Louisiana AFAA State Fire Marshal Questions Quarterly Meeting

2. Louisiana AFAAState Fire Marshal QuestionsQuarterly Meeting January 20, 2012 LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS OFFICE OF STATE FIRE MARSHAL, CODE ENFORCEMENT AND BUILDING SAFETY

3. Question 1 Riser diagram drawings are required for submittal in shop drawing set. Doesn’t the requirement include “actual devices” for the building being submitted? I’ve seen Fire Alarm Vendor drawings illustrating “typical” riser diagrams. The riser diagram should reflect the actual devices to convey information about the system; but if the riser is not accurate, that will not be a reason to deny the submittal.

4. Question 2 Does the State Fire Marshal plan to enforce Chapter 24 of NFPA 72-2010 in Industrial Plants? If your question is pertaining to mass notification requirements then the answer is no until either NFPA 101 – Life Safety Code or the International Building Code addresses that requirement.

5. Question 3 Has your office issued any memos concerning the new ADA requirement for pre-wiring of NAC circuits? A memo will be forthcoming.

6. Question 4 Are “Federal Jobs” within Louisiana completely exempt from Plan Review submittals & Louisiana Licensing Requirements? Out of State Fire Alarm & Suppression Contractors claim they do have to be licensed to perform work in Louisiana. No. According to the legal staff, such projects are required to submitted for plan review and the contractors are required to be licensed.

7. Question 5 It appears when we send in an exemption form it takes 7-10 days to log it in, 1-2 days for Mr. McLean to approve it, and another 7-10 days to fax us a copy. Is everyone that far behind? This is a clerical issue and steps are being taken to address this issue. Typically these are logged in within a day, but holidays absences, etc… may also delay log – in.

8. Question 6 Are we allowed to scan the Exemption Request Forms with related documents and email to Mr. McLean for review? Please do not email exemptions to Mr. McLean for the following reasons: 1) Mr. McLean is not part of the clerical section and does not log in the exemptions. 2) Mr. McLean is typically not at the office on Fridays and would delay the exemption from getting to the clerical. 3) Your email may not make it completely pass the DPS DATA firewall. 4) These file are extremely large and will completely fill Mr. McLean’s email account and that would prohibit Mr. McLean from receiving any emails from others that may have questions concerning other reviews. The office is working on trying to get a separate email to handle these types of exemptions

9. Question 7 When considering special locking - is there any difference in application, if the control panel is a clean agent suppression system only, versus a building fire alarm control panel? No.

10. Question 8 Is the suppression contractor responsible for verification of fire alarm system “unlocking” of mag locks, if there is no direct connection of the mag lock system to the suppression panel? I.e. suppression panel “unlocks” by virtue of alarm signal to the fire alarm panel? No, the suppression contractor must only verify that the suppression system is tied into the fire alarm. The locking and fire alarm contractors must verify that the locks release upon activation of the fire alarm.

11. Question 9 How do we handle the following situation: A. Fire Alarm Contractor sells drawings, equipment, & start up to owner for installation by their in plant Electrical Contractor. B. Non-Required Fire Alarm Form is submitted & approved by the Office of State Fire Marshal. C. A year later, the customer has not installed the equipment. What do we do? Advise Fire Marshal to cancel approval? Exemptions are good for 30 days after review. No further action is required.

12. Question 10 Many problems appear to be related to the “inspection” side of our Industry. That being said, why isn’t the Manager of Inspections in regular attendance at the Louisiana AFAA Quarterly Meetings, so mutual problems can be reviewed & discussed? I will be in attendance on the 20TH.

13. Question 11 Sometime ago (at a Quarterly Meeting) we were advised to let the SFM know when Non-Required or Exemption Requests were completed, (on systems not field accepted) so the number could be removed from your system. Can you review this again? I tried to do this & was told we had to go through the District Office. I was told a couple of years ago that your office had no method to track open projects; i.e. if the owner or Professional of Record didn’t call, then the District Office had no way of knowing. Doesn’t the District Office get a copy of projects approved by Plan Review? Please advise on proper procedures for doing this. Correct we have no way on our present computer system to track if a project was completed and inspected unless someone calls for an inspection. If the exemption work is associated with an architect renovation project than the exemption project should be called in at the same time as the request to inspect the architect project or if you call in to request an inspection for only exemption work with no architect review. The district does have access to the project numbers data base; however the only time we access the project data base is when a request is called in for inspection. We can discuss further at meeting.

14. Question 12 How do we handle a situation when the Professional of Record does not call the District Office for an Architectural Inspection or the Non-Required Fire Alarm Inspection? I’ve hounded the owner & Professional of Record for over a year, since my fire alarm work has been completed. What is my responsibility here? Are you saying that you have done work on a system in a building that had renovations or new construction and the POR does not call in to schedule a final inspection of the building? If the answer to your question is yes that you should call in and talk to the supervisor of that district and explain to him what the problem is and he will schedule an inspection. However we can discuss further at the meeting on the 20th.

15. Question 13 Why are licensed Electrical Contractors allowed to submit special locking forms without completion of training seminars, to make sure they understand the rules on proper submittal? Simply put, the law exempts Electrical Contractors (with a state wide license) from licensure by the Fire Marshal. They must still submit plans and install per NFPA 101 and the manufacturer.

16. Question 14 The State of Louisiana is not able to comply with a recently enacted law requiring ethics training for elected positions & State Employees. Shouldn’t the “regulator” be in compliance before requiring Industry to comply? The Fire Marshal’s Office should delay the ethics requirements until the State complies!! Would State Fire Marshal Browning review this requirement & request? The requirements for Ethics training (for Qualifiers only) was established by the Life Safety and Property Protection Advisory Board. This requirement is completely independent of what requirements the agency must adhere to.

17. Question 15 Why doesn’t your office enforce requirements for dated flag seals & annual replacement on fire extinguishers? From the Licensing requirements, contractors must replace the flag seal upon annual certification. The flag seal must be dated for the current year. I know the inspectors were taught to inspect the seal. I am not aware of inspectors not checking this requirement. I will instruct the supervisors to address this issue with their inspection staff; however if the person asking this question is aware of specific locations where this is occurring would you please advise so that we can address the problem

18. Question 16 Are monthly portable fire extinguisher cards with NFPA 72 (2007) on top acceptable for use until they are used up? This monthly tag is very seldom used on most portable fire extinguishers, except by some contractors & owners. The monthly inspection tag must be independent from the firm’s Certification (Green) tag.

19. Question 17 Can the owner annually test single station smoke alarms in Hotel occupancies if they don’t have a Fire Marshal License? What is the contractor’s responsibility if the owner does not allow the Fire Alarm System Contractor to test these? Owners can do functional tests of their life safety and property protection systems without being licensed. However, they cannot certify, install or service these systems without first being licensed. Single station smoke alarms not tied into the alarm system fall outside the certification requirements of the fire alarm system. The owner is required to maintain them in an operational condition at all times.

20. Question 18 Same question as above, concerning bunk houses & other sleeping occupancies. See answer to Question 17.

21. Question 19 Should Fire Marshal rules include language covering proper recycling of some ionization detectors & battery sets? This issue has not come up before but if the industry has some ideas regarding such, the agency is open to hearing them for possible inclusion in the rules.

22. Question 20 Can the owner of a Fire Alarm System install battery sets that are not the same battery that was UL listed with the panel? The owner must be licensed to install components into the alarm system. At minimum, the owner must have a Fire Alarm Owner license to install batteries. Batteries are not listed to specific panels but must meet all manufacturer requirements.

23. Question 21 Can a licensed Fire Alarm Contractor install an off brand or off size battery set, other than type & size with the control panel UL listing. Many UL listings include a minimum size - even though calculations may require a smaller size. Yes a contractor can install another battery provided that it is listed and properly sized.

24. Question 22 The contractor is called out for a service call on a suppression system. As required by code, the suppression panel sends alarm & trouble signals to the building fire alarm system. The suppression company technician learns that the building fire alarm panel is red tagged & out of service (waiting for a new control board). After the service call - the suppression panel is normal, except it cannot alert building occupants of a problem in the “remote” computer room & other clean agent protected areas because the building fire alarm system is non functional. 1. Does the technician place a blue service tag? 2. Does the technician yellow tag the suppression control panel until the red tag situation on the fire alarm panel is corrected? Note that (2) separate contractors are involved. A Blue tag noting the service performed along with a Yellow Tag noting the deficiency would be the ideal method of tagging the system in this scenario. Another acceptable method would be just to Yellow tag the system and note the service performed as well.