In this column, I would like to focus on the handbook’s approach to sprinkler system hydraulic calculations. Note that hydraulically calculated sprinkler systems did not appear in NFPA 13 until the 1972 edition.

At the writing of the column, the death toll in the Camp Fire is 84 people with 475 people missing. It has burned more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 14,000 homes.

Ah yes, AHJs. You cannot live with them and you most definitely cannot live without them. The official NFPA definition of an Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) is “An organization, office or individual responsible for enforcing the requirements of a code or standard, or for approving equipment, materials, an installation or a procedure.”

The National Fire Protection Association Standards Council issued the 2019 edition of NFPA 20, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Pumps for Fire Protection, with an effective date of May 24, 2018. 

NFPA 13D, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems in One- and Two-Family Dwellings and Manufactured Homes, is effective as of Sept. 3, 2018. NFPA 13R. Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems in Low-Rise Residential Occupancies, is effective as of May 24, 2018.

A look at some of the technical changes and clarifications in the soon-to-be-published, updated standard.

The new format of the 2019 NFPA 13, which reduced the document by nearly 50 pages, now organizes chapters in the way a fire sprinkler system is put together.

Honolulu’s first retrofit fire safety legislation for high-rise apartments needs to serve as a building block for the inevitable complete sprinkler mandate that is to come.

Addressing the tall building question with a reasoned approach of combining prescriptive measures and performance-based design.

Recent code provisions that may be of interest to those involved in the design of fire suppression systems.