Qualification to design fire alarm system for a building

[ladengr]

who is qualified to design fire alarm system for a facility?
Do the states require the building fire alarm system is to be designed by a registered professional engineer in electrical engineering and sign the contract documents? Do the states require the fire alarm system is to be installed by trained technicians and certify the installation?

Do the states authorize registered fire protection engineer to design the fire alarm system even though the fire protection enginer designs sprinkler system?

 

[rbulsara]

As far as I know, a electrical Professinal Engineer can design a fire alarm system if the drawings are to be stamped and signed for permit.

For installing technicians and service many states in the USA require NICET cetification and I beleive there are 4 or 5 levels for those certifications. This also apply to fire protection meaning sprinkler systems.

 

[gouveia]

In my experience the individual states determine what is the minimum required level of competancy/cerification for the design and installation of fire protection systems, including fire alarm system. This is in regard to "shop drawings".

That being said a lot of states have ZERO requirements in regard to these items and it is up to the engineer to specify if a NICET level II or III certification is required.

Technically, the construction documents submitted (and stamped by the registered engineer) to the city need to show that the design meets the minimum requirements of the code. However, a lot of engineers just pass the buck and provide a note that says "Provide a fire alarm system in accordance with NFPA 72".

So in that regard I would argue that if the engineer is ultimately responsible for the review and approval of the drawings, then he is more than competant to do complete shop drawings if he desired.