BCAB #968A - Appeal 968 - Sprinkler System Design, NFPA 13

May 10, 1989

BCAB #968A

Re: Appeal 968 - Sprinkler System Design, NFPA 13

With reference to your letter of March 6, 1989 raising a question with respect to Appeal #968.

We have studied our earlier decision, and find no inconsistency with the National Fire Codes. The question raised was not the use of NFPA 13D in multiple dwellings, but its use in the actual dwelling unit portions of a structure. Other areas of the same building must still be protected by a standard NFPA 13 system, and the entire hydraulic design, as indicated in our earlier letter, would fall under the provisions of NFPA 13. Basically it means that within the dwelling unit a 13D system may be used, and we take this to include all 13D features such as fast-response heads, and sprinkler head locations. We do not question that the conditional omission, in 13D, of sprinkler heads in bathrooms, may be a different level of protection than is provided by NFPA 13, but assume that this was considered acceptable for such a specific use, within a limited area, taking into account the particular advantages of NFPA 13D.

Appeal 968 dealt with a specific situation raised in the correspondence referred to our attention. Where other circumstances arise and are referred as an appeal, the provisions of NFPA 13D would have to be considered in the light of those circumstances.

J.C. Currie, Chair