Local Fire and Life Safety Code

Fire and life safety is especially challenging in high rise buildings. While many buildings were constructed under modern codes that contained key fire and life safety elements in their design and construction, older buildings were built before the advent of such code features.

The City of Chicago's Life Safety and High Rise Sprinkler Ordinances is designed to provide additional fire and life safety measure in pre-1975 high-rise buildings as well to ensure all high rise buildings observe more stringent and effective safety measures.

Fire safety measures required by the ordinance include active and passive means of combating fires. This includes the building's ability to contain a fire to its place of origin using passive means, such as fire-rated walls, doors and ceilings, and the ability to extinguish a fire by active means, such as Fire Department intervention or a sprinkler system. Fire Safety is also determined by the endurance of existing fire barriers, such as doors or walls, and the ability of the building’s structural frame to withstand exposure to fire without failure.