NFPA 101-19 1

[safe]

We are building a room within our manufacturing facility. The facility itself has six EXIT doors. These are the doors that employees enter and exit the facility by. My question is about the construction of a fully enclosed room (600 sq ft) within our facility. How many EXITS must there be for employees from this room? As for occupancy I do not envision more then 12 people assigned to work in the room. I do not have a copy of NFPA 101-19. I am looking for any wording from it that applies to my situation.

 

[phoward]

You have two free sources of Life Safety Codes under NFPA - your insurance carrier's engineering department and your local fire department. Both will be excited that you called them. The Local Jurisdiction is the local fire department and/or the building department anyway, so it is all subject to their approval. If you are in a small town, or buildinging this without the need of the local building department, contact your insurance broker to have the carrier engineering contact you. It eventually will have to be part of your insurance underwriting coverage anyway, so use them at no additional charge.

A third free or cheap source is to go to the web and find your state, county, or city fire code regulations that are usually based on the NFPA.

Good luck, it is good you are planning ahead.

 

[humanfactoreng123]

Number of Exits from a 600 s.f. room/space in Manufacturing Plant:

Table 7.3.1.2, Occupant Load Factor indicates for "Industrial Use" ("General and high hazard industrial&quot
100 s.f./person e.g. 600 s.f. divided by 100 s.f./person equals the maximum occupany of: 6 persons.

You indicated 12 persons and that would result in exceeding the load capacity, which is a violation of the Life Safety Code (NFPA 101-61, 2000 ed.). Therefore, do not exceed 6 people capacity in that room/space of 600 s.f.

If the door way has a "clear width" of 36 in. divided by 0.2 equals 180 people can exit safely through that door opening. If the door way has a "clear width" of 44 in. divided by 0.2 equals 220 people can safely exit through that door opening. So, one exit from that room is sufficient in accordance with Section 7.4 Number of Means of Egress, Section 7.4.1.2.

John Heywood, P.E., CSP
Senior Safety Engineer

 

[phoward]

John, you are technically correct, but three things to remember. First is the interior design of the room, if there is not a clear, direct exit to the door, another door would be fully warranted; your answer did not address walls, furniture and fixed apparatus arrangements. Secondly, the local building code and/or fire code/interpretation can override any national standard. Thirdly, your quote for occupancy was for "Industrial Use" ("General and high hazard industrial&quot whereas the use of the room is not defined by the originator. If it is an inside office, it is not high hazard nor general industry as intended for an open shop. Even if 12 people are assigned to work in the room, it could be over different shifts, or shared desks or shared work spaces, or a source of supplies, etc.
Phil