NBR 16704 — fire pumps in Brazil

NBR 16704 is the Brazilian standard published by ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas) governing fixed pumps for fire protection. It was written to harmonize Brazilian practice with NFPA-20 while reflecting local regulatory and supply-chain realities.

The current edition is NBR 16704:2020 (with amendments).

How NBR 16704 relates to NFPA-20

The two are not identical. Roughly:

• NBR 16704 references NFPA-20 directly for the performance curve envelope (the 65/100/140 rule — see NFPA-20 overview).
• NBR 16704 adds Brazil-specific requirements on:
  • Documentation language (must be in Portuguese)
  • Compatibility with Brazilian water-utility supply pressures
  • Acceptable certification bodies (INMETRO-recognized)
  • Local-content rules for federally-funded installations (BNDES Finame)

In practice, a fire-pump system designed to NFPA-20 will pass NBR 16704 acceptance with documentation translation and the right certificates — but the controller and jockey-pump arrangement should be reviewed against NBR 16704 §X for any added requirements at the time of project release.

Why this matters for buyers in Brazil

A fire-protection system in a Brazilian industrial plant will be inspected by the state Corpo de Bombeiros (fire department). The acceptance package must show conformity with NBR 16704. A pump built only to NFPA-20 — even one labeled by a top-tier US manufacturer — may face delays during acceptance if the local certification chain is incomplete.

This is the central argument for sourcing fire pumps from manufacturers who build, document, and certify locally to NBR 16704: you pre-empt the acceptance gap.

What FB Bombas does

Our fire-pump systems line is built and documented to NBR 16704 + NFPA-20 in parallel. Three configurations are catalogued: electric main with jockey, diesel main with jockey, and electric-diesel redundant per NFPA 20 with both drivers plus jockey. Acceptance documentation is delivered in Portuguese.

See:

• Fire-pump systems
• Sistemas de combate a incêndio — application page
• Fire-pump factory in Cabreúva-SP

Compliance checklist (in development)

A separate repository, nfpa20-fire-pump-checklist, will publish the open-source compliance checklist mapping each NBR 16704 clause to the equivalent NFPA-20 clause and to the documentation artifact a buyer should receive at acceptance.

References

• ABNT NBR 16704:2020 — Bombas para combate a incêndio — Requisitos.
• NFPA 20: 2025 — Standard for the Installation of Stationary Pumps for Fire Protection.
• INMETRO — Sistema Brasileiro de Avaliação da Conformidade (SBAC).