NEWER EDITION AVAILABLE

NFPA 101: Life Safety Code addresses those construction, protection and occupancy features necessary to minimize danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat and toxic gases created during a fire. The Code establishes minimum criteria for the design of egress facilities so as to allow prompt escape of occupants from buildings or, where desirable, into safe areas within buildings. The Code addresses other considerations that are essential to life safety in recognition of the fact that life safety is more than a matter of egress, including protective features and systems, building services, operating features and maintenance activities.

NFPA 101: Life Safety Code 2006 Edition incorporates the latest technologies, advances and safety strategies to help users meet today's challenges and achieve higher levels of protection for building occupants than ever before. To reduce fire injuries and deaths, NFPA 101: Life Safety Code 2006 Edition mandates that the following occupancy types must be sprinklered:

• All new 1- and 2-family dwellings
• All existing nursing homes
• Existing nightclub assembly occupancies where occupant load exceeds 100 people
• New nightclub assembly occupancies regardless of occupant load.

NFPA 101: Life Safety Code 2006 Edition includes a new chapter on existing building rehabilitation that provides greater flexibility to encourage adaptive reuse without sacrificing life safety. In previous editions, modifications to existing buildings had to comply with provisions for new construction. NFPA 101: Life Safety Code 2006 Edition's Chapter 43 introduces specific requirements for:

• Repairs
• Renovations
• Additions
• Reconstruction
• Change of use or occupancy classification
• Historic buildings.

Other important changes affect:

• Health care occupancy suites
• Alcohol-based hand-rub solution dispensers in corridors of health care occupancies
• Smoke control systems in new malls
• Crowd managers in assembly occupancies
• Stair descent devices for people with disabilities
• Stair width in certain new buildings to improve counterflow between occupants and first responders.