Nfpa

[Saint of Quench]

I thought I would start things off for these new forums by asking everyone's feelings about NFPA and its requirements. I have seen numerous posts throughout the watchdesk about how people have felt about the organization in general. Would anyone care to elaborate on personal experiences or views about what they have seen? How about the relationship between the fire service and other groups involved in the NFPA process? I have seen mainly negative comments and I'm willing to hear more, but I am also wondering if anyone else has good things to say about the whole, or part, of the organization. I would also like to know if people are familiar with all of the different parties of the organization or if they have questions about that as well?

[Safety]

The NFPA is a large organization with various agendas. It does provide through it's codes good ideas for the most part on how to set up and do things. I do not think that every department can comply with every provision in every code.

I am using NFPA to help me draft SOG's for my department.

[FF/FPE]

I work with NFPA standards on a frequent basis. Its good to have a national reference point for design and inspection purposes, even though the standards provide only the minimum requirements. Its a shame that most designers and architects only shoot to barely meet the standards rather than going beyond. However, there are times that I question the true purpose behind the NFPA. For example, NFPA 5000. Do we really need another building code? It sounds like just another excuse to make money.

[FirstDue]

I agree. Most A/E firms shoot for the code minimum for the purpose of the "lowest bidder". Same with contractors. Most people utilize NFPA, BOCA, UBC, IBC, etc.. for prescriptive code rather than performance based design. I honestly rather focus on performance based design because there are many corners that can be cut within the code. Many codes run you back and forth and are quite generic (ie. BOCA). This of course does not help when you are designing a round building with a code that only explains how to design a square. The "basic" building is great for perscriptive design thus NFPA codes are good to follow to the T. Other than that, the engineer needs to use his brain a little and think outside the box.