COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. — A group of drycleaning industry organizations, including the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), TCATA, R.R. Street and others, succeeded in changing International Code Council (ICC) fire code guidelines for Class III drycleaning plants.
Under the new rules, sprinklers are not required in a drycleaning plant utilizing Class III solvents such as a high-flashpoint hydrocarbon and GreenEarth. Further, sprinklers are no longer required in a Class III drycleaning plant if the drycleaning machine has a built-in fire-suppression system and the plant does not store more than 300 gallons of solvent.
The measure passed at the committee level in October but did not stand for public comment and, therefore, was not officially enacted. Many areas of the country follow the IFC codes rather than the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) code. With this change, the IFC and NFPA codes will be more closely aligned in regards to the use of Class III solvents.
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