by Rebecca Walker — June 14, 2010—Faster and more efficient emergency evacuations from buildings—especially tall structures—and better communications between first responders during emergencies are among the safety improvements expected from 17 far-reaching building and fire code changes approved recently by the International Code Council (ICC).
The changes are based on recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) based on NIST’s investigation of the collapses of New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC) towers and WTC 7 on Sept. 11, 2001.
The changes, adopted at the ICC hearings held May 15-23, 2010, in Dallas, Texas, will be incorporated into the 2012 edition of the ICC’s I-Codes (specifically the International Building Code, or IBC, and the International Fire Code, or IFC), which is used as the basis for building and fire regulations in U.S. state and local jurisdictions. Those jurisdictions have the option of incorporating some or all of the code’s provisions but generally adopt most provisions.
The 17 code changes include important safety improvements to the existing requirements for elevators in tall buildings used during an emergency by occupants evacuating and firefighters entering, and provisions to ensure that emergency radio communications will effectively serve first responders throughout their local communities.
The newly adopted code changes are the second set adopted in the past two years by the ICC based on recommendations from the NIST WTC investigation. Twenty-three changes were approved in October 2008 and incorporated into the 2009 edition of the I-Codes.
For more information, see the ICC Web site.
