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      11-16-2012, 08:02 PM   #62
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Quote:
Originally Posted by claykin View Post
It's not a matter of imagining it, I live it. Fire and life safety is all about lives. Every major municipality, county and state designs their fire and life safety bldg codes around saving lives. Property is pretty much always secondary to lives.

In every locale I've built in, fire/life safety is the ONLY department that it difficult or impossible to appeal the ruling.

If you live in a city/town that puts property first, I'd move. Lawsuits with compensatory and punitive damage claims must be off the charts where you live.

http://www.nfpa.org/
I live it too.

CURRENT building codes DO put a priority on actual life safety. But old/legacy/outdated codes are "grandfathered in" every single day because updates would be too expensive. Hell, just today I was discussing a site that we put an active smoke management system in 20 years ago. It was allowed as an alternative to sprinkling a high rise building that was changing primary usage. That system has not been functionally tested or maintained since the day it was installed. The local codes don't require it so it's never been done.

Interestingly, there's zero impact on insurance premiums if a minimally effective system on a given property is upgraded to current standards and codes. I learned this in a hospital I was working in. Things aren't always what they appear to be on the surface. Draw your own conclusions...



Sorry for the threadjack folks.
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