Impairment coordinator: Definition and What It Means for Your Property

A role the code assumes you have already filled

The International Fire Code, in section 901.7, expects the building owner to assign an impairment coordinator before anything goes wrong. In most Houston buildings the role falls to the chief engineer, the property manager or the facilities director, and it often falls to them by default, at 6 p.m. on a Friday, when a contractor calls to say the riser is closed and will stay closed until Monday. The buildings that handle that call well are the ones where the coordinator’s name, phone and duties were written down in advance.

What the coordinator does

Before a planned shutdown the coordinator confirms the scope and duration, notifies the fire department and the fire code official, notifies the alarm monitoring company and the insurance carrier where the policy requires it, arranges the fire watch or the evacuation the official calls for, and makes sure extinguishers and hose stations in the affected area are in place. During the impairment the coordinator keeps the tags on the equipment, keeps the watch informed of the area affected, and keeps the repair moving. After restoration the coordinator sees the system tested, removes the tags, notifies everyone who was told it was down and files the fire watch log with the building’s records.

Where Price Protection fits

The coordinator directs; the fire watch executes. When a coordinator calls dispatch, we ask for the address, the system that is down, the floors or areas affected, the expected duration, the round interval the fire marshal or the coordinator wants and the number to call if the watch finds something. The officers arrive with the log and the post orders drawn from that call, and the coordinator receives the log when the impairment closes. The impairment coordinators article describes how to set the role up before you need it.