Department Of Financial Services Division Of State Fire Marshal And Selected Administrative Activities

Author : Kenneth E. Wood
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 157 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (212 download)

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Download or read book The Effect of Performance-based Codes and Performance-based Design on the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal : Fire Service Financial Management written by Kenneth E. Wood and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Performance-based codes (PBCs) and performance-based design (PBD) are arguably the hottest topics in the fields of fire prevention and fire protection engineering. The use of PBD allows building owners to demonstrate adequate levels of fire safety without being constrained by prescriptive code requirements. PBD options have been included for the first time in the recently issued National Fire Protection Association's 2000 Life Safety Code (LSC). Futhermore, the development of PBC supplements to the International Fire Code and International Building Code are scheduled for publication in 2001. Those regulated have long advocated the advancement of PBD options in codes because they claim that such provisions will result in cost savings while allowing a more efficient method of ensuring fire safety. The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) enforces fire prevention laws by conducting over 19,000 annual occupancy inspections and 1,500 annual plan reviews of proposed projects. A goal of the OSFM is the adoption of the 2000 LSC, including its PBD options. Enforcement of PBD options has the potential to impact OSFM staffing, training, and budgeting. The problem was that no one had studied how an allowance for PBD options would affect OSFM services. The purpose of this research was to identify and evaluate the current status of PBCs and PBD and recommend related courses of action for the OSFM. Identification of the regulatory challenges associated with PBD and the alternatives available to address those challenges was undertaken. The research questions asked were 1. What is PBD and what challenges does it present for the OSFM? 2. Is the OSFM adequately prepared to conduct plan review and field inspection of projects employing PBD? 3. What funding and personnel alternatives are available to the OSFM to address the challenges presented by PBD? 4. What can be learned from the experience in other state and municipal fire prevention agencies relative to reviewing and inspecting PBD projects? 5. What lessons can be learned from enforcement agencies in other nations that have an established history of PBC enforcement? Historical and evaluative research was conducted. An extensive literature review was performed. Survey instruments were sent to all states as well as the fire departments of the 30 most populated U. S. cities and the 30 most populated Illnois cities to determine their readiness to handle, and methods of addressing, projects that employ PBD. Results indicated that most jurisdictions regularly update rules to reference the most recent edition of one of the model code organization's standards. Therefore, the need to consider PBD options is eminent for the fire service. The results also revealed that the majority of those jurisdictions, including the OSFM, are not prepared for PBC and PBD enforcement. Although PBD can be anticipated to be used in less than 10% of future projects, those projects will disproportionately dominate an agency's time and personnel. Also, the fire service's employment of personnel trained in PBD is deficient. Many jurisdictions indicated that they would have to deny consideration of projects employing PBD because of lack of adequately trained personnel. Common traits and procedures among agencies that successfully manage PBD projects were identified. They included the establishment of user fees, use of third-party experts, employment of fire protection engineers, and providing staff with adequate training. Resulting recommendations included (a) educating the OSFM's fire protection engineer in PBD, (b) developing legislation that allows the OSFM to establish fees to recover personnel costs associated with PBD, (c) structuring a system of acceptable third-party evaluators, and (d) developing a resource within the OSFM to assist Illinois fire departments with PBD submittals."--P. 2-4.