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| Published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Keep pace with the industry's most advanced design and construction rules in NFPA 5000 - 2009 Building Construction and Safety Code.
Protect building occupants and contents with the latest requirements for construction, protection, and occupancy features needed to minimize danger to life and property. The 2009 NFPA 5000: Building Construction and Safety Code provides complete rules for new construction, building rehab, and safety enforcement.
Major changes to the 2009 Building Construction and Safety Code affect:
- Elevator use for occupant-controlled evacuation.
- Dedicated elevators for first responders.
- Supplemental evacuation equipment.
- Collapse prevention scenario design in the section on performance-based design.
- Additional sprinkler mandates for all existing high-rise health care occupancies and all new apartment buildings.
- Area of refuge communication systems.
- Remoteness of exit access and exit discharge.
- Exit stair path markings.
- Health care occupancy door locking for patient protective/security needs.
- Health care occupancy alcohol-based hand-rub dispenser provisions.
- Alarm occupant notification via public address system in assembly occupancies and mercantile malls.
Be prepared to enhance safety in all types of occupancies. Order your copy of the NFPA 5000 - 2009 Building Construction and Safety Code today.
Origin and Development of NFPA 5000
The inaugural 2003 edition of NFPA 5000, Building Construction and Safety Code, was issued in 2002 and was the first model building code developed using the full open consensus-based procedures accredited by the American National Standards Institute. The first edition marked the culmination of NFPA's more than 100 years of experience in developing voluntary consensus-based codes and standards related to the built environment. From the Life Safety Code to the National Electrical Code, sprinkler installation, fuel gas, and myriad other occupancy-specific and installation standards, NFPA codes and standards, as well as the codes and standards of other consensus-based standards development organizations, have addressed almost every aspect of the built environment. The significant gap in the code regime for the built environment, however, had been the lack of a model building code developed using the ANSI procedures.
NFPA's Building Code endeavors to be responsive to the needs of the enforcement, user, and design communities and to be consistent with the other principles of code development to which NFPA adheres. In addition, the Code is updated in response to, and, in some cases, in anticipation of, emerging technologies, or as society looks to code developers to address new hazards. Changes to the 2009 edition are consistent with the established goals and objectives that work to deliver a safe, usable, and functional building at the end of the design process.
In addition to fire, a design hazard that always has been, and always will be, a major component of any building code, NFPA 5000 provides requirements for other design provisions, including natural hazards, accessibility, and building interior environmental issues.
Consistent with NFPA's performance-based code initiative, NFPA 5000 establishes a clear set of goals and objectives for specifying the expected outcome for occupant safety, building use, and building performance based on the Code requirements. The goals and objectives also extend to the expected outcome for a building, its contents, and its mission, when applicable. The goals and objectives are critical in allowing those affected by codes to exercise the performance-based design approach. In addition, they can be used as a tool for evaluating equivalency provisions on project-specific jobs or designs.
Much of the criteria in NFPA 5000 is derived from, and is coordinated with, numerous sources, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Access Board, among others. The all-hazard design provisions for NFPA 5000 are rounded out with the use of criteria that include elements for a range of hazard and design scenarios, design loads, and natural hazard mitigation.
Several changes to this edition of NFPA 5000 are a direct result of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Although the 2003 and 2006 editions of NFPA 5000 addressed numerous issues related to that event and the broader issue of hostile acts in general, many of the initial recommendations have become more refined, and the concepts have matured enough to be considered in the Code. The newly introduced concept of situation awareness has been added. This concept codifies the process by which building occupants and first responders process the information at hand. A new adoptable annex dealing with elevators for occupant evacuation has been added. The addition of this section is the preliminary result of an ongoing 4-year, multiple-organization effort to establish the correct set of circumstances and requirements to ensure safe use of elevators for building occupants under certain fire conditions. A related change to Chapter 54 outlines the performance criteria for elevators intended for first responder use. Also related to this category are changes introduced in Chapters 4 and 5 that relate to collapse prevention design under a fire load.
A number of changes relating to specific means of egress criteria have also been included. These include an option for elevator lobby exit access door locking and application of the remoteness concept to all of the major egress components. Provisions have been added to govern an expanded use of locking procedures for health care occupancies, including those necessary for various security purposes.
Finally, a global change to the Code has been made concerning the various terms used to describe points of reference for building heights. Numerous sections of the Code have been revised to utilize terms such as grade, grade plane, and number of stories on a consistent basis.
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