William E. Koffel, PE, FSFPE, Koffel Associates, Columbia, Md.
William E. Koffel is president of Koffel Associates. He is chair of the NFPA Correlating Committee on Life Safety and a member of several NFPA technical committees. He is a member of the Consulting-Specifying Engineer editorial advisory board.
Articles
Which fire alarm signal should be used?
Fire alarm signals should be based on response, not on the type of device
Case study: Hospital sprinkler system
A retrofit sprinkler system in a hospital required additional waterflow switches
Case study: Reducing the impact of nuisance alarms
By using the correct type of programming, smoke detectors initiated a supervisory signal instead of nuisance alarms
Passive fire protection offers safety measures
A passive fire protection system, while sometimes omitted, is vital to occupants’ life safety
Case study: Using a hotel as an alternate care site
According to this study, there are both challenges and solutions when converting hotel rooms to hospitals
NFPA 101 and COVID-19
Engineers need to consider the public health and life safety issues of reopening a building after COVID-19
COVID-19 podcast: Alternate care sites and temporary construction
Specific issues to be discussed is using Chapter 19 of NFPA 101 as the baseline, building construction, sprinkler protection, fire alarm and detection systems, the use of suite provisions, acceptance testing and more.
COVID-19 podcast: Operational considerations
This podcast discusses operational considerations and challenges health care facilities are facing during the COVID-19 emergency.
COVID-19 podcast: Resources available to the healthcare community
The podcast highlights the resources that are available on the websites of the Corps of Engineers, CMMS, Joint Commission, DNVGL, Center for Health Design, ASHE, and NFPA.
How NFPA 101 defines building egress
NFPA 101: Life Safety Code provides fire protection engineers many resources for designing safe egress, along with several other life safety options