By: Ray Grill, PE, FSFPE, Arup, Washington, D.C.

NFPA 72 includes risk analsys, which covers natural, technological, and manmade disasters-and addresses scenarios of conern, probability, and potential consequences.

In the fire alarm community, there has been a lot of discussion about mass notification. The incorporation of mass notification systems (MNS) in buildings first got attention after the Dept. of Defense (DoD) began requiring the installation of such systems as a result of the attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996.

Khobar Towers provided housing for the U.S. Air Force, Saudi Air Force, and other military. The explosion – detonated outside of this high-rise residential building caused 20 fatalities.

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