[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 41, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 41CFR102-80.115]

[Page 276-277]
 
           TITLE 41--PUBLIC CONTRACTS AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
 
               CHAPTER 102--FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION
 
PART 102-80_SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT--Table of Contents
 
                 Subpart C_Accident and Fire Prevention
 
Sec. 102-80.115  Is there more than one option for establishing that an 
equivalent level of safety exists?

    Yes, the following are three options for establishing that an 
equivalent level of safety exists:
    (a) In the first option, the margin of safety provided by various 
alternatives is compared to that obtained for a code complying building 
with complete sprinkler protection. The margin of safety is the 
difference between the available safe egress time and the required safe 
egress time. Available safe egress time is the time available for 
evacuation of occupants to an area of safety prior to the onset of 
untenable conditions in occupied areas or the egress pathways. The 
required safe egress time is the time required by occupants to move from 
their positions at the start of the fire to areas of safety. Available 
safe egress times would be developed based on analysis of a number of 
assumed reasonable worst case fire scenarios including assessment of a 
code complying fully sprinklered building. Additional analysis would be 
used to determine the expected required safe egress times for the 
various scenarios. If the margin of safety plus an appropriate safety 
factor is greater for an alternative than for the fully sprinklered 
building, then the alternative should provide an equivalent level of 
safety.
    (b) A second alternative is applicable for typical office and 
residential scenarios. In these situations, complete sprinkler 
protection can be expected to prevent flashover in the room of fire 
origin, limit fire size to no more than 1 megawatt (950 Btu/sec), and 
prevent flames from leaving the room of origin. The times required for 
each of these conditions to occur in the area of interest must be 
determined. The shortest of these three times would become the time 
available for escape. The difference between the minimum time

[[Page 277]]

available for escape and the time required for evacuation of building 
occupants would be the target margin of safety. Various alternative 
protection strategies would have to be evaluated to determine their 
impact on the times at which hazardous conditions developed in the 
spaces of interest and the times required for egress. If a combination 
of fire protection systems provides a margin of safety equal to or 
greater than the target margin of safety, then the combination could be 
judged to provide an equivalent level of safety.
    (c) As a third option, other technical analysis procedures, as 
approved by the responsible agency head, can be used to show 
equivalency.