BFRW committee orders staff opinion to clarify child-care occupant-load and sprinkler triggers

The BFRW committee of the State Building Code Council on Nov. 7 moved to clarify how occupant load and "fire area" calculations apply to child-care centers placed inside existing buildings, directing staff to draft an opinion interpreting the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) and to pursue 2024 code language for existing buildings.

The action followed a petition from Ken Broulette asking whether, under the statute that authorized more child-care centers in existing buildings, local officials should calculate occupant load and sprinkler triggers based only on the space used for child care or based on the full fire area of the building. "I just thought that maybe we need to maybe come up with some rulemaking to clarify, regarding, you know, is there a fire barrier required or not?" Broulette said.

Why it matters: if officials apply the occupant-load calculation to the entire fire area rather than only the dedicated child-care spaces, many existing church or multiuse spaces could be deemed to exceed occupant thresholds that require…