- Author
- Weber, S. F. | Schultz, L. I.
- Title
- Minimizing Compliance Costs of the Life Safety Code for Prisons. BFRL Fire Research Seminar. VHS Video.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- Video, March 13, 2001,
- Keywords
- life safety code | costs | prisons
- Abstract
- ALARM, Alternative Life Safety Analysis for Retrofit Cost Minimization, is a software tool that helps facility managers and fire safety engineers achieve cost-effective compliance with the widely-used Life Safety Code (LSC) of the National Fire Protection Association. The latest version of the software (2.0) supports analysis of Detention and Correctional Occupancies. Through a special provision of the LSC, ALARM implements a flexible, goal-oriented approach to code compliance. The user specifies the current safety levels of the facility for 13 life safety parameters and enters construction dimensions for potential safety improvements. The software shows whether the current safety levels are in compliance with the code and, if not, quickly finds the least-cost compliance strategy and its estimated construction cost. The optimization method uses a zero-one integer programming model with customized Boolean equations to take into account the many interdependencies among safety parameters introduced by the footnotes of the LSC. The optimization method used in ALARM has been field tested in 89 hospitals (17,898 beds). For this sample the least-cost solution identified by the software was on average 41 percent less expensive than the prescriptive solution. This represents a potential cost savings of $2,116 per bed or more than $37 million. The authors plan to apply the model and software to business occupancies.