No.
2007-11 March 13, 2007
U.S. Fire Administration / National Fire Academy
Coffee Break Training
Topic: Means of Egress Illumination
Learning objective: The student shall be able to describe the minimum pathway
lighting requirements for normal conditions.
T he means of egress walking paths through a building must be illuminated
at all times the building space served by that means of egress is occupied.
The lighting requirements are intended to provide the minimum illumination
needed for a person to navigate through a building under all conditions, so that
person doesn’t bump into objects or trip and fall over unseen obstructions.
Generally, the minimum required illumination in the means of egress is
one foot-candle (or lux in SI units). Originally the “foot-candle” was
the luminance at 1 foot from a standard candle, then at 1 foot from an
international candle. It was then defined as the luminance
produced by 1 lumen of “luminous flux” evenly distributed
over a square foot. It is measured using a standard light meter
employed for incident light measurement.
The major model codes have one major difference in the
requirements for illumination of new stairs. The NFPA codes
require new stairs to have not less than 10 foot-candles of
illumination on the walking surface when the stairs are in use.
The following table summarizes the means of egress illumination requirements
from the codes.
NFPA 1 and 101 IFC/IBC
foot-candle (lux) foot-candle (lux)
New stairs 10 (108) 1 (10.8)
Floors and walking surfaces, other than new stairs 1 (10.8) 1 (10.8)
Assembly occupancies during performances 0.2 (2.2) 0.2 (2.2)
Remember that these requirements are for means of egress lighting during
normal conditions. Emergency lighting requirements will differ.
For additional information, see NFPA 1, Uniform Fire Code™, Chapter 14;
International Fire Code®, Chapter 10; or NFPA 101, Life Safety Code®, Chapter 7.
Egress For archived downloads, go to: www.usfa.dhs.gov/nfa/coffee-break/
