In Oct. 2001, significant technical issues were brought before the NFPA 13 Hanging and Bracing Technical Committee, which related to the seismic design criteria of NFPA 13 and its use and reference in the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) recommendations and the requirements of ASCE 7. However, at that point in the 2002 NFPA 13 revision process, those issues represented new material that could not be addressed during the current NFPA 13 revision process. Those technical issues had the potential to impact the acceptability of NFPA 13 as the appropriate document when establishing the seismic design requirements for automatic fire sprinkler systems.
Since those issues had the potential to impact the acceptability of the NFPA 13 requirements in areas where seismic design was required, a Seismic Task Group was formed at the conclusion of the Report on Comments meeting and included representatives from the Hanging and Bracing committee and several seismic experts from across the country. This task group worked extensively to address the seismic design requirements within NFPA 13 and to ensure that the concerns of NEHRP and ASCE 7 were addressed. The task group met three times between late 2001 and the spring of 2003.