Case Histories: Fires Influencing the Life Safety Code

← Back to document page

SUPPLEMENT 1Case Histories: Fires Influencingthe Life Safety CodePaul E. Teague, by Chief Ronald R. FarrEditor s Note: This supplement illustrates how historically significant Fires have led toimprovements in the Life Safety E. Teague, former editor of Fire Journal magazine, is a veteran award-winningengineering journalist. Currently, he is the national editor and supplements director forDesign News magazine, the largest mechanical engineering magazine in the United Farr is the Fire Chief of Kalamazoo Township Fire Department in Kalama-zoo, and standards are living documents. Born ofthe efforts of men and women to make their envi-ronment safer, codes and standards grow into matu-rity based on fire experience and the observationsand research of those responsible for them. The bestcodes and standards, such as those produced byNFPA, never age, as they are continually updatedwith new information that allows them to adapt toan ever-changing is the case with NFPA101 , Life SafetyCode.

then to cloth patterns hanging on wire above the ta-bles. In no time, flames consumed the wood floor trim, the sewing tables, and the partitions, and then spread to the ceiling. Workers on the eighth floor rushed for the doors. One door was locked. When workers finally got it un-locked, it opened inward. The panicked workers piled

  Hanging