Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
September and October have been very busy and productive months. In addition to AFSA43 in Denver, AFSA staff and representatives appointed by the Technical Advisory Council attended several NFPA technical committee meetings. Two meetings of note were the second draft meeting for the 2026 edition of NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, and the first draft meeting for the 2027 edition of NFPA 88A, Standard for Parking Structures.
NFPA 25 Second Draft Meeting
For NFPA 25, there is one significant revision to note. Based on the second draft meeting, there is new language that will require sprinklers installed in dwelling units to be tested once they have been installed for 50 years. At that time, the representative sample of sprinklers must achieve an RTI of 65 or less (fast response) or be replaced with fast response sprinklers. While it is important to have a higher standard of care in dwelling units, NFPA 25 needs to be careful about creating requirements that conflict with the installation standards as well as create testing criteria that are impossible to meet. Currently NFPA 13 permits standard response sprinklers to be replaced with standard response sprinklers when making modifications to existing light hazard occupancies (dwelling units). It would not be appropriate for the installation standard to permit one product and then have it become immediately deficient when reviewing under the lens of NFPA 25. It would also be an exercise in futility to try and achieve an RTI of 65 for a standard response sprinkler. If the intent of the committee is to replace all standard response sprinklers in dwelling units with fast response sprinklers, then the requirements should state that clearly and not be vaild in an unattainable test criterion. It should be noted that the final ballots have not been counted for this proposed second revision, and that there is still the NFPA Technical Meeting in June where affected parties—specifically the healthcare section and facility managers—might express their opposition. Stay tuned for future updates.
NFPA 88A First Draft Meeting
The previous edition of NFPA 88A added a requirement to install sprinklers in all parking structures. With the new requirement, it becomes even more important to know what the discharge criteria needs to be to protect these structures. While NFPA 13 lists parking structures as an example of an Ordinary Hazard (Group 2) occupancy and car stackers up to two cars in height as an example of an Extra Hazard (Group 2) occupancy, NFPA 88A should be the leading document to determine specific protection schemes. NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation is currently working on a multi-phase project to gather enough data to technically substantiate a design scheme, but to date the first two phases only provided literature reviews and identified knowledge gaps. One of those knowledge gaps highlighted the “dearth” of technical data regarding discharge criteria and hopes to establish a technical basis for protection schemes with fire testing in later phases. Until that data is available, see Melisa Rodriguez’s article on page 34 which substantiates the current occupancy classifications of the technical committees.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kevin Hall, M.Eng., P.E., ET, CWBSP, PMSFPE, is the senior manager of engineering and technical services for the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA). He is a member of several National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) technical committees responsible for developing the model codes and standards, including, NFPA 1 Fire Code, NFPA 13/13R/13D Installation of Sprinkler Systems, NFPA 20 Installation of Stationary Fire Pumps for Fire Protection, NFPA 25 Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, and NFPA 200 Hanging, Bracing, and Anchorage of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems. He also represents AFSA on numerous UL technical committees responsible for revising and maintaining the product standards used in the sprinkler industry. He is a registered professional engineer in Delaware and Maryland, NICET III certified in water-based system layout, a certified water-based system professional through NFPA, and a professional member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees from the University of Maryland College Park in fire protection engineering. In 2021, he was recognized as one of SFPE’s “5 Under 35” award recipients. Prior to his association and committee work, he worked for Reliance Fire Protection in Baltimore, Maryland as a project manager overseeing projects of various sizes and complexity.
