What Is a Life Safety Plan?

Each room or area is labeled with its function, area, the occupant load factor from IBC Table 1004.5 in the 2018 and 2021 editions, and the resulting occupant load. Business areas use 150 gross square feet per occupant, unconcentrated assembly with tables and chairs uses 15 net, and concentrated assembly with chairs only uses 7 net, so calling a room a training room instead of an office changes everything downstream.

Occupant load sets the number of exits under IBC Section 1006, the required egress width under Section 1005, and the plumbing fixture count. A life safety plan that gives the occupant load without the area and factor makes the reviewer redo the math.

The plan traces the longest path from the most remote point to an exit, following the actual route around walls and fixed furniture, and labels its length. IBC Table 1017.2 sets the limit by occupancy and sprinkler status, such as 300 feet for a sprinklered business occupancy, and Section 1006 limits the common path of egress travel before two separate paths are available.

Exit separation is drawn too. Where two exits are required, IBC Section 1007 requires them to be separated by at least one-third of the overall diagonal of the area in a sprinklered building, or one-half without sprinklers, and the plan shows both the diagonal and the measured separation.

Fire barriers around exit stairs and shafts, fire partitions at corridors where required, smoke barriers, and fire walls each get a distinct line pattern and a legend with their rating. IBC Table 716.1(2) then sets the required fire protection rating of the doors in those walls.

Ratings on the life safety plan, the wall types, and the door schedule are the three a reviewer reads side by side. A 1-hour corridor on the life safety plan whose doors the door schedule lists as non-rated, instead of 20 minute doors, is a routine comment.

Hospitals and nursing homes are designed so patients can be defended in place, so NFPA 101 divides each floor of new healthcare occupancies into smoke compartments of no more than 22,500 square feet, with travel distance to a smoke barrier door of no more than 200 feet. The life safety plan shows each compartment and every barrier door.

Because surveyors compare existing facilities against these drawings, a renovation is expected to update the life safety plan for the whole affected floor, not only the area of work. Surveyors also look above the ceiling to confirm the smoke barriers shown on the drawing actually exist.

Fire extinguishers are placed so no point is more than 75 feet of travel from a Class A extinguisher under NFPA 10 in light and ordinary hazard areas. Exit signs are placed so the way out is visible from any point in the exit access, and IBC Section 1013.1 keeps every point in an exit access corridor within 100 feet of the nearest visible sign.

Areas of refuge and other accessible means of egress under IBC Section 1009, fire department connections, standpipe locations, and the fire alarm control panel are often shown as well, so the fire marshal can check access and wayfinding on one sheet.