Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Multifamily Fire Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Single‑stair schemes for taller apartments draw support and caution from fire officials
Summary
Sen. Murphy and supporters proposed allowing single‑stair egress for taller multifamily buildings under specified life‑safety requirements. Fire officials and municipal groups urged caution and recommended aligning state building and fire codes and staged implementation.
Senator Keith Murphy told the committee he sponsored SB 282 to reduce construction costs and allow more multifamily housing to be built on smaller lots by enabling single‑stair egress under strict safety conditions. “Stairways in multifamily dwellings have to be generally concrete, very expensive to build,” Murphy said, arguing that single‑stair provisions would lower costs and enable more compact, walkable development.
State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey and the Building Code Review Board (BCRB) participated in drafting technical language; Marshal Toomey told the committee the bill’s safety elements should include sprinklers, fire‑rated stair enclosures and automatic detection. “The building code in New Hampshire has allowed single stair to 4 stories on the fire code side,” Toomey said; he recommended aligning the building code with fire code and urged caution about jumping directly to five or six stories without additional technical standards and implementation time.
Philip Sherman, chair of the Building Code Review Board, confirmed the BCRB had prepared an amendment to align model code language for four‑story buildings and noted the board is examining Seattle‑style technical provisions for taller single‑stair buildings. “If the legislature wishes to extend this provision to 5 or 6 stories, I'd suggest adopting the additional provisions required by the city of Seattle,” Sherman said, and recommended using the BCRB process to finalize technical details.
Fire chiefs and municipal representatives voiced both cautious interest and concern. Dave Emmanuel of the New Hampshire Association of Fire Chiefs and Ryan Cashin, Manchester Fire Department chief, said fire services support study and careful code alignment; Emmanuel recommended limiting immediate change to four stories and using coordinated code processes for taller buildings.
Housing advocates and builders argued the change can help produce more housing units on smaller parcels and cited international and other U.S. jurisdictions that have adopted controlled single‑stair provisions. Nick Taylor of Housing Action New Hampshire said the policy is becoming more common and urged a measured path that protects life safety while expanding supply.
Ending: Committee heard technical briefings and mixed public testimony. Officials suggested moving the code alignment through the Building Code Review Board and Board of Fire Control rather than adopting open‑ended legislative technical language; proponents said the measure could help increase feasible multifamily development on smaller lots.
