Occupancy examples in the listings as shown in the various hazard classifications are
intended to represent the norm for those occupancy types. Unusual or abnormal fuel loadings or
combustible characteristics and susceptibility for changes in these characteristics, for a
particular occupancy, are considerations that should be weighed in the
selection and NFPA 13 Hazard classification classification.
The light hazard classification is intended to encompass residential occupancies; however,
this is not intended to preclude the use of listed residential sprinklers in residential
occupancies or residential portions of other occupancies.
Other NFPA standards contain design criteria for fire control or fire suppression (see
Section 5.5 and Chapter 2). While these can form the basis of design criteria, this standard
describes the methods of design, installation, fabrication, calculation, and evaluation of water
supplies that should be used for the specific design of the system.
Other NFPA standards contain sprinkler system design criteria for fire control or suppression of
specific hazards. This information has been either referenced or copied into
Chapter l3 using NFPA’s extract policy.
Specification of the type, amount, and arrangement of combustibles for any
commodity classification is essentially an attempt to define the potential fire severity, based on
its burning characteristics, so the fire can be successfully controlled by the prescribed sprinkler
protection for the commodity class. In actual storage situations, however, many storage arrays do
not fit precisely into one of the fundamental classifications; therefore, the user needs to make
judgments after comparing each classification to the existing storage
