Hospital - Fire Alarm Evacuation - General Evacuation vs Defend in Place.

[Shujinko]

I am the Electrical design engineer for a small psychiatric hospital in Florida. In Hospitals I am used to seeing a Defend-in-Place type strategy when the fire alarm system goes into alarm. In essence, if there is a fire alarm event you evacuate the smoke compartment in alarm and relocate people, patients, staff, etc, into the next smoke compartment that is not in alarm.

In this Psychiatric Hospital, a place for people with eating disorders, the client wants to evacuate the entire Hospital upon a fire alarm event in any of the smoke compartments. The client's stance is that the patients in this facility are not incapacitated and can leave whenever they want. The client have also done this type of general fire alarm evacuation some of their other hospital facilities outside of Florida.

My question is, where in the codes does it allow you to have a Hospital with smoke compartments and still have a general evacuation of the building upon a fire alarm event within any of the smoke compartments? My client says that this general evacuation is allowed as long as you have a written evacuation strategy that all hospital staff is trained and familiar with. Can anyone give me some insight on this?

 

[gadfly56]

I am the Electrical design engineer for a small psychiatric hospital in Florida. In Hospitals I am used to seeing a Defend-in-Place type strategy when the fire alarm system goes into alarm. In essence, if there is a fire alarm event you evacuate the smoke compartment in alarm and relocate people, patients, staff, etc, into the next smoke compartment that is not in alarm.

In this Psychiatric Hospital, a place for people with eating disorders, the client wants to evacuate the entire Hospital upon a fire alarm event in any of the smoke compartments. The client's stance is that the patients in this facility are not incapacitated and can leave whenever they want. The client have also done this type of general fire alarm evacuation some of their other hospital facilities outside of Florida.

My question is, where in the codes does it allow you to have a Hospital with smoke compartments and still have a general evacuation of the building upon a fire alarm event within any of the smoke compartments? My client says that this general evacuation is allowed as long as you have a written evacuation strategy that all hospital staff is trained and familiar with. Can anyone give me some insight on this?

NFPA-72 does not require a defend-in-place strategy for any occupancy. NFPA-101 may have something else to say, but because hospitals are so heavily regulated, the building codes and NFPA codes/standards are rarely the final say. In NJ, the Joint Commission regulates health care facilities and would be the final authority on a question like this. If I had to guess, based on your description of the patient population, I think the client is probably correct.