National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)'s Blog, page 306

In the new NFPA Journal, school shooting emergency plans and the fire safety implications

Students at Virginia Tech during a shooting on the campus in 2007. The list of school shootings in the United States grows longer each year. But currently, “consensus codes or standards, like those widely used for fire safety, do not exist for use in preventing or effectively managing a school violence incident,” writes NFPA’s principal life safety engineer Ron Coté in his new column in the March/April issue of NFPA Journal. The lack of a standard has led local communities to draft emergency response plans and, in some cases, these well-intentioned plans could have a potentially negative impact on fire...

NFPA Journal introduces NFPA 652, Fundamentals of Combustible Dust

This summer, NFPA will issue NFPA 652, Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, a new standard that provides the general requirements for managing combustible dust fire and explosion hazards. NFPA 652 also directs users to NFPA’s appropriate industry- or commodity-specific standards, such as NFPA 484, Combustible Metals, and establishes the relationship between those standards and itself in an effort to ensure that fundamental requirements are addressed consistently across industries, processes, and dust types. Such consistency is essential because dust-related fires and explosions affect a range of industries around the globe, says Guy Colonna, manager of NFPA's Industrial and Chemical Engineering Division. In...

Today in fire history: a nursing home fire kills three and injures 18 others

A multiple-death fire occurred on March 21, 1988 at the Oakville Heath Care Center, a nursing home located at 3391 Old Getwell Road in Memphis, Tennessee. The patient involved in the ignition of the fire and two other patients in the room of origin were killed, and 18 others were injured. The two-story, fire-resistive building in which the incident occurred contained 27 sleeping rooms housing 73 non-ambulatory patients and 1 patient who was reported as being ambulatory. The building had no automatic sprinkler system or automatic fire detection system, except a smoke detector used in conjunction with a pair of...

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Today in fire history: a fire of incendiary origin kills 20 in hotel fire

One of the stairways in the Ozark Hotel. Seattle Times A fire of incendiary origin occurred at the Ozark Hotel in Seattle, Washington, on March 20, 1970 and claimed the lives of 20 occupants. Fire investigators determined that a flammable liquid had been poured and ignited on the first-floor level of two open stairways. The fire quickly spread throughout the building rendering the stairways and corridors useless. As a result, 20 occupants perished, either from smoke inhalation or from injuries suffered when jumped from the upper stories. NFPA members can download the Fire Journal article January 1971 Fire Journal article...

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Everyone's favorite Fire Dog celebrates his birthday today; Happy Birthday Sparky!

Today, we celebrate Sparky the Fire Dog's birthday! Of course, Sparky likes to remind us (as shown in the video) that it is a good time to brush up on our fire safety tips, and he is correct! On a lighter note, birthdays are a great time for fun and celebration! Remember Sparky's 60th birthday four years ago when we had Carlo's Bakery (home of TLC's The Cake Boss) make an amazing cake just for his special day?! Our Sparky the Fire Dog party kit provides everything you need to create a special day for your own little firefighter! We...

Big news from New Jersey: Senate passes sprinkler bill

Certain New Jersey legislators made sure the memory of a massive fire in Edgewater that displaced 1,000 residents wouldn't be forgotten. They've kept their word. Following the fire that made national headlines, Assemblyman John Wisniewski was hoping to brighten the spotlight placed on his state by reintroducing the New Home Fire Safety Act. The bill calls for the sprinklering of all new, one- and two-family homes. The Assembly approved the bill in February, and it recently passed the state's Senate with a 22-13 vote, per the Burlington County Times. Read more about this important development by visiting the Fire Sprinkler...

Comments sought on proposed Tentative Interim Amendment to NFPA 2, Hydrogen Technologies Code

The following proposed Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) for NFPA 2, Hydrogen Technologies Code, is being published for public review and comment: NFPA 2, Proposed TIA No. 1178, Referencing 18.3.3 of the proposed 2016 edition. Anyone may submit a comment on this proposed TIA by the May 15, 2015 closing date. Along with your comment, please identify the number of the TIA and forward to the Secretary, Standards Council by the closing date.

Read the NFPA Standards Council agenda for the April 2015 meeting

The NFPA Standards Council will be meeting on April 7-8, 2015 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At this meeting, some of the topics the Council will address include: an appeal on a proposed TIA to NFPA 70 the issuance of proposed TIAs on NFPA 1, NFPA 58, NFPA 70, NFPA 72, NFPA 101A, NFPA 400, NFPA 1221, NFPA 1917, NFPA 1999 new projects/documents on accelerant detection canines; structural firefighting guide; aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) response to incidents/accidents at public air shows; and compentencies for responders to incidents of flammable liquids in transport-high hazard flammable trains (HHFT). consideration of requests...

South Carolina Fire Sprinkler Coalition uses TV media to dispel myths, address cost concerns

In 2014, South Carolina had the fifth highest number of fire deaths per capita in the nation, according to a recent TV report. Moreover, there have been 300 fire deaths in the state since 2007. Outraged by these figures, fire safety advocates in South Carolina aren't taking these statistics lying down. The South Carolina Fire Sprinkler Coalition recently positioned itself in front of TV cameras to promote a proven cure to their state's fire problem. First, they organized a live burn/sprinkler demonstration earlier this month, which got the attention of both the public and TV media. The demonstrations "are meant...

New NFPA Journal looks deep into the concept of resilience, how it works, why it's important and what it means for NFPA

According to Stephen Flynn, the founding director of the Center for Resilience Studies at Northeastern University, “It will be the most resilient communities, companies, and countries that will prosper in the 21st century—those that are not resilient, that are fragile and brittle, will end up isolated and will fail in the current global environment.” In other words, it’s simply not enough to be able to recover from a disaster. Those people, buildings, communities, businesses, and systems that truly thrive must recover fast and with minimal disruption. This concept of resiliency—the ability to withstand a disruption, blunt the impact, recover quickly,...