National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)'s Blog, page 273

Smoke alarm save in Maine reinforces importance of installation ahead of Fire Prevention Week

Smoke detectors were credited with reducing the potential damage in a Maine apartment building on Wednesday, September 23, according to the Kennebec Journal. “There is no doubt that if detectors were not in place that this would have been a much more significant fire,” said Fire Chief Roger Audette. “I cannot say enough about smoke detectors.” The chief said that there were no injuries and only minimal damage in the area of the fire. The improper disposal of a candle in a trashcan led to the ignition that set off the alarm, and firefighters were able to respond within minutes...

Dan Gorham and Sreeni Ranganathan join Research Foundation staff

The Fire Protection Research Foundation is happy to announce the addition of two new project managers, Dan Gorham and Sreenivasan (Sreeni) Ranganathan. Both are familiar faces at NFPA as Dan comes to us from the Industrial & Chemical Engineering Group, and Sreeni has been the Foundation’s co-op employee since January. They bring diverse backgrounds and strong skills in support of the work of the Research Foundation. Dan has a Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Maryland both in Fire Protection Engineering, and has completed the NCESS Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. Dan has multiple structural and wildland fire fighter...

NFPA resources help families prepare pets and horses for wildfire evacuation

As you have heard recently through this blog, NFPA launched its TakeAction campaign aimed at youth who live in wildfire risk areas. (If you haven't, take a minute and check out my post from October 2 that explains the campaign, how it came to be, and offers a couple of great videos to watch, too!) The campaign was born out of the results of a number of workshops NFPA held a couple of years ago with teens and their parents who had experienced a wildfire, and we asked them to tell us their stories, their concerns, and their hopes. The...

Today in fire history: nursing home fire kills 12 patients

On October 5, l989, a nursing home fire in Norfolk, Virginia, resulted in the death of 12 patients and required hospital treatment or relocation of 96 others. The building, built in 1969, is a four-story, nonsprinklered, fire resistive structure housing 161 elderly patients at the time of the fire. The first floor contained general administrative offices and support facilities and patient rooms were located on floors two through four. The fire was discovered just after 10:00 p.m. by the nursing staff who immediately began to evacuate patients, activate the fire alarm system, close patient room doors, notify the fire department,...

Fire Prevention Week kicks off today: Hear the Beep where you Sleep!

Today is a big day. Fire Prevention Week kicks off, and will continue all the way through Saturday the 10th! Did you know that roughly half of home fire deaths result from fires reported between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., when most people are asleep? Smoke alarms save lives. If there is a fire in your home, smoke spreads fast and you need smoke alarms to give you time to get out. In fact, having a working smoke alarm cuts the chances of dying in a reported fire in half! That's why, this year's Fire Prevention Week theme aims to...

When Sparky asks people to name three places smoke alarms should be installed at home, the bedroom often misses the list

Now that Fire Prevention Week is officially here, we’re launching the fourth and final “Smoke Alarm Smarts” video, where Sparky the Fire Dog® asks people to name three places smoke alarms should be installed in the home. While this year's campaign theme, “Hear the Beep Where You Sleep: Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm”, promotes that you need a smoke alarm in every bedroom, this clearly isn’t common knowledge to many people. So please share this video wherever you can (Facebook, email, websites, etc.) and help spread the word!

NFPA campaign encourages teens to TakeAction to prepare for wildfire

If you haven't heard, NFPA recently launched a new campaign for teens called TakeAction, and it's proving to be a great resource for students and families across the country. Specifically, the campaign targets middle and high school students living in areas with wildfire risks. Research shows that youth are a valuable resource in bringing information into their homes and being active participants in projects related to risk reduction. So, a few years ago, members of our wildland fire operations division organized a handful of workshops around the country and met with teens and their parents who had lived through a...

Donald P. Bliss named Vice President of CTIF Executive Committee

New CTIF Vice President Donald P. Bliss (right) shakes hands with outgoing VP Luther Fincher Donald P. Bliss, NFPA’s vice president of field operations, was recently named vice president for the Executive Committee of the Comité Technique Internationale de Prévention et d’Extinction du Feu – commonly referred to as CTIF. Bliss is just the fourth American vice president of the CTIF committee in modern history, taking over for outgoing VP Luther Fincher. Bliss was elected to a four-year term and can serve two full terms. The committee is comprised of a president, secretary general, treasurer and six vice presidents. “It...

Latest Fire Sprinkler Initiative newsletter details how safety advocates are firing back at news stories with a slanted spin on home fire sprinklers

In the latest issue of NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative newsletter, read how fire safety advocates are firing back at news outlets producing one-sided, anti-sprinkler stories. You'll also find stories on: a housing boom in a state requiring fire sprinklers Phil Tammaro, one of our newest Faces of Fire who is urging the fire service to take a stand in support of home fire sprinklers a new study that calculates the exorbitant cost of treating patients injured in unsprinklered homes Don't miss crucial, sprinkler news from across North America. Subscribe to the free newsletter today. Since it's a monthly publication, we...

NFPA C&E Wildfire-related conference session proposals due Oct. 14

NFPA’s bi-annual Backyards & Beyond® Wildland Fire Education Conference is a great place for community leaders, researchers, insurance professionals, emergency responders, homeowners and others involved in wildfire safety and preparedness to share their knowledge and best practices on key wildfire issues that they can then take back to their communities and workplace. This year, Backyards and Beyond is scheduled for October 22-24, 2015 in Myrtle Beach, SC. Next summer in Las Vegas, we will introduce conference sessions focused on wildland fire at the NFPA Conference & Expo® so that you can keep the conversations going until the next Backyards &...