With the release last month of the new NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the anticipated battle of building codes is officially under way.
NFPA's document will compete with the International Code Council's (ICC) International Building Code (IBC), initially published in 2000 and championed by a coalition that includes the American Institute of Architects, BOMA International and the Associated General Contractors. The IBC is a single document designed to supersede the codes of the three U.S. model code organizations — Country Club Hills, Ill.-based Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Building Code Congress International, and the Whittier, Calif.-based International Conference of Building Officials.
NFPA dropped a bombshell in March 2000 when it announced it would also develop a building code — an action that the coalition was unable to dissuade. NFPA said it decided to develop NFPA 5000 to offer the industry an ANSI-accredited, consensus-based alternative.
Some observers also see a financial motivation, in the form of increased document sales, behind NFPA's decision. The association derived 64% of its income from the sale of publications last year.
Michael Fountain, associate vice president of Kansas City, Mo.-based A/E HNTB, expressed the dismay of the coalition at NFPA's decision to proceed with the development of a building code, following a decade-long industry effort to foster code unification.¹