PERFORMANCE CODES and their possible effect on fire department operations

摘要

In May of 2000, the author attended the 2000 NFPA World Fire Safety Congress and Exposition in Denver, Colorado. Three presentations at this event seemed to indicate a possible conflict between that which was being taught to fire department personnel and that which is planned to be adopted on a global level. The problem identified was the trend toward the adoption of "performance codes." In as much as these codes are based upon various "assumptions" and "fire safety performance goals," of which the fire department may not be aware, these codes may pose a dilemma for fire departments in both the fireground operation and fire safety education arenas. The purpose of this paper was to investigate this problem and, after having determined it does, indeed, exist, to determine the best method for Upper Merion Township to address this the problem. Historical research was used to study the various types of codes currently in use and to investigate proposed changes; descriptive research was utilized to report the extent of Upper Merion's present procedures and processes, and action research was employed to determine how Upper Merion would address any identified needs. As such, the following questions were explored: 1. What is a performance building code? 2. What is the difference between current building codes and performance building codes? 3. How might the adoption of performance building codes affect fire department operations? Research was, primarily, conducted utilizing the on-line capability of the National Fire Academy's Learning Resource Center. An electronic visit was made to this facility (www.lrc.fema.gov) and a search was conducted of its computerized collection catalogue. Using the subject search capability, the system was asked to seek information on the following subjects: codes, performance codes and prescriptive codes. Over a period of two (2) months, over 36 articles were obtained through the Inter-Library Loan Program. Also used, were numerous references and textbooks from the author's personal library. In addition, the author attended a Performance-based Building Design Workshop offered by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. Findings included descriptions of our current code technology, termed prescriptive in nature; and proposed code technology, termed performance in nature. Prescriptive codes have been in use in this country for nearly a century, they are quite subjective and are based on history. Big fire losses resulted in changes to our prescriptive codes, with little in the way of scientific research and evaluation to validate such changes. Performance-based codes, on the other hand, do away with most of the prescriptive requirements; in fact, in one country that has embraced the philosophy, this concept has reduced their building code from 330 pages to 23. A performance-based code will require a process where fire safety goals will be established and it will give the designer the option to utilize any approved method of meeting those goals. It was found that the ultimate difference between the two types of codes is that prescriptive codes require that one meet the code's intent, without ever enumerating what the intent is; performance codes force the owners and designers to clearly define their intent, by documenting design assumptions and design objectives. It was also determined that fire departments that are unfamiliar with the performance-design process could be at a major disadvantage in emergency response and fire safety education. Recommendations included: 1. Cautiously embracing the performance-based code concept, 2. Development of training programs to create an awareness in the fire service of this upcoming paradigm shift, 3. Development of generic fire performance criteria, 4. Possible employment of fire protection engineers by fire departments and, 5. Development of a system to capture key design information and have it entered in the fire department's computer-aided-dispatch-system for retrie