Egress Modelling in Health Care Occupancies

The Fire Protection Research Foundation plans, manages, and communicates research on a broad range of fire safety issues in collaboration with scientists and laboratories around the world. The Foundation is an affiliate of NFPA. NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess. Abstract A proposed change for the 2015 edition of NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, would increase the maximum allowable size of a smoke compartment in health-care occupancies from 22,500 ft 2 (2,090 m 2) to 40,000 ft 2 (3,700 m 2) – almost double the size (the maximum travel distance of 200 ft (61 m) to smoke barrier would remain the same). This change could affect the evacuation/relocation of patients during an emergency in a health-care facility. In this work, the computational model STEPS is used for analyzing different scenarios for sleeping areas in health care facilities. The results will provide input to the technical committee regarding the potential impact of this change.