The following request is regarding three glass garage roll-up doors that are proposed for this Rescue Station Apparatus Bay. Due to tight site conditions and a shared apparatus exit drive path; it is important safety requirement that glass doors be provided that allow for a line of sight to the adjacent, existing fire station. Exiting dispatched Rescue trucks must have full view of the vehicles in the parking lot and other exiting fire apparatus that both share the common travel pathway. The space is heated and ventilated but not mechanically cooled. This is a garage for the storage of vehicles and will not be heated to the same level as the main building. A total of six 12ft wide by 14ft high, roll-up doors are to be provided; three of the proposed doors, used for entrance, are to be a highly insulated product. In order to provide the required high visibility for the exiting emergency vehicles the three, exit roll-up fire apparatus doors are proposed to be aluminum framed glass doors with a solid bottom panel. No aluminum and glass garage door had been tested to the standards required (NFRC and/or DASMA105) according to review with installers, manufacturers and the Door and Access Systems Manufacturers Association. We are requesting an exemption from the rating requirements for these exit garage doors for the following reasons: 1. Glass doors are required to provide visibility for exiting Rescue Apparatus. 2. No testing data is available for glass roll up doors. 3. The rear doors are highly insulated and we believe the average of all six doors is sufficient to pass the thermal requirements.
The project team is requesting clarification regarding being granted an exemption for meeting the standards for the exit garage doors of their Rescue Apparatus Bay. The reasons provided for exempting the doors from the testing requirement is that no testing data is available for glass roll up doors. This is acceptable given the special circumstances of this case, because these doors are located in a garage which is an unoccupied space, and they open to the outdoors rather than to an occupied space. The project submittal should provide information justifying why NFRC 400 air leakage testing is not feasible for the doors in question as well as photographs/drawings of the tight site conditions to demonstrate that glass doors must be used for safety reasons. In order for the project to exempt the manufactured doors from the requirements, the following criteria must be met: 1. The doors required are unavailable are certified to meet the NFRC 400 requirements. 2. The manufactured doors exempted open directly to spaces less than 3,000 square feet of building area. 3. At least 85% of the doors for the project meet the Door air leakage labeling requirements.