[labnetwork] gas room means of egress

[Lavallee, Guy P.]

Iulian,
   We just finished the build of our new facility here at PSU and I have a quick comment on the consultant's interpretation.  We found that different consultants can have significantly different reads on the building / fire codes in your local.   This is critical to understand from an owners standpoint because in the end a bad interpretation can come back to bite you.  We had several issues related to consultants especially as it related to the Hazard Class rating of the facility and had to push hard to get the ones we questioned reviewed by other independent consultants.

  Here at PSU our HPM room has more than one egress door but that was based on the design / layout and one code consultants interpretation of the room.  Having more than one egress point from a hazardous room seems logical but may not be practical or efficient based on its footprint.  In the end you have to go through different scenarios that may occur in the room and how one would safely exit.  If you determine there is a situation that could occur and having only one door would be detrimental than that would be a good reason to have a second egress door even though code only says you need one.  Obviously in a situation like this it comes down to cost justification.

Guy


Penn State University's Nanofabrication Laboratory
Lead Etch Engineer
Materials Research Institute
N-105 Millennium Science Complex (MSC Bldg)
University Park, PA 16802
Email: gpl107 at psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-9339
Cell: 814-777-0719

From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis Schweiger
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 7:48 PM
To: Iulian Codreanu
Cc: Fab Network
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] gas room means of egress

Iulian,

we have a single egress door from our flammable gas storage room, but there are two doors from our toxic gas room.  One to the outside of the building, and one to the inside.  Their proximity to each other (about 2 feet) though doesn't really meet with the egress layout you had in mind though.  I'm guessing you're thinking about opposite ends of the storage locations.
Dennis

734.647.2055 Ofc



On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 11:32 AM, Iulian Codreanu <codreanu at udel.edu<mailto:codreanu at udel.edu>> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,

I am trying to influence a decision on a second means of egress from the gas room at the University of Delaware and your input is very much appreciated.

This is the room where the cabinets for toxic, flammable, and pyrophoric as well as some panels for inert gases will be located.  The room is adjacent to and separated from the cleanroom by a fire rated wall (I was told it is at least two hours-rated).  The code consultant states that a second means of egress is not needed for this H2 occupancy room but I feel it is a must.

How many doors does your gas room have?

Thank you very much.

Iulian
--
iulian Codreanu, Ph.D.
Director of Operations, UD Nanofab
University of Delaware

_______________________________________________
labnetwork mailing list
labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu<mailto:labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mtl.mit.edu/pipermail/labnetwork/attachments/20121106/1614e56f/attachment.html>