Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of the Effect of Upholstered Seating Furniture Within Patient Rooms of Health Care Facilities

Importancia y uso:

4.1 This guide is intended for use by those undertaking the development of fire hazard assessments for upholstered seating furniture in health care occupancies.

4.2 As a guide this document provides information on an approach to development of a fire hazard assessment, but fixed procedures are not established. Section 1.7 describes some cautions to be taken into account.

4.3 A fire hazard assessment developed following this guide should specify all steps required to determine fire hazard measures for which safety thresholds or pass/fail criteria can be meaningfully set by responsible officials using the standard.

4.4 A fire hazard assessment developed as a result of using this guide should be able to assess a new item of upholstered seating furniture being considered for use in a certain health care facility, and reach one of the conclusions in 4.4.1 – 4.4.4.

4.4.1 The new upholstered seating furniture item is safer, in terms of predicted fire performance, than the one in established use. Then, the new product would be desirable, from the point of view of fire safety.

4.4.2 There is no difference between the predicted fire safety of the new item and the one in established use. Then, there would be neither advantage nor disadvantage in using the new product, from the point of view of fire safety.

4.4.3 The new upholstered seating furniture item is predicted to be less safe, in terms of fire performance, than the one in established use. Then, the new item would be less desirable, from the point of view of fire safety than the one in established use.

4.4.3.1 If the new upholstered furniture item is predicted to be less safe, in terms of fire performance, than the one in established use, a direct substitution of the products would provide a lower level of safety and the new product should not be used, without other compensatory changes being made. A new upholstered furniture product can, however, be made acceptable if, and only if, it is part of a complete, comprehensive, fire safety design for the patient room. Such a patient room redesign should include one or more of the following features: use of an alternative layout (albeit one that cannot be altered by the patient room users) or increased use of automatic fire protection systems or changes in other furnishings or contents. In such cases, a more in-depth fire hazard assessment should be conducted to ensure that all of the changes together have demonstrated a predicted level of fire safety for the new design which is at least equal to that for the design in established use, in order to permit the use of the new upholstered seating furniture item.

4.4.3.2 Alternatively, the new design may still be acceptable if the predicted level of fire safety is commensurate with new stated fire safety objectives developed in advance.

4.4.4 The new upholstered seating furniture item offers some safety advantages and some safety disadvantages over the item in established use. An example of this outcome could be increased smoke obscuration with decreased heat release. Then, a more in depth fire hazard assessment would have to be conducted to balance the advantages and disadvantages.

4.5 If the patient room does not contain an upholstered seating furniture item, then the fire hazard assessment implications of the introduction of an upholstered seating furniture item should be analyzed in the same way as in 4.4. The fire safety should then be compared with that achieved in the room in established use (which has no upholstered seating furniture). The same analysis would also apply if an additional upholstered furniture item is being considered for introduction in a patient room: the fire hazard assessment should compare the fire safety implications of the addition.

4.5.1 An additional upholstered furniture item adds to the fuel load of a room. Thus, an analysis such as that in 4.4 would offer options 4.4.2 through 4.4.4 only.

4.6 Following the analysis described in 4.4, a fire hazard assessment developed following the procedures in this guide would reach a conclusion regarding the desirability of the furniture product studied.

4.7 An alternative to the analysis based on the anticipated fire performance of the materials or products contained in the patient room is the use of active fire protection measures, such as fire suppression sprinklers. Active fire protection involves measures such as automatic sprinklers and alarm systems, while passive fire protection involves using materials that are difficult to burn and give off low heat and smoke if they do burn. Traditional prescriptive requirements are based exclusively on passive fire protection, with the common approach being to describe the fire tests to be met for every property. The opposite extreme is based entirely on active fire protection, which assumes that active fire protection measures (mostly sprinklers) ensure fire safety. The fire safety record of sprinklers is excellent, but not flawless. Moreover, neither approach gives the type of flexibility that is the inherent advantage of fire hazard and fire risk assessments.

4.7.1 Note that the activation of automatic fire suppression sprinklers does not ensure a safe level of smoke obscuration.

4.8 This guide provides information on a different type of fire hazard assessment than Guide E2061. While Guide E2061 considers an entire occupancy, namely a rail transportation vehicle, this guide addresses a specific product, namely upholstered furniture.

Subcomité:

E05.33

Referida por:

E1546-24, E0176-24A

Volúmen:

04.07

Número ICS:

11.140 (Hospital equipment), 13.220.20 (Fire protection)

Palabras clave:

fire; fire hazar heat release; ignition; smoke obscuration; smoke toxicity; upholstered furniture;