The NFPA panel recommended that building owners be required to inspect their establishments' exits each time they will be open to the public.
It also voted to require a designated ``crowd manager'' for all places of assembly, which the NFPA defines as places that hold 50 people or more.
The committee is considering broad fire-safety and crowd-management changes to its code, which has been adopted in one form or another by more than 30 states.
The changes were prompted by the February blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I. The fire, sparked by a band's pyrotechnic display, engulfed the building within minutes, killing 100 people and injuring nearly 200 others as people scrambled for the same exit.
The nonprofit NFPA, which has no enforcement power, said its recommendations have prompted fire code reforms nationwide.
On Tuesday, the committee recommended new rules governing sprinklers, including making them required in some existing buildings with capacities of 100 people or more.
The Station nightclub did not have fire sprinklers.
The committee's recommendations will be considered by the NFPA's Standards Council at a meeting next week.
The panel's sprinkler recommendations were tougher than the new fire code enacted in Rhode Island on Monday. That new law will require sprinklers in nightclubs that serve alcohol and accommodate at least 150 people. It also bans pyrotechnics in all but the largest venues and increases the authority of fire inspectors.
