We had a fire marshal inspection a month ago and I was told by the safety man that he wanted battery backup lights in areas that do not have them. It appears he was bothered by the 10 seconds of darkness.

I work at a county jail and most of our buildings have generators and none have battery back up lights. Except for exit signs.

Yes, it goes dark for the 10 seconds for the generator to spin up. That is in complice with the NEC.

The reason I am posting in this forum is to find out if theres another code that the fire marshal might be using to justify this?

The problem I have with this is If the FM wants every building retrofitted its going to cost the county some serious dough.

I plan to ask the FM for a code reference but want to do some homework first.

Thanks in advance.