Fire Protection Design Manual - Office of Construction and Facilities ...

September-2011
7. FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS Fire alarm systems shall be installed in buildings when required by this
section.
7.1 Purpose:
A. The primary purpose of a fire alarm system is to notify the appropriate people and initiate the
proper response from those people who are notified.
B. The secondary purpose is to initiate fire safety functions, which are building and fire control
functions that are intended to increase the level of safety for occupants or to control the
spread of the harmful effects of fire.
C. The fire alarm system operation must be coordinated with the facility fire plan.
Note: This does not preclude the fire plan from being modified to meet the fire alarm system
operation.
7.2 General Requirements:
A. The fire alarm system shall be installed where required by NFPA 101 and shall be designed
to meet the requirements contained in NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code, and this manual.
B. For the purposes of this manual, VA facilities will fall into one of the following three
categories:
Note: The proper categorization of a building or an area of a building will help to identify
the type of notification required as well as the correct placement of notification appliances
as indicated later in this section.
1. Health Care (excluding free standing Ambulatory Health Care)
2. High Rise, non-Health Care
3. Other, including free standing Ambulatory Health Care
C. Do not combine fire alarm systems with other systems such as building automation, energy
management, security, etc. Down time for any of these non-life safety systems will also take
the fire alarm system out of service. This is not acceptable to the VA.
D. All fire alarm wiring shall be installed in raceway separate from all other systems.
E. Wiring installed in metal raceway within buildings that are protected throughout by
sprinklers shall be considered to meet the requirements for Pathway Survivability Level 2 in
accordance with NFPA 72(2010) as a 2-hour performance alternative that has been approved
by the authority having jurisdiction and shall be permitted for voice communication systems
in VA facilities.
F. Wiring for local building fire alarm systems shall be specified as defined in NFPA 72 as
follows:
Initiating Device Circuits (IDC): Class B.
Signaling Line Circuits (SLC): Class B.
Notification Appliance Circuits (NAC): Class B.
Communications between building fire alarm control units: Class X.
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