BOOK 100 HIGH RISE MANUAL CHAPTER 13 BUILDING DESIGN AND FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM Flashcards
Fire Officers must consciously ask pertinent questions and ascertain conditions that are incorporated into a building. Such questions must center around decisions relating to the following three areas:
Life safety
Property protection
Continuation of operation
Life safety
Consideration must be given to ______, the protection of _____ _____, and temporary areas of ____ _____ for a period of time reasonable for the building occupants to reach safety.
Communication
Escape routes
Safe refuge
Continuation of Operations
Maintaining operational continuity after a fire is the third major design concern. The owner must identify the amount of “_________” that can be tolerated before revenues begin to be seriously affected.
Downtime
According to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, there are approximately _____ high-rise buildings in the State of California; of these, Los Angeles has approximately _____.
1700
745
Most of the high-rise buildings in Los Angeles consist of
Commercial occupancies
About __ to __ percent are habitational, such as hotels, apartment buildings, and condos.
20 to 25 percent
High-rise buildings are divided into two groups:
Existing High-Rise” and “New High-Rise.”
Existing High-Rise Buildings are ones which were constructed prior to
July 1974
Existing High-Rise Buildings
Approximately ___ of the high-rise buildings in Los Angeles are in this category.
520
For convenience, existing high-rise buildings may be divided into two sub-groups: those constructed prior to _____ and those constructed between ____ and ____
Prior to 1960
1960 and 1974
A New high-rise building is one, which was constructed after ________. Approximately ____ of the high-rise buildings in Los Angeles are new high-rises.
July 1974
250
most pre-1960, high-rise buildings are a maximum of 13 stories. The Los Angeles City Hall, with ___ stories, and the USC-LA County General Hospital, with ___ stories, are exceptions to this rule.
27 stories
19 stories
The pre-1960 high-rises were generally constructed with a __________ ___________ exterior as opposed to the steel beam construction seen commonly today.
Reinforced concrete
A “High-Rise Retrofit Program” was initiated by the LAFD and the state in _____ to bring these buildings into conformance with newer building codes.
1976
Fire alarm systems, emergency power and lighting systems, and building communication systems were NOT REQUIRED in any of these buildings at the time of construction.
Pre 1960
Most high-rise buildings in this era have openable windows
Pre 1960
Like the earlier existing high-rise buildings, the post-1960 group are also of _____ (fire resistive) construction.
Type I
Type I building is designed to withstand the most severe fire to be expected within the building for ____ or more hours without structural failure.
TWO
instead of reinforced concrete, they were generally built with Steel Beams Coated With a Fire Retardant Material commonly known as
MONO-KOTE
POST 1960
Floors and roof are of concrete slab or steel decking covered with _____. The only combustible materials allowed are the interior _____ ______ and office furnishing. The height and floor areas are unlimited.
CONCRETE
PARTITION WALLS
By the 1960’s, the codes required “__________,” that is, subdivision of buildings into “fire areas.” This was accomplished by providing two-hour, fire-resistive separations between _____ levels and around ______shafts.
COMPARTMENTATION
FLOOR LEVELS
VERTICAL SHAFTS
Most high-rise buildings of this era are of the “____ _____” type. The elevators and stairshafts are in the center of the building, surrounded by a corridor and the outer tenant areas.
CENTRAL CORE
Buildings exceeding 150’ in height after 1960 were required to install ________ (Class III) standpipe systems. These provide a ______“ hose for occupant use, and ______“ outlets for Fire Department use.
COMBINATION
1 1/2’’
2 1/2’’
POST 1960
Depending on the time of installation, some 2-1/2“ outlets are equipped with _____” hoses, however, many are not so equipped. A ______ ______ on the premises maintains a working pressure within the system.
2 1/2’’
FIRE PUMP
With a Class III standpipe system, the most common method of controlling working pressure at the various floor levels is with the installation of
ORIFICE PLATES
A second system is the installation are engineered to maintain a set pressure at varying floors.
PRESSURE REDUCING VALVES
Another system used in some buildings is a “_____ ______” which controls the flow pressure for standpipe systems.
ZONE PRV
POST 1960
As in high-rise buildings constructed before 1960, automatic fire sprinkler systems continued to be required only in ______. At least ___ approved means of egress (exit stairshafts) were required. Sometimes ______ stairs were installed to better utilize these shafts.
BASEMENT
TWO
SCISSOR STAIRS
_____ _______ on the periphery of some high-rise buildings were constructed to provide “smoke-free” exiting and access.
SMOKE TOWERS
In a smoke tower, you travel through a ______ where smoke can escape to the outside atmosphere as you move between the building and the _________.
VESTIBULE
STAIRSHAFT
A BETTER TERM FOR SMOKE TOWER WOULD BE
SMOKE PROOF ENCLOSURE
The “mechanically ventilated smoke-proof enclosure” is a ____hour rated shaft with positive pressure which can go from the lowest level to the roof and can be controlled by the Fire Department.
2 HOUR
All new high-rise buildings (post 1974) are fully equipped with automatic fire sprinklers supplied by the same risers as the 2-1/2” wet outlets provided for Fire Department use. This type of system is known as a
COMBINED SYSTEM
In some buildings under 275’, and all buildings exceeding 275’, a _______ standpipe system is required.
LOOPED
NEW HIGH RISE BUILDINGS
Each new high-rise is required to maintain a ____-hour rated Fire Control Room previously known as the ______ _____ station, in an approved location (usually the ground floor).
ONE
BUILDING CONTROL STATION
NEW HIGH RISE BUILDINGS
HVAC systems designed for smoke removal may also be used, providing they exhaust a minimum of ___ air changes per hour, and exhaust to the exterior of the building without recirculating to the other sections of the building.
6
NEW HIGH RISE BUILDINGS
ON SITE GENERATOR MUST be available for at least ____ hours at full demand.
8 HOURS
Most new high-rise buildings have an Emergency Helicopter Landing Facility on the roof. The number inside the ___’ by
—’ pad identifies the load capacity of the pad in thousands of pounds. For example, a number 10 indicates _____ pounds.
50’ BY 50’
10,000
There is also an adjacent 1-1/2” exterior standpipe outlet for fire protection or with __ or __ Class Helispot (H) standpipe outlets.
1 OR 2
The Basic Provisions of the state mandated Retrofit Program for existing buildings include:
At least two approved means of egress were required to be provided from each floor level. At least one was to be an enclosed, one-hour stairshaft; the other could be an existing __________if no other stairway was available.
FIRE ESCAPE
fire escapes were required to have wired glass or equivalent protection for the windows on all landings and within __’ on either side of the landing
5’
Effective emergency power was NOT REQUIRED by the state mandated Retrofit Program. Also, electrically operated fire pumps and elevators did not have to be provided with a
BACKUP SYSTEM
Approximately __ of the older existing high-rise buildings chose to not comply with the requirements of the High-Rise Retrofit Program, primarily because of the problem of providing two approved means of egress. These buildings were vacated and sealed.
30
Retrofit Sprinkler Ordinance was passed in August of 1988
- Provision of a ___ square foot, manually-operated ventilation opening in stairshafts that access the top floor and does not penetrate the roof.
20
Retrofit Sprinkler Ordinance was passed in August of 1988
- Provide a __” drain in buildings which are equipped with Pressure Reducing Valves (P.R.V.’s). This provides a means to flow test P.R.V.’s and return the water back into the tank without running hose lines up the entire stairshaft.
3
All high-rise buildings have some type of Smoke Control, such as:
- Openable windows, or;
- In sealed buildings, breakable tempered glass windows on the perimeter of the building every 50 linear feet with ___ square foot opening.
- These are supposed to be identified by __” minimum luminous or reflective Decals in a lower corner which indicates they are “_________ _____,” or;
- Automatic Smoke Removal System, or;
- A combination of the above.
20
TEMPERED GLASS
_______ ______ total flooding systems are usually used to protect computers and other high-value equipment.
HALON 1301
Halon 1301 is a _______ _________ gas which interrupts the normal process of combustion, thereby effectively extinguishing fires in hidden areas
HALOGENATED HYDROCARBON
HALON 1301
___ percent or more of the volume of the room will then be composed of halon gas.
5 PERCENT
Halon will decompose into toxic gases, principally phosgene, if permitted to heat to approxima ____ degrees Fahrenheit.
900
- A halon exhaust switch is provided
OUTSIDE THE ROOMS
