National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)'s Blog, page 84

Fire Prevention Week is fast-approaching! As speed of today’s home fires accelerates, NFPA focuses on home escape planning and practice

  Fire Prevention Week, October 6-12, is just around the corner! This year’s campaign, “Not Every Hero Wears a Cape. Plan and Practice Your Escape!”, works to better educate the public about the importance of home escape planning

Breeching Valves – Should They be Used in Sprinkler Systems?

What on earth is a breeching valve? A breeching valve, also known as a safety shutoff valve or excess flow valve, monitors pressure and flow in a system. Upon seeing excessive flow, the valve will automatically close, essentially shutting off or

Another Successful SUPDET® Comes to a Close

After a week full of informative and innovative presentations and discussion, the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2019) has officially concluded.   Since

Rio de Janeiro Hospital Fire: High Risk Building Occupants Require High Level Protection

  A tragic fire at Hospital Badim in Rio de Janeiro killed 11 patients last week.   We have taken a different approach with this blog than what we normally do. Security camera video obtained by various Brazil news outlets gives an inside

Research-Based Short Message Creation Tool for Wildfire Emergencies at SUPDET® 2019

Wildfires continue to be a problem in the United States and abroad. According to the California Department of Insurance, the Camp Fire of November 2018 cost somewhere in the vicinity of $8.5 billion in property loss and damages. Currently, the Camp Fire

Dissecting the Essential Electrical System (EES) in Healthcare Facilities

  It’s no secret that NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC) is aimed at saving lives. There are requirements throughout the document that are specifically included to prevent shock and electrical fires. However, once in a while we need

New white paper helps healthcare facilities meet, and revisit, the requirements of the CMS emergency preparedness rule

NFPA has released a new white paper designed to help healthcare officials meet and re-examine the emergency preparedness requirements set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).   In November 2017, Emergency Preparedness

New NFPA energy storage system (ESS) technologies standard addresses the fire risks associated with new power sources

NFPA has released NFPA 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems to help engineers, manufacturers, code enforcers, first responders, and policy makers address potential challenges and obstacles related to energy storage

9.11.01 Will Always be Remembered, not Just by the Fire Service, but by This Nation

9.11.01 will always be remembered, not just by the fire service, but by this nation. All the altered lives, all the people affected, even years later, leave an imprint that will never fade. As someone who came into the fire service after that event, I

For schools working to protect students, staff and visitors from acts of targeted violence, NFPA 101 now allows for second releasing operation when retrofitting existing classroom doors

Over the past few years, the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code Technical Committees repeatedly learned of schools’ efforts to protect students and staff that, in many cases, were imperiling safety. It was determined by the Committees that a