How many feet in a mile? How many square feet in a smoke compartment?

I recently came across a survey finding that I thought would be worth sharing with the class. In this particular survey, an organization was cited because it had not identified the square footage of their smoke compartments on its life safety drawings (this was a Direct Impact finding relative to maintaining a current e-SOC). In looking over the information published in the October 2012 issue of Perspectives (See the highlight box on p. 12 entitled “What to Include in Life Safety Code Drawings.” Please check it out if you have not yet done so; anything that shows up in Perspectives is enforceable as a standard!), I clearly see that there is a requirement to include the square footage of any areas designated as suites.

The only mention of smoke compartments indicates that they are required to be identified by location, but there is no mention of the square footage. Now this would seem to be a case of a surveyor interpreting (perhaps even over-interpreting) a requirement based on information that has not appeared in either the standards manual or in Perspectives (square footage for smoke compartments isn’t mentioned in the February 2012 issue of Environment of Care News either). I think this would be a good survey finding with which to practice using the clarification process and I suspect that the organization in question is going to make good use of that process.