Today’s businesses operate within narrow limits. Just-in-time delivery, the desire for high levels of productivity, and total facility utilization stress every organization’s operations. Many companies have the entire operation under one roof with diverse processes and equipment often too close to each other. The strong push for productivity may cause safety measures to be overlooked. It is human nature for a busy maintenance staff to delay responding to a report of a small puddle under an infrequently used machine. After all, the lobby doors are stuck, the lights are out in the main conference room, and snowmelt must be spread on the sidewalks soon or they’ll become icy.

What happens, however, when the small puddle turns out to be a flammable solvent leak and is ignited by a static spark from a passing employee? Depending on the type of fire protection installed in your facility, the fire could either be contained at the machine or it could spread throughout the building. The possible loss of your facility and equipment is serious, but it’s overshadowed by the potential danger to staff and visitors.

What are the chances a fire in your facility will force you to close your doors, possibly forever? Will customers be waiting for your return? Will your employees seek other jobs? Many small businesses that experience a serious fire never reopen.

Protection from every possible accident is expensive; however, many facilities don’t require total fire protection. The design of fire protection systems is a multi-step process beginning with an assessment of the environment to be protected. Both internal and external constraints are considered and used to establish performance objectives for the facility. Once the objectives are established, a system can be designed to meet them.

A properly designed fire protection system impacts many aspects of the construction process. The addition of smoke or fire walls to segregate high risk or high value areas may provide adequate protection. Large facilities with a correspondingly high investment may require active protection like fire sprinklers or special agent suppression systems. These systems use water or other agents to stop a fire from growing and may even extinguish a fire while notifying the fire department. A suppression system must be matched to the overall plan. In some cases, holding a fire to a small area or the room of origin is all that is required. The fire department can then provide final extinguishment. In other situations, the system must act quickly to completely suppress a fire. A typical example is a clothing warehouse where a few minutes of smoke-producing fire may ruin, but not burn, millions of dollars of inventory.

The issue of planning for code compliance is vital in the planning for a new facility or an addition to an existing facility. However, looking to the local fire and building codes to suggest a suitable level of fire protection for your facility is not a reliable method of planning. Codes are minimum standards, and the level of protection they specify may not be consistent with the special objectives of your particular facility. Continually under revision, fire and building codes cannot cover every situation. Unusual conditions and special objectives may require increased levels of protection or exceptions to the existing code. Code exceptions can often be justified or modifications recommended by a licensed fire protection engineer without compromising fire protection. The fire protection engineer can also assess the level of life safety features provided in a building (e.g., exiting requirements, levels of required protection or detection, and the necessity for emergency lighting).

There are the basic minimum code requirements for various types of facilities. Different facility uses require special considerations in fire protection. For example, office facilities contain large quantities of paper, plastics, and fabric. The open layout of today’s office environment may not provide the means to stop the rapid spread of smoke from even a small fire.

Industrial facilities offer diverse challenges. A small group of hand assemblers produce little fire hazard. Conversely, complex manufacturing equipment may include molten metals, flammable liquids under pressure, open flames, and fast-moving automated material-handling equipment that can easily spread a fire. Large facilities compromise means of egress by their size alone.

Educational facilities face a multitude of issues. Administrators are challenged to minimize costs while offering adequate life safety provisions to students and staff. Campuses are often complex and encompass a variety of uses: chemistry laboratories, classrooms, large public assembly areas, computer rooms, and supply storage areas. In addition, formulas for dealing with typically high occupancy rates are further complicated by the young age of the occupants and their lack of experience in emergency situations.

Medical facilities experience almost continuous change. Today’s spare examination room may be tomorrow’s Diagnostic Lab containing more than $100,000 worth of high tech equipment. A protection scheme that is inflexible or expensive to change is more likely to be compromised by future alterations.