”
Keynote speech at Ilisimatusarfik, the University of Greenland ⬇️
https://t.co/cI022Wl5Kq— Jutta Urpilainen (@JuttaUrpilainen) September 17, 2024
Ilisimatusarfik
Related:
System Aspects of Electrical Energy
IEC technical committees and subcommittees Ω SMB Tabulation
IEC and ITU offices | Geneva
Much economic activity in the global standards system involves products — not interoperability standards. Getting everything to work together — safely, cost effectively and simpler — is our raison d’etre.
Manufacturers, testing laboratories, conformance authorities (whom we call vertical incumbents) are able to finance the cost of their advocacy — salaries, travel, lobbying, administration — into the cost of the product they sell to the end user (in our cases, estate managers in educational settlements). To present products — most of which involve direct contact with a consumer — at a point of sale it must have a product certification label. Not so with systems. System certification requirements, if any, may originate in local public safety requirements; sometimes reaching into the occupational safety domain.
Our readings of the intent of this technical committee is to discover and promulgate best practice for “systems of products” — i.e. ideally interoperability characteristics throughout the full span of the system life cycle.
To quote Thomas Sowell:
“There are no absolute solutions to human problems, there are only tradeoffs.”
Many problems have no solutions, only trade-offs in matters of degree. We explain our lament over wicked problems in our About.
IEC technical committees and subcommittees
LEARN MORE:
ARCHIVE
The United States National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) seeks participants and an ANSI Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) Administrator for an IEC subcommittee (Multi-Agent System) developing standards for power system network management. From the project prospectus:
Standardization in the field of network management in interconnected electric power systems with different time horizons including design, planning, market integration, operation and control. SC 8C covers issues such as resilience, reliability, security, stability in transmission-level networks (generally with voltage 100kV or above) and also the impact of distribution level resources on the interconnected power system, e.g. conventional or aggregated Demand Side Resources (DSR) procured from markets.
SC 8C develops normative deliverables/guidelines/technical reports such as:
– Terms and definitions in area of network management,
– Guidelines for network design, planning, operation, control, and market integration
– Contingency criteria, classification, countermeasures, and controller response, as a basis of technical requirements for reliability, adequacy, security, stability and resilience analysis,
– Functional and technical requirements for network operation management systems, stability control systems, etc.
– Technical profiling of reserve products from DSRs for effective market integration.
– Technical requirements of wide-area operation, such as balancing reserve sharing, emergency power wheeling.
Individuals who are interested in becoming a participant or the TAG Administrator for SC 8C: Network Management are invited to contact Adelana Gladstein at agladstein@ansi.org as soon as possible.
This opportunity, dealing with the system aspects of electrical energy supply (IEC TC 8), should at least interest electrical engineering research faculty and students involved in power security issues. Participation would not only provide students with a front-row seat in power system integration but faculty can collaborate and compete (for research money) from the platform TC 8 administers. We will refer it to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.
Canadian Parliament Debate on Standards Incorporated by Reference
“The Jack Pine” | Tom Thomson (1916) | National Gallery of Canada
Originally posted January 2014
In these clips — selected from Canadian Parliamentary debate in 2013 — we observe three points of view about Incorporation by reference (IBR); a legislative drafting technique that is the act of including a second document within a main document by referencing the second document.
This technique makes an entire second (or referenced) document a part of the main document. The consensus documents in which we advocate #TotalCostofOwnership concepts are incorporated by reference into legislation dealing with safety and sustainability at all levels of government. This practice — which many consider a public-private partnership — is a more effective way of driving best practices for technology, and the management of technology, into regulated industries.
🍁
In Canadian debate over incorporation by reference, former Member of Parliament Craig Scott drew an important distinction between incorporating a fixed document and incorporating one “as amended from time to time.”
A fixed, or static, incorporation places an identifiable edition of an external standard into law. When the standards developer publishes a new edition, that revision does not automatically acquire legal force. The responsible public authority must act again to adopt it.
An ambulatory incorporation works differently. When a standard is incorporated “as amended from time to time,” later revisions may become binding law automatically—without another regulatory amendment or further intervention by Parliament.
Scott’s concern was therefore not incorporation by reference itself, but who effectively exercises legislative authority after incorporation. If a private, international or standards-development organization can revise a document whose future editions automatically become enforceable, part of the law-making function has effectively moved outside government.
The distinction also raises questions of public access and historical certainty. Citizens must be able to know not only what an incorporated standard requires today, but which edition constituted binding law at a particular time.
The engineering advantage is obvious: ambulatory incorporation keeps regulation current. The constitutional question is equally clear: who changes the law?
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vm0eQotyzo0
Parent legislation — such as the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Clean Air Act and the Energy Policy Act – almost always require intermediary bureaucracies to administer the specifics required to accomplish the broad goals of the legislation. With the gathering pace of governments everywhere expanding their influence over larger parts of the technologies at the foundation of national economies; business and technology standards are needed to secure that influence. These standards require competency in the application of political, technical and financial concepts; competencies that can only be afforded by incumbent interests who build the cost of their advocacy into the price of the product or service they sell to our industry. Arguably, the expansion of government is a reflection of the success of incumbents in business and technical standards; particularly in the compliance and conformity industries.
About two years ago, the US debate on incorporation by reference has been taken to a new level with the recent statement released by the American Bar Association (ABA):
16-164-Incorporation-by-Reference-ABA-Resolution-and-Report
The American National Standards Institute responded to the ABA with a statement of its own.
16-164-ANSI-Response-to-ABA-IBR-06-16 (1)
The incorporation by reference policy dilemma has profound implications for how we safely and economically design, operate and maintain our “cities-within-cities” in a sustainable manner but, admittedly, the results are only visible in hindsight over a time horizon that often exceed the tenure of a typical college or university president.
A recent development — supporting the claims of ANSI and its accredited standards developers — is noteworthy:
U.S. District Court Rules in Favor of Copyright Protection for Standards Incorporated by Reference into Federal Reg https://t.co/Tw2OnpMqua pic.twitter.com/i84fjUvQDS
— ANSI (@ansidotorg) February 13, 2017
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) manages a website — Standards.GOV — that is a single access point for consensus standards incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulations: Standards Incorporated by Reference Database. Note that this database does not include specific reference to safety and sustainability codes which are developed by standards setting organizations (such as NFPA, ICC, IEEE, ASHRAE and others) and usually incorporated by reference into individual state public safety and technology legislation.
LEARN MORE:
We applaud the Federal Government’s commitment to fund free access to the National Building Codes that are developed by the @NRC_CNRC. As a not-for-profit developer of standards that contribute to the health, safety and well-being of Canadians, CSA Group…https://t.co/QqhdkDvb7s pic.twitter.com/1KRDvxDTaC
— CSA Group (@CSA_Group) November 23, 2018
Illumination 400
IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
NEC Section 226.6 Conductor Size and Support (B) Festoon Lighting
EC&M Article 225: Outside Branch Circuits
Electrical Time: Definition of Festoon Lighting
“Starry Night Over the Rhône” 1888 Vincent van Gogh
Today we refresh our understanding of the moment in illumination technologies for outdoor lighting systems— related but different from our exploration of building interior illumination systems in Illumination 200. Later in 2024 we will roll out Illumination 400 (Holiday illumination) and Illumination 500 which explores litigation related to public illumination technology. As cities-within-cities the shared perimeter of a campus with the host municipality has proven rich in legal controversy and action.
Illumination technology was the original inspiration for the electric utility industry; providing night-time security and transforming every sector of every economy on earth. Lighting load remains the largest component of any building’s electric load — about 35 percent– making it a large target for energy regulations.
Our inquiry begins with selections from the following documents…
International Electrotechnical Commission TC 34 Lighting
IEC 60364 Electrical Installations in Buildings
2023 National Electrical Safety Code
2023 National Electrical Code: Article 410 (While the bulk of the NEC concerns indoor wiring fire hazards, there are passages that inform outdoor lighting wiring safety)
2019 ASHRAE 90.1: Chapter 9 Lighting
Illumination Engineering Society: Various titles
Salt Water River Project: Outdoor Lighting Standards
US DOE-EERE Building Energy Codes Program
…and about 20 other accredited, consortia or ad hoc standards developers and publishers aligned principally with vertical incumbents. Illumination was the original inspiration (i.e. the first “killer app”) for the electrical power industry in every nation. Its best practice literature reflects a fast-moving, shape-changing domain.
Click in today with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Upper Wharfedale Primary Federation School District Yorkshire Dales
McGill University: Before electricity, streets were filled with gas lights
Outdoor lighting systems can be owned and maintained by different entities depending on the context and location. Here are some examples of ownership regimes for outdoor lighting systems:
- Public ownership: In this case, outdoor lighting systems are owned and maintained by the local government or municipal authority. The lighting may be installed in public spaces such as parks, streets, and other outdoor areas for the safety and convenience of the public.
- Private ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned by private individuals or organizations. For example, a business owner may install outdoor lighting for security or aesthetic reasons, or a homeowner may install outdoor lighting in their garden or yard.
- Co-owned: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned jointly by multiple entities. For example, a residential community may jointly own and maintain outdoor lighting in their shared spaces such as parking areas, community parks, or recreational facilities.
- Utility ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned and maintained by utility companies such as electric or energy companies. These companies may install and maintain street lights or other lighting systems for the public good.
- Third-party ownership: In some cases, a third-party entity may own and maintain outdoor lighting systems on behalf of a public or private entity. For example, a lighting contractor may install and maintain lighting in a public park on behalf of a local government.
The ownership regime of an outdoor lighting system can have implications for issues such as installation, maintenance, and cost-sharing. It is important to consider ownership when designing and implementing outdoor lighting systems to ensure their long-term effectiveness and sustainability.
More
International Commission on Illumination
National Electrical Manufacturers Association
National Electrical Contractors Association
Representative Specifications
Sam Houston State University | Division 26500 Interior and Exterior Lighting
University of Delaware | Division 265100 Interior Lighting
Cal Poly University San Luis Obispo | Division 265100 Interior Lighting
Relevant Research
Enhancing the Sustainability of Outdoor Floodlighting for Cultural Heritage Buildings
Christian Wiman ✨ pic.twitter.com/r95fWwZZmP
— Dr. Maya C. Popa (@MayaCPopa) May 28, 2023
Education, Health & Sport Essential Works
Abstract: A new committee* under the Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (I&CPS) Department of the Industry Applications Society (IAS) received approval at the October 2014 IAS Annual Meeting, in Vancouver. This committee will be dedicated to the special needs and characteristics of the Educational and Healthcare segments of the US and World economies. For example, these two segments of the US economy, alone, annually spend $60 billion on electrical and telecommunication systems; yet, these two segments are either underrepresented, or not represented at all, in most electrical engineering forums, code writing, and/or standards writing institutions. (May 2015)
A few of the University’s Electrical Engineers
APERÇU
Education, Health & Sport Essential Works
The change from IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
to IEEE Education, Health & Sport Essential Works Committee
is more than a change of label. It better describes the territory.
“Facilities” directs attention toward buildings. Our work has never stopped at
the building envelope. Universities, schools, hospitals and athletic enterprises
depend upon networks of electrical power, communications, water, transportation,
energy storage, emergency systems and digital infrastructure extending across
campuses and into the surrounding public utility fabric.
Facilities describes the containers;
Essential Works describes the systems that make them work.
Essential Works describes the systems that make them work.
Essential Works is therefore the larger and more accurate idea.
It directs attention toward the infrastructure necessary for an educational
settlement to function continuously, safely and economically.
Replacing Healthcare with Health broadens the
field as well. Health encompasses hospitals and clinical facilities but also
research laboratories, public health, student health, rehabilitation, wellness
and the increasingly interconnected medical and research systems found on
university campuses.
Adding Sport recognizes another substantial class of infrastructure.
Stadiums, arenas, natatoria, field houses and outdoor athletic complexes present
demanding problems of illumination, power quality, emergency power, broadcasting,
communications, crowd safety, refrigeration and increasingly sophisticated
digital systems.
The three words — Education, Health & Sport — describe enduring
human activities. Essential Works describes the technical systems
that sustain them.
That is closer to what the committee actually does: not merely standards for
facilities, but engineering for the complex settlements in which people
learn, heal, compete and live.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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