viewpoint

What Does the Fire Department Expect?

A ll fire departments perform a mul-
titude of tasks while carrying out
their mission of protecting life and
design team utilized computerized fire
modeling to justify the granting of the
appeal. The BFD required that a report
report from an FPE that the level of
safety in the building is “acceptable”.
Often there are interim, and expensive,
property. Most are internally handled be submitted by a disinterested third- measures that are required to reach this
by fire departments in an expeditious party FPE to “peer-review” the appeal level of safety. Measures that would be
and efficient manner. Occasionally, proposal. This peer review approach opposed by the building owner when
however, every fire department will could also be utilized for evaluating the code official required them are
face a problematic situation that will code equivalency proposals and appli- acceptable if required by an FPE.
overwhelm their capabilities to address cations of new technologies. An example involved a situation
or rectify the situation at hand. where the BFD was asked to allow a
Increasingly, fire departments are seek- Conflicting Condition Example fund-raiser in a “run-down” theater.
ing solutions to these problems by The architect designing the renova-
working with the fire protection engi- At times the code official will face a tions acknowledged that the existing
neering profession. Through experi- situation where both the code official building did not meet the codes and
ence, the Boston Fire Department and a building owner will each be con- wanted to know what interim mea-
(BFD) has classified these situations vinced that their interpretation of a cer- sures could be put in place to make
into three broad categories: tain code section is correct. Usually, the the building safe enough to hold the
1. Unknown conditions. building owner will appeal the official’s fund-raiser. The BFD asked the archi-
2. Conflicting conditions. interpretation to a legally mandated tect why the building department was
3. Imminent danger conditions. board, which could leave a building in requested to review, yet not design,
an unsafe condition for a period of time. the building renovation plans but the
Unknown Condition Example The BFD believes that there is a fire department was expected to
solution. If both the code official and design and review a “fire plan”. It was
Many times code officials are building owner agree, the owner suggested that the owner follow the
requested to review building or fire would hire an FPE to review all the same process that was used for the
code appeals seeking variances or pertinent information relative to the building renovation plans, i.e., hire a
exemptions of code requirements interpretation at hand and prepare a qualified individual to develop a safe
which affect the safety of occupants or report clearly stating the FPE’s position plan and the BFD would review the
firefighters. Many times an appeal is on the disputed issue. The code official plan. The BFD does not understand
based on conditions that are case-and and building owner would also agree why so many fire departments accept
site-specific and it is unknown what to implement the recommendations of the role, and the liability, of consul-
impact the appeal will have on life the FPE to ensure a safe building. tant, in matters like these.
safety. In lieu of conformance to pre- For example, a major retailer of home There is a fourth reason the fire ser-
scriptive code requirements, building and building supplies and the BFD dis- vice will continue to work closely with
owners often propose an alternative agreed on the application of code- the fire protection engineering profes-
design utilizing performance-based required sprinkler protection concern- sion: employment. More and more fire
design methodologies which a code ing rack storage of different commodi- departments are directly hiring their
official may not be trained to analyze. ties. The parties involved in the dispute own FPE’s. While important for all fire
When this occurs, the BFD requires agreed to abide by the recommenda- departments, this is particularly impor-
that a disinterested third-party fire pro- tions of a disinterested third-party FPE. tant for fire departments involved with
tection engineer (FPE) prepare a plan review. The BFD believes that
report at the building owner’s expense Imminent Danger Condition Example encouraging the use of FPE’s creates
that analyzes the adequacy of the an environment with increased flexibil-
design’s assumptions, fire scenarios, Perhaps the most difficult decision ity and safety by increasing the
and conclusions for ensuring life safety. that any code official faces is to discov- amount of rationality used in the deci-
For example, a restaurant in a high- er a building that has serious code vio- sion-making process.
rise building sought a variance from a lations, but its occupancy makes it very
prescriptive code requirement for a difficult to close down. Usually the
third exit stairway based on the pro- code official feels that he/she has only Deputy Chief Joseph M. Fleming
posed occupant load of the space. The two options. Evacuate the building, or Fire Marshal
alternative design proposed utilizing live with the situation pending correc- Boston Fire Department
the two existing exits with additional tion of the violation. The BFD pursues and
fire protection features such as detec- a third path. The evacuation of the Paul M. Donga, P.E.
tion, suppression, and smoke control building will be ordered, but re-occu- Fire Protection Engineer
systems in lieu of the third exit. The pancy will be allowed based on a Boston Fire Department

S PRING 2000 Fire Protection Engineering 3