- This procedure shall be used for determining fireflow requirements for all
buildings or portions of buildings hereafter constructed. This section is not intended to
apply to structures other than buildings.
- The fireflow requirement is the quantity of water in gallons per minute, measured
at 20 psi residual pressure, that is available for fire fighting.
- Fire area is the total floor area in square feet for all floor levels within the
exterior walls, or under the horizontal projection of the roof of a building. Each
portion of a building separated by one or more four-hour area separation walls
with no openings and provided with a 30" parapet constructed in accordance with the
Building Code may be considered as separate fire areas for the purposes of
determining the required fire flow.
- The fire flow shall be not less than that specified in Table 1-03-A.
Exception: Fire flow may be reduced up to 75% when the building is provided with an
approved automatic sprinkler system throughout, but in no case less than 1500
gallons per minute.
- In types I and II F. R. Construction, only the three largest successive floor areas
shall be used.
- When design begins for any new construction that is to be supplied from the campus
water distribution system, the Campus Fire Marshal and Physical Plant-Campus
Services (PP-CS) both need to be notified by the project manager. They will review
water needs of the project to determine the best possible point of connection to
the system, and to specify the appropriate fire hydrant flow test(s) to confirm the
available flow.
Hydrant flow tests shall be conducted using the methods outlined in NFPA Standard
#291.
All fire hydrant flow tests are to be performed by a licensed Fire Protection
Engineer or other qualified consultant and are to be paid for by the project
manager. It is recommended that PP-CS and UCFPD be present at all fire hydrant
flow tests. For off-campus sites, UCFPD will coordinate with the Berkeley Fire
Department for fire hydrant flow data and/or tests.
