National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)'s Blog, page 287

Today in fire history: 6 people died trying to escape the fire by using the elevator

On July 23, 1971, in New Orleans, Louisiana, six people died when fire erupted in a twelfth-story room of the high-rise hotel building. Five victims were trying to escape from the motor hotel by using an elevator from the fifteenth floor. When the elevator reached the twelfth floor it stopped and the doors opened. Five of the six passengers died from heat and smoke ion the twelfth-story corridor. The sixth victim was a guard who also died in the twelfth-story corridor. To read more about the Modern Motor Hotel Fire download this NFPA Fire Journal article For NFPA Fire Analysis...

Live Articles on Special Hazards circa 1910

The Live Articles on Special Hazards, are a series of article reprinted from the monthly fire insurance supplement of The Weekly Underwriter in the early 20th century. The purpose of these articles was to provide fire insurance specialists with a working knowledge of manufacturing processes and the risks inherent with each process or product. "The cub inspector going into a cotton mill for the first time is confronted by a series of bewildering manufacturing operations. How much easier would the work be for him if he knew just where the process begins, and which processes require special attention from the...

HR Team Joins NFPA Today Blog to Share Open Positions and the "People Side" of NFPA!

Hello NFPA Bloggers and Followers! The NFPA HR team has decided to enter the wonderful world of blogging and are super excited to do so! I will be heading up the blogging and am looking forward to letting each and every one of our followers know about what is happening at NFPA on the "people side." I will also highlight one open role during each of my blog posts - if you know anyone who might be interested, share my blog and have them apply! We are always looking for talented individuals to join the team! Have a topic that...

July/August NFPA Journal looks at 2014's on-duty firefighter fatality report

In 2014, 64 firefighters died on duty, a sharp decrease from the previous year, according to a report “Firefighter Fatalities in the United States, 2014” just released by NFPA’s Fire Analysis and Research Division. A detailed summary of the report, the causes of on-duty fatalities, historical trends, and more was published in the July/August issue of NFPA Journal. The 64 deaths was a big increase from the 97 deaths that occurred in 2013, when three incidents claimed a total of 32 lives, according to the report. In 2014, 22 deaths occurred while firefighters were operating at fires, the second lowest...

Fire chief passionate about home fire sprinklers becomes latest NFPA blogger

Fire Chief Rick Ennis broke an NFPA blog record when his commentary on a fatal fire death involving a two year old was viewed more than 20,000 times. He has graciously accepted our request to regularly blog for NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative, joining our other unique voices in the push for increased acceptance and use of home fire sprinklers. Here's a sampling of his inaugural post: I am honored to have been asked to contribute regularly to this blog. I am guessing you have two pressing questions at the moment: One, who the heck is this guy? And two, why...

NFPA Journal explains NFPA 101 requirements for existing buildings

Does NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, apply to existing buildings that are not undergoing rehabilitation? Are features that don’t comply with NFPA 101 grandfathered so that they don’t have to comply with the requirements for existing buildings? And how long do requirements for new buildings that were applied at the time the buildings were constructed continue to apply to what is now an existing building? NFPA 101 is unique among codes in that it applies to both new and existing buildings, and these three common questions help put that applicability into perspective, says Ron Coté, NFPA’s principal life safety engineer....

See the 'People of NFPA' through our new social media platform...Instagram!

NFPA has now expanded to one more social media platform...Instagram! We will be sharing photos of the 'People of NFPA' through this new account. We have so many great staff members around the globe, thousands of volunteers who help us with our codes

'In a Flash' in new NFPA Journal goes behind the story of the first DiNenno Prize winner, the affordable home smoke alarm

Read the story of how the affordable home smoke alarm came to be and why this innovation was chosen to receive the inaugural Philip J. DiNenno Prize and the $50,000 prize in the “In a Flash” section of the July/August issue of NFPA Journal. Lyman Blackwell was presented the prize at the 2015 NFPA Conference and Expo this past June in Chicago for his key technological role in the alarm’s development. The DiNenno Prize, which aims to be akin to “the Noble Prize” of fire and life safety, is named after the late Philip DiNenno, the highly regarded former CEO...

NFPA Journal describes new uses of data for firefighting

NFPA and The Fire Protection Research Foundation recently embarked on a “smart-firefighting” project in an effort to help the fire service use data to enhance firefighter safety and operations, says Kathleen Almand, vice-president of NFPA’s Research Division. “The NFPA’s Fire Analysis and Research Division has invited input from the fire service on how we can make the data we collect more useful to our fire service constituents,” she writes. “We’ve made several big changes as a result, including the development of an electronic survey tool, and changes to how we present our results. The annual fire experience survey is a...

Matthew Wright of Fire Protection Association Australia shares his insights on visiting NFPA - and staying at his hotel

In an effort to learn more about the work we do at NFPA, Matthew Wright, chief technical officer/deputy CEO of Fire Protection Association Australia, has been our guest over the past week. "I’ve been very impressed with all the great work you are doing to develop standards and improve community safety," said Wright. But when the fire alarm in his hotel sounded at 3:45 this morning, he gleaned a few more insights he shared with us: “Being a fire protection industry professional, I recognized what was occurring and evacuated the building via the exit stairs to a safe place outside...