7. FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS Fire alarm systems shall be installed in buildings when required by
Section 1 of this document.
7.1 Purpose:
A. The primary purpose of a fire alarm system is to notify the appropriate people and initiate the
proper response from those people who are notified.
B. The secondary purpose is to initiate fire safety functions which are building and fire control
functions that are intended to increase the level of safety for occupants or to control the
spread of the harmful effects of fire.
7.2 General Requirements:
A. The fire alarm system shall be designed to meet the requirements contained in NFPA 72,
National Fire Alarm Code, and this manual.
B. For the purposes of this manual, VA facilities will fall into one of the following three
categories:
Note: The proper categorization of a building or area of a building will help to identify
the type of notification required as well as the correct placement of notification
appliances as indicated later in this section.
1. Health Care (excluding free standing Ambulatory Health Care)
2. High Rise, non-Health Care
3. Other, including free standing Ambulatory Health Care
C. Do not combine fire alarm systems with other systems such as building automation, energy
management, security, etc. Down time caused by any of these non-life safety systems will
also take the fire alarm system out of service. This is not acceptable to the VA.
D. Wiring for local building fire alarm systems shall be specified as defined in NFPA 72 as
follows:
Initiating Device Circuits (IDC): Style B (Class B).
Signaling Line Circuits (SLC): Style 4.0 (Class B).
Notification Appliance Circuits (NAC): Style Y (Class B).
Communications between buildings shall be Style 7 (Class A) signaling line circuits.
Note: Class B signaling line circuits (these are not initiating device circuits by
definition) are preferable for local building fire alarm systems because it permits the
circuits to be t-tapped and the allowable length of the circuits are not shortened. No
clear advantage is seen for running Class A circuits except where signaling line circuits
are run between buildings. Where signaling line circuits are run between buildings,
Style 7 circuits are required. These will require the installation of isolation modules
which will ensure that only one building is lost (would not respond) during any type of
fault.
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