Building Description

The Acme Company Anytown building located at 150 Industrial Road in Anytown, United States is an existing Type IV-B structure originally permitted for construction in 1999 under jurisdiction of the 1994 UBC with Anytown Amendments. The building is approximately 223,321 square feet in total floor area, as permitted by Section 505.2 of the 1994 UBC for “Unlimited Area” buildings.

The building is used for pharmaceutical manufacturing, offices, and storage, and the occupancy classifications are B, F-1, and S-1, respectively with some accessory use occupancies. The occupancy classification and existing fire protection status of the building is summarized in the following table:

 

Building Name

Primary Use

Occupancy Classification per 2012 IBC

Fire Protection Systems

Automatic Sprinkler

Automatic Fire Alarm

Acme Company Anytown

Manufacturing

B/F/S

Y

N

 

As indicated above, the building is equipped with automatic fire sprinkler system and fire alarm system. Both systems are functional and well maintained with a few exceptions. The fire alarm system, however, activates an unacceptably high number of nuisance alarms, resulting in two significant problems:

  • Occupants reduced confidence in the system
  • Unnecessary use of Anytown emergency responders

These problems can contribute to a direct threat to civilian life-safety resulting from Acme Company building occupants becoming less likely to respond to a reported fire alarm, and emergency responders unable to utilize their time for actual, life threatening emergencies.

The building contains several FM-200 systems, which are redox reacting clean agents. The FM-200 systems are provided with individual Fire Alarm Control Units (FACU) listed for automatic extinguishment. They are monitored by the master FACU, which is located in “Electrical 158.”