Egress Through Fire Wall Used Fir Area Separation

[Adrienne]

The code allows you to use a fire wall to consider a portion of the building as a separate building for building area calculations. When this is done, are you allowed to have egress through the fire wall to share an exit or does each separate "building" need to have the required 2 exits?

 

[RLGA]

Fire walls comply with all of the requirements for horizontal exits, so doorways through a fire wall can be considered exits. If egress is neccessary to pass in both directions, then the door swings will need to comply with Section 1010.1.2.1 (2015 IBC). If the occupant load on each side is 50 or greater, then the doors must swing in the direction of egress travel, thus, one leaf will need to swing in one direction and the other leaf needs to swing in the opposite direction. You'll also need to provide the required refuge area on each side of the horizontal exit.

 

[Adrienne]

Thank you for your response Ron. Now if the building wouldn't otherwise need a horizontal exit, would the fire wall still need to be considered a horizontal exit? Or could you continue the path of egress through the fire wall to the exit door? Then you wouldn't need to worry about the required refuge area. This is assuming you would be withing the exit access travel distance requirements.

 

[RLGA]

No, a fire wall does not need to be considered a horizontal exit.