EDITORIAL STANDARDS · SAMEKTRA

How we write, cite, and check the code.

LifeSafetyWiki is a reference encyclopedia for practitioners — inspectors, facility managers, and the people who own the consequences of getting a code answer wrong. These are the rules we hold ourselves to.

1. Practitioner-first, always

Every article is written for the person standing in front of the panel, the fire door, the sprinkler riser — not for the person writing a policy binder. If a section has to choose between comprehensive and useful in the field, useful wins.

2. Cite the standard directly, verbatim never

We name NFPA / IBC / IFC / OSHA / CMS / TJC sections directly. We do not reproduce their copyrighted text. Summaries are practitioner-voice paraphrase written to preserve the requirement, not the wording.

Why: NFPA, ICC, and other standards-writing bodies retain copyright on the language of their codes. Reproducing full sections would violate that. Our job is to explain what a section requires in plain English and point you back to the source so you can verify the exact wording yourself.

3. Edition awareness is not optional

Codes change. So does what your state has adopted. A section number can mean different things in the 2012, 2018, and 2024 editions of NFPA 101 — and CMS enforces the 2012 edition for healthcare regardless of what Georgia adopts. Every code citation we publish is tagged with the edition it applies to; Clara (our AI assistant) is required to name the edition before quoting a section.

4. Contributor bylines are real

Field observations, article reviews, and photos are attributed to the practitioner who did the work. Every author has a bio page here. If you see a byline on this site, that person is a real, working professional in the field — not a paid writer, not a persona.

5. Numbers get verified, not estimated

Exam fees, cert renewal costs, deadlines — anything a reader might act on financially — is either verified against the issuer's live page (with the date it was checked) or left null with a link to the source. We do not estimate fees.

6. State-adopted editions are surfaced explicitly

Georgia is on NFPA 101 (2024). CMS enforces NFPA 101 (2012) for Medicare/Medicaid-certified healthcare occupancies. The state fire marshal enforces the state edition. TJC pins to CMS. When those enforcement layers disagree, we name every layer and identify which one binds for your building — not just the newest.

7. Corrections are welcome and public

If you find something wrong, email stanley.samek@proton.me. Every correction that changes a factual claim gets a note in the article's edit history. We would rather be publicly corrected than quietly wrong.

8. What this site is not

  • Not legal advice.
  • Not engineering sign-off. Design and calculation work belongs to your FPE or EOR.
  • Not a substitute for your AHJ. When in doubt, confirm with the fire marshal or plan reviewer with jurisdiction over your building.
  • Not a replacement for the standards themselves. Own the books you cite.

Signed — Stanislav Samek, Samektra Safety Management & Training. Gwinnett County, Georgia.