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Hyperbaric chambers?

steveray

steveray

SAWHORSE
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Messages
11,751
Location
West of the river CT
Anyone ever have experience with these? We have a couple coming in at an existing med facility, and we are wondering about life safety, wether or not they are upping to an I, or at least group B medical....any other thoughts or concerns??? Thanks in advance!
 
Piece of machinery, not much special

Do a search it came up awhile back

One thing that maybe associated with it is cryogenic tanks and requirements for those

Would call it a " B " unless all ready in an "I" setting
 
A Hyperbaric chamber Is an appliance

You have compressed gas and electrical hook ups

Most state health departments conduct a review for chambers located in a buildings under a hospital's license
 
I would think of considering it as an I-2 use if they had more than 5 chambers.
 
I Would call it a " B "

The chambers can be easily be opened from the inside as well as the outside

People are typically ambulatory, much like a MRI machine
 
Thanks all!.....the concerns/ discussion that was going on here and with the FM were mainly focused on the egress issues or if would end up changing the use due to incapable of self preservation....I keep having visions of the old chambers they used to treat the bends and whatnot that people may not be able to get out of in a hurry....and the contractor does not have very good answers for our questions...
 
These pose some unique fire challenges as they can operate in a pure oxygen atmosphere at elevated pressure up to 6 bars which greatly accellerates combustion rates and combustibility of materials.

Some use 100 percent oxgen atmoshpere, others use air with oxygen hood or mask for patients.

There is a delay in egress, as the unit has to be depressurized before the door can be opened.

Does not change use group but is a special hazard in its own right.

Think of the Apollo 1 fire and that craft was 100% oxygen at only 1 bar.
 
JustReid said:
IBC 2009 Edition added a section 407.9 Hyperbaric facilities (under I-2) which references NFPA 99.
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Hyperbaric facilities in Group I-2 occupancies shall meet the requirements contained in Chapter 20 of NFPA 99.

It does not classify them AS Group I-2 occupancies
 
mark handler said:
Hyperbaric facilities in Group I-2 occupancies shall meet the requirements contained in Chapter 20 of NFPA 99. It does not classify them AS Group I-2 occupancies
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I agree with this. I should have provided more info.

I think NFPA 99 would be a good resource even for one of these installed in a grourp B. For what the OP is looking for, I think that NFPA 99 Chapter 20 provides a lot of applicable information regardless of the occupancy it is in. Much of the things in NFPA 99 Chapter 20 deal with the life safety aspect of these appliances like fire alarm notification within and electrical classification in the oxygen rich environment. They usually can not rapidly decompress the thing, even if the person inside is capable of self preservation, so they might be able to find some useful life safety info in 99.
 
gbhammer said:
I would think of considering it as an I-2 use if they had more than 5 chambers.
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I should have clarified this with if they have 24 hour care, care for more than 5 patients, and if any (even one) of their patients is not ambulatory. We are on the 2003 for another couple months; the 2009 does not have the exception for 5 or fewer patients.
 
Thanks again all.....I will have to ask one of the FM's if they have NFPA 99...we do not in our office...I know you can see them online, but that is kinda a PITA......

CDA......application just came in and I am not reviewing it at this point we are just kicking stuff around now...I am not sure about sprinklers at that building....only been in town about a year and can't put all the buildings to the addresses yet.....I think it is one of our 5B, multi tenant, medical buildings....
 
You will also have get information on the chambers themselves; there are Class A and Class B chambers. I don't have all the info infront of me but essentially a Class A chambers is a multiple patient enclosure and requires fire resistive construction to separate it from the rest of the building. Class B's are single patient and require no separation. Found additional info just searching the web. There is also signage and portable extinguisher requirements.
 
Ambulatory health care at a minimum. The chamber occupant isn't capable of self-presurvation and you can't just blow th hatch and pull them out without seriously injuring or killing them.
 
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