Fire Protection Design Manual - Office of Construction and Facilities ...

September-2011
D. Flow and pressure requirements shall comply with NFPA 14 except as modified in Section
5.3, Fire Pumps.
Note: If the facility is a high-rise building, defined by NFPA 14 as a building more than 75
feet from the lowest level of fire department access to the floor of the highest occupied level,
an automatic standpipe system is required by NFPA 14. It is the position of the VA that the
building fire pump be sized only for the sprinkler system demand and to let the fire
department supply the flow and pressure for manual fire fighting. The fire pump should be
sized to handle the automatic standpipe fire fighting requirements in NFPA 14 only where
the fire department pumper truck cannot provide the necessary pressure, and this is not
anticipated at any VA facility. The designer must verify that the fire department can
adequately supply the manual fire fighting requirements.
E. For seismic requirements, refer to Section 6.1.I.
6.3 Gaseous Systems (Clean Agent, Carbon Dioxide, etc.): Reserved.
6.4 Portable Fire Extinguishers:
A. Do not provide fire extinguishers. Locate fire extinguisher cabinets to comply with
NFPA 10. Locate additional fire extinguisher cabinets in the surgical suite, high value IT
(Information Technology) equipment and telephone switch rooms, and in elevator machine
rooms.
B. Size fire extinguisher cabinets to accommodate a 9.5 L (2-1/2 gallon) pressurized water
extinguisher. Recessed cabinets are preferred. Specify conspicuous marking of recessed
cabinets.
6.5 Extinguishing Systems for cooking facilities/equipment: Provide wet chemical fire extinguishing
systems in accordance with UL 300 and NFPA 17A. See Section 3.3. Dry chemical systems
shall not be installed.
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