NFPA CFI-I case studies
NFPA CFI-I · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The NFPA Certified Fire Inspector I (CFI-I) is a professional credential offered within the NFPA certification program, and it is aimed at people who conduct fire inspections - typically code enforcement officers, fire prevention personnel, and inspectors working for fire departments or authorities having jurisdiction. Candidates usually arrive with field experience in fire prevention and a working knowledge of the model fire and life safety codes that inspections are measured against. The NFPA CFI-I case studies are 5 cases and about 4,917 words.
1Banquet Hall Conversion: Occupant Load and Egress Capacity When Seating Is Not Fixed
You are assigned a change-of-occupancy inspection of a 6,000 sq ft gross, single-story, Type V-B former retail space being converted to a banquet hall. The building has no sprinkler system and no fire alarm system.
1,026 words, about 5 min2Sprinkler Impairment and Unpermitted Hot Work in an Occupied Strip Mall
You respond to a complaint at a 12,000 sq ft tenant space in a 1980s strip mall being fast-tracked into a fitness studio. On arrival you find: the sprinkler control valve serving the tenant's branch line is closed and tagged, but the tag is undated and names no impairment coordinator; the general contractor says the sprinkler fitter will return "in a day or two." Two workers are cutting duct openings with an oxy-fuel torch roughly 10 ft from a pile of flattened cardboard; there is no hot work permit, no fire watch, and a 20 lb ABC extinguisher is on the far side of the space, unpressurized.
971 words, about 5 min3Auto Body Shop: Flammable Liquid Quantities, Containers, and Control Areas
During a routine inspection of a 4,000 sq ft, two-bay auto body and repair shop in a masonry building with no sprinkler system, you find: one 55 gal drum of a solvent labeled with a flash point of 20 F, bung open, with a rotary hand pump and no bonding or grounding visible; 12 unopened 5 gal metal pails of a liquid with a flash point of 110 F stacked against a gas-fired unit heater; four 1 gal cans of the 20 F solvent in use with lids off on a workbench next to a bench grinder; and a mop sink used to rinse spray guns. The owner says the drum has been there "for years" and that a supplier delivers it because the shop uses about 10 gal a week.
1,014 words, about 5 min4Existing Hotel: Unmonitored Fire Alarm, Inaudible Notification, and a Missing Appliance
You are inspecting a four-story, 120-room existing hotel built in the early 1990s. The building is sprinklered and has an addressable fire alarm system with corridor smoke detection and horn/strobe notification.
967 words, about 5 min5ESFR Warehouse: Storage Height and Commodity Changes After the Original Design
A 240,000 sq ft single-story distribution warehouse was permitted with an ESFR sprinkler system: K-25 pendent sprinklers at 30 ft above the floor under a 32 ft deck, design basis shown on the hydraulic nameplate as 25 ft maximum storage height of Class III commodity in single-row racks with 8 ft aisles. During an inspection following a tenant change, you find the racking reconfigured to store cartons of expanded polystyrene packaging (Group A plastic) in double-row racks filled to 29 ft, with some pallets banded at 29 ft and clearance to deflectors reduced to roughly 22 in.
939 words, about 5 min