Policy for Indefinite Time for Shutdown

Sometimes a building is going to be vacant for an undetermined length of time, such as when it is up for sale or going through bankruptcy proceedings. In such cases the occupancy use of the building may or may not change but the intent is that there will be occupancy once again in the future. Such situations may present a financial burden to the client in the interim and so the request comes to shut the system down.

Section 4.6.13.2 in the 2009 edition of the NFPA 101 Life Safety Code states, “Existing life safety features obvious to the public, if not required by the Code, shall be either maintained or removed. The annex note states: “Also, before taking any life safety features out of service extreme care needs to be exercised to ensure that the feature is not required, was not originally provided as an alternative or equivalent, or is no longer required due to other new requirements in the current Code. Section 4.6.13.2 does not permit the system to be removed if it is a requirement for new construction. Where the future occupancy type may be in question, it is often difficult to determine if the fire sprinkler system is required. Typically the best approach is to do a “Temporary Shutdown” for a year, and then reassess the situation. See our temporary shutdown policy. If someone wants to shutdown a fire sprinkler system permanently, then see our “Permanent Shutdown Policy”.

[Last updated 1-11-12 to reflect currently adopted codes and standards and their references. There have been no other updates since it was first posted 4-4-08.]

Bureau Information

Policy for Indefinite Time for Shutdown