Life Safety Doesn't End When Construction Does
Buildings are designed with multiple layers of protection to safeguard occupants during emergencies, but those safeguards are only effective when facility managers and employees preserve them through proper maintenance, training, and day-to-day operations.
- By Jeremy R. Abbott
- Sep 14, 2026
Throughout my nearly 30-year career in occupational health and safety, I have learned an important lesson: most building safety features are invisible until something goes wrong.
People notice a fire extinguisher on the wall or an exit sign above a doorway, but few stop to think about why a hallway is a certain width, why a stairwell is enclosed, or why a fire door must remain closed. These features are often taken for granted because they quietly perform their function every day without drawing attention to themselves.
The reality is that modern buildings are the result of decades of lessons learned from fires, structural failures, emergency evacuations, and tragic incidents that revealed weaknesses in how facilities were designed and operated. Many of the requirements we see today in building codes and life safety standards exist because someone, somewhere, was injured or killed when those protections did not exist.
That is the foundation of NFPA Life Safety.
More Than Just Fire Protection
When many people hear the term "life safety," they immediately think of fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, or sprinkler systems. While those elements are certainly important, life safety encompasses much more.
The National Fire Protection Association's Life Safety Code is designed around a simple objective: ensuring occupants can safely escape from a building during an emergency while minimizing the risk of injury or loss of life.
Life safety principles address occupant protection through multiple layers of defense. These include means of egress, emergency lighting, fire barriers, smoke control systems, occupancy limits, fire detection systems, and many other features that work together as a complete system.
No single feature is expected to protect occupants on its own. Instead, buildings are designed so that multiple safeguards function simultaneously. If one layer fails, another layer provides additional protection.
This layered approach is one reason modern buildings are significantly safer than those constructed decades ago.
Why Codes Exist
One of the most common misconceptions I encounter is the belief that building codes are arbitrary requirements created by regulators. In reality, most code requirements are rooted in history.
Many significant changes to building and fire codes followed major incidents where investigations identified factors that contributed to injuries or fatalities. Investigators examined what happened, determined why occupants were unable to escape safely, and used those findings to improve future building design requirements.
As safety professionals, we often perform root cause analysis after workplace incidents. Building codes are, in many ways, the result of society performing root cause analysis on a much larger scale.
Over time, lessons learned become standards. Standards become codes. Codes become laws and regulations intended to prevent history from repeating itself.
Understanding this connection helps facility managers appreciate that code requirements are not obstacles to overcome. They are safeguards developed through decades of experience and hard-earned lessons.
The Designed and Built Concept
One of the most valuable lessons I learned from a Facility Manager during my career was a simple phrase: "designed and built."
At first glance, the phrase seems self-explanatory. However, it captures an important principle in facility safety. Buildings are intentionally designed and built to protect occupants. Architects, engineers, code officials, fire protection specialists, and contractors work together to create facilities that meet applicable safety requirements and provide multiple layers of protection during emergencies.
Exit routes are carefully planned. Fire-rated barriers are strategically incorporated into the design. Occupancy loads are calculated. Fire detection and suppression systems are installed, tested, and maintained. None of these features exist by accident. They are part of a coordinated safety strategy developed long before the first occupant enters the building.
The phrase "designed and built" serves as a reminder that many of the safety features people encounter every day are the result of deliberate planning, engineering, and lessons learned from past incidents.
At the moment a certificate of occupancy is issued, the facility is generally considered compliant with applicable building and life safety requirements. It has been designed and built to provide a reasonable level of protection for its intended occupants.
Unfortunately, that is often where the problems begin.
When Safety Features Are Defeated
Over time, people become comfortable with their surroundings. Convenience begins to compete with safety.
A fire door gets wedged open because employees are tired of walking around it.
Storage begins accumulating in an exit corridor.
Electrical rooms become convenient storage areas.
Extension cords become permanent wiring solutions.
An exit route is partially blocked because "it is only temporary."
Each individual action may seem minor. Yet every modification chips away at the protections that were intentionally designed into the facility.
Most people understand that disabling a smoke detector because of a nuisance alarm creates unnecessary risk.
However, facilities often face similar challenges when life safety features are bypassed for convenience. Fire doors are wedged open, exit corridors become storage areas, and temporary workarounds gradually become accepted practice. Over time, these seemingly small changes can erode the protections that were intentionally designed and built into the facility.
Yet facility modifications are often made by individuals whose expertise lies outside facility management, life safety, or fire protection. Occupancy layouts are changed, exits become obstructed, and protective systems are altered without fully understanding the role those features play in the building's overall life safety strategy. The result is a facility that no longer functions as originally designed.
The Human Factor
One of the greatest threats to life safety is not necessarily equipment failure. It is human behavior. Most life safety systems are remarkably reliable when properly maintained. The larger challenge often involves ensuring occupants respect and preserve those systems.
Training plays a critical role. Employees should understand not only what the rules are, but why they exist.
When workers understand that a fire door is designed to slow smoke and fire spread, they are less likely to prop it open. When they understand that exit corridors must remain clear to facilitate evacuation, they are less likely to store materials there.
Knowledge creates ownership. Ownership supports compliance.
Maintaining the Safety That Was Built In
Facility safety should not be viewed as a one-time design effort completed during construction. It is an ongoing process that requires continuous attention.
Routine inspections, preventive maintenance programs, life safety assessments, and employee training all help ensure facilities continue operating as intended.
The goal is not simply to comply with regulations. The goal is to preserve the protections that were deliberately incorporated into the building from the beginning.
Every blocked exit, compromised fire barrier, or disabled safety feature creates a gap between how a facility was designed and how it actually functions.
That gap is where risk grows.
Final Thoughts
The safest buildings are the buildings where occupants understand, respect, and maintain the life safety features that have already been provided.
NFPA Life Safety principles represent decades of lessons learned from real-world incidents. They are incorporated into codes because experience has repeatedly demonstrated their value.
Buildings are carefully designed and constructed to protect occupants during emergencies. Our responsibility as safety professionals, facility managers, supervisors, and building occupants is to ensure those protections remain intact.
After all, a facility may be safe on paper, but true safety depends on what happens after the ribbon-cutting ceremony is over. When questions arise about life safety features, building modifications, occupancy changes, or facility use, engage your organization's facility management and life safety subject matter experts. Listen to their recommendations, seek to understand the purpose behind existing requirements, and view them as partners in protecting occupants. The safest facilities are often those where operational needs and life safety considerations work together, not in competition with one another.
This article originally appeared in the September 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.