exceeding max occupancy of 50 persons visitor center hall ..
Hello,
Is there any exception to exceed maximum occupancy limit of a building? (In NFPA or other codes?)
We do have small event in our visitor center and we are expecting to exceed 50 persons (to around 130) but for certain hours of the day.. (around 6 hours or less)
We will increase security and ushers however would like to see if there is exceptions in the code to allow for such cases and if there is any recommendations or standard procedure to follow
Thank you all
Comments (2)
You might be okay...The maximum occupant load is the minimum number of people for which egress must be provided. When your building was designed, the engineer/architect planned uses for each space and thought "this hall might be occupied for up to 50 people, I better provide egress for at least that number". 50 is an important threshold because spaces occupied by 50 or more people are considered "assembly" occupancies and need additional egress and protection. Because of this, the space will likely accommodate more people.
The maximum number of people that can occupy a space is the number for which there exists proper egress.
https://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/publications-and-media/blogs-landing-page/nfpa-today/blog-posts/2016/08/05/nfpa-1-occupant-load-vs-egress-capacity-why-these-numbers-are-so-important-to-our-safety-firecodefridays
Your visitor center is probably classified as a group B occupancy. As Tim stated, these occupancies are limited to an occupant load of 50 or less. Significant differences exist between the fire safety requirements of Group B and the Group A assembly occupancies. Tim mentioned exiting requirements. So you are supposed to stay within the occupancy load requirements for the building.
If this is a one-time event, you might be able to get a variance from your local fire marshal. The only way to tell is to call and ask.