ICC publishes Building Code fire provisions in Spanish

Building code provisions published in Spanish

The International Code Council (ICC) has published Spanish language fire safety provisions drawn from the International Building Code (IBC), creating a route for jurisdictions to move toward future use of the full code.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) said the document, titled Aspectos Esenciales de Seguridad Contra Incendios, was developed to reduce barriers to IBC adoption in Latin America.

The publication extracts fire safety design provisions from the IBC and adds expert commentary in Spanish.

It is intended for countries and jurisdictions that may lack the resources or capacity to implement the full IBC and have prioritised fire and life safety in buildings.

Jurisdictions that adopt the language in the document can transition to the full IBC in future.

Building Code market figures and wider interest

ITA said the work was a key deliverable of ICC’s Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP), which it supported for five years.

The fire and life safety provisions can be paired with structural or material design standards published by U.S.-domiciled international standards developers including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

According to the source material, adoption of the fire safety provisions alone would increase the likelihood of U.S. sales to the $3B Latin America market for fire safety products such as sprinkler systems.

Adoption of the full IBC would open access to a $584B Latin American market for the wider range of building products.

The source material also states that officials in Brazil, Syria and several Southeast Asian countries have expressed interest in future editions in Portuguese, Arabic and other languages.

For Southeast Asia, the market for fire safety products is listed at $34B, with the broader market for all building materials put at $539B.