§ 101-6.601 - Background.

(a) The Fire Administration Authorization Act of 1992 (Pub. Law 102-522) was signed into law by the President on October 26, 1992. Section 106 Fire Safety Systems in Federally Assisted Buildings, of Title I—United States Fire Administration, is commonly referred to as the Federal Fire Safety Act of 1992. This section amends the Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.) to require sprinklers or an equivalent of safety, in certain types of Federal employee office buildings, Federal employee housing units, and federally assisted housing units.

(b) The definition of an automatic sprinkler system is unique to the Act. In addition to describing the physical characteristics of an automatic sprinkler system, the definition sets a performance objective for the system. Automatic sprinkler systems installed in compliance with the Act must protect human lives. Sprinklers would provide the level of life safety prescribed in the Act by controlling the spread of fire and its effects beyond the room of origin. A functioning sprinkler system should activate prior to the onset of flashover.

(c) This subpart establishes a general measure of building firesafety performance. To achieve the level of life safety specified in the Act, the structure under consideration must be designed, constructed, and maintained to minimize the impact of fire. As one option, building environmental conditions are specified in this subpart to ensure the life safety of building occupants outside the room of fire origin. They should be applicable independent of whether or not the evaluation is being conducted for the entire building or for just the hazardous areas. In the latter case, the room of origin would be the hazardous area while any room, space, or area could be a room of origin in the entire building scenarious.

(d) The equivalent level of safety regulation in this subpart does not address property protection, business interruption potential, or firefighter safety during fire fighting operations. In situations where firefighters would be expected to rescue building occupants, the safety of both firefighters and occupants must be considered in the equivalent level of safety analysis. Thorough prefire planning will allow firefighters to choose whether or not to enter a burning building solely to fight a fire.