Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
The code adoption and standard development process can be painstakingly slow at times, but it is important to recognize that you are not limited to the editions currently adopted in your jurisdiction. Starting with the 2025 edition of NFPA 13, annex language was added to the equivalency clause in Chapter 1 stating “Subsequent editions of NFPA standards are not always adopted as soon as they are published and could lag several code cycles before the new edition is referenced. Where a newer edition of this standard is published, that standard should be permitted to be used in its entirety.” While you are not permitted to cherry-pick specific requirements that suit you best, using the newest standard should make your designs more efficient and cost-effective. Mark Twain famously said, “to stand still is to fall behind,” and with that in mind, I wanted to highlight two changes proposed for the 2028 edition of NFPA 13.
Special Occupancy Hazards For years, the industry has been looking for prescriptive guidance to address special occupancy hazards. These hazards include lithium-ion batteries, parking structures, and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). While adding prescriptive requirements for the sake of adding prescriptive requirements undermines the role of the engineer, there are several technically substantiated proposals that should add language to aid designers once the 2028 edition is published.
The most significant guidance for parking structures comes as a clarification of the annex note. Currently, parking garages are identified as an example of an Ordinary Hazard (Group 2) occupancy. There is a general fear of the unknown, and AHJs have been putting their minds at ease by requiring Extra Hazard (Group 2) classifications where EVs were present. There are multiple published and ongoing research studies that have shown that the properties of fire dynamics for an EV fire were very similar to a vehicle with an internal combustion engine.
In the 2028 edition, it is proposed to state that the presence of electric vehicles or charging stations does not change this recommendation from the technical committee. In their committee statement, the discharge committee noted, “The presence of vehicle charging stations does not increase the hazard for automobile parking garages.” NFPA 88A will have its second draft meeting later this year, and for those of us who serve on both technical committees, we will ensure that both standards correlate once all the changes are finalized.
The other occupancy worth noting is ASRS storage facilities. While the technical committee rejected all public inputs, that should not be interpreted as a lack of technical merit or appetite. It simply comes down to logistics. An ongoing project from NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation has not been published. By the time the public comment stage opens in 2026, enough data should be available to adequately address the protection of ASRS facilities prescriptively in NFPA 13 or, at the very least, provide additional performance-based guidance.
Forms & Signs As Oprah famously said, “You get a form! You get a form! EVERYBODY GETS A FORM!” Forms and signage seem to be the bane of some contractors’ existence, but what they might not realize is that those forms and signs are there to help YOU! Keeping this in mind, the technical committee has tentatively moved the Contractor’s Aboveground Material and Test Certificate back to the body of the standard and added language in Chapter 4 to emphasize that the Owner’s Certificate needs to be acknowledged and signed by the owner. The intent is not to mandate a specific form to be used, but to ensure that all of the information on that form is captured. Similar to the approach that NFPA 72 takes, alternate forms are permitted as long as they contain all of the necessary information required by the main form in the body. As an added bonus, having the form in the body should increase the visibility and elevate its importance so the technical committee does a better job at maintaining the form based on updated requirements in the standard. For a primary example of “out of sight, out of mind,” check out the flushing and testing requirements in NFPA 20 for the contractor’s material and test certificate for fire pumps, which include legacy procedures that have not been in the standard for multiple cycles!
Next Steps It should be noted that the proposed changes discussed have only been accepted preliminarily in the NFPA standard development process. These changes still require a two-thirds affirmative vote from the committee to become a First Revision. Regardless of that vote, both topics—and any other rejected or accepted public input—are up for discussion and debate during the public comment stage and second draft meeting.
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.