1.1 This is a guide to developing fire hazard assessments for upholstered seating furniture, within patient rooms of health care occupancies. As such, it provides methods and contemporary fire safety engineering techniques to develop a fire hazard assessment for use in specifications for upholstered seating furniture in such occupancies.

1.2 Hazard assessment is an estimation of the potential severity of the fires that can develop with certain products in defined scenarios, once the incidents have occurred. Hazard assessment does not address the likelihood of a fire occurring, but is based on the premise that an ignition has occurred.

1.3 Because it is a guide, this document cannot be used for regulation, nor does it give definitive instructions on how to conduct a fire hazard assessment.

1.4 This guide is intended to provide assistance to those interested in mitigating the potential damage from fires associated with upholstered furniture in patient rooms in health care occupancies.

1.5 Thus, this guide can be used to help assess the fire hazard of materials, assemblies, or systems intended for use in upholstered furniture, by providing a standard basis for studying the level of fire safety associated with certain design choices. It can also aid those interested in designing features appropriate to health care occupancies. Finally, it may be useful to safety personnel in health care occupancies.

1.6 This guide is a focused application of Guide E 1546, which offers help in reference to fire scenarios that are specific to upholstered furniture in health care occupancies, and includes an extensive bibliography. It differs from Guide E 1546 in that it offers guidance that is specific to the issue of upholstered furniture in patient rooms of health care facilities, rather than general guidance. includes some statistics on the magnitude of the potential problem in the U.S.

1.7 A fire hazard assessment conducted in accordance with this guide is strongly dependent on the limitations in the factors described in .

1.7.1 Input data (including their precision or accuracy).

1.7.2 Appropriate test procedures.

1.7.3 Fire models or calculation procedures that are simultaneously relevant, accurate and appropriate.

1.7.4 Advancement of scientific knowledge.

1.8 This guide addresses specific fire scenarios which begin inside or outside of the patient room. However, the upholstered furniture under consideration is inside the patient room.

1.9 The fire scenarios used for this hazard assessment guide are described in . They involve the upholstered furniture item within the patient room as the first or second item ignited, in terms of the room of fire origin. Additionally, consideration should be given to the effect of the patient room upholstered furniture item on the tenability of occupants of rooms other than the room of fire origin, and on that of potential rescuers.

1.10 This guide does not claim to address all fires that can occur in patient rooms in health care occupancies. In particular, fires with more severe initiating conditions than those assumed in the analysis may pose more severe fire hazard than that calculated using this guide (see also 9.5).

1.11 This fire standard cannot be used to provide quantitative measures.