Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
AFSA staff represented the association and the TAC at the 2025 NFPA Technical Meeting in Las Vegas. In addition to the results of the 2025 NFPA Technical Meeting, a summary of the discussions during the meeting and future action plans are discussed in this issue’s column.
NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems
CAM 25-3 – Qualified Personnel
Reject Second Revision No. 3
Vote of NFPA Membership: PASSED ✅
CAM 25-3 re-inserts language that was deleted by SR-3. Based on this action, NFPA 25 would require all records for ITM and the original installation—as-built system installation drawings, hydraulic calculations, original acceptance test records, and device manufacturer’s data sheets—to be maintained in a documentation cabinet. The requirement to provide a documentation cabinet was added to the 2025 edition of NFPA 13. It should be noted that a documentation cabinet is not required by other installation standards under the scope of NFPA 25, including NFPA 13R, NFPA 14, NFPA 20, NFPA 22, NFPA 24, NFPA 750, and NFPA 770.
The recommendation of the NFPA membership will ultimately go back to the technical committee for a final ballot. The technical committee has the option to accept the action at the 2025 Technical Meeting or revert to the prior edition language for that section. When given the option, the technical committee typically votes for the option that aligns with their intent during the second draft stage, so I would expect this to fail committee ballot.
CAM 25-10 – Qualified Personnel Definition
Reject Second Revision No. 38
Vote of NFPA Membership: PASSED ✅
CAM 25-10 reverts section 14.3.1(16) and the associated annex back to the language included in the previous edition of NFPA 25. Since the CAM passed on the floor of the NFPA Technical Meeting, an obstruction investigation would only be required where the nitrogen supply is not maintained on a system AND the hydraulic calculations for the system utilized an increased C Value of 120. It should be noted that requirements were added to Chapter 4 during this revision cycle to address required corrosion mitigation systems and acceptable replacements. During the next revision cycle, this requirement may be proposed to be removed altogether as the lack of nitrogen in a system doesn’t necessarily indicate that an obstruction investigation is warranted. There are plenty of dry systems using regular air that only require an obstruction investigation when an issue is identified during the 5-year internal assessment. Why should a dry system with nitrogen be penalized more than a dry system using air?
The recommendation of the NFPA membership is final in this case as the language recommended by the NFPA membership is the same as the language included in the previous edition of the document.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kevin Hall, M.Eng., P.E., ET, CWBSP, PMSFPE, is the senior manager of engineering and technical services for the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA). He is a member of several National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) technical committees responsible for developing the model codes and standards, including, NFPA 1 Fire Code, NFPA 13/13R/13D Installation of Sprinkler Systems, NFPA 20 Installation of Stationary Fire Pumps for Fire Protection, NFPA 25 Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, and NFPA 200 Hanging, Bracing, and Anchorage of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems. He also represents AFSA on numerous UL technical committees responsible for revising and maintaining the product standards used in the sprinkler industry. He is a registered professional engineer in Delaware and Maryland, NICET III certified in water-based system layout, a certified water-based system professional through NFPA, and a professional member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees from the University of Maryland College Park in fire protection engineering. In 2021, he was recognized as one of SFPE’s “5 Under 35” award recipients. Prior to his association and committee work, he worked for Reliance Fire Protection in Baltimore, Maryland as a project manager overseeing projects of various sizes and complexity.