NFPA Journal - July/August 2012 - (Page 4)

>> FIRSTWORD BY NFPA PRESIDENT JAMES M. SHANNON BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Chief Philip C. Stittleburg Chair La Farge Fire Department La Farge, Wisconsin Ernest J. Grant First Vice-Chair North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center Chapel Hill, North Carolina Philip J. DiNenno Second Vice-Chair Hughes Associates, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland Randolph W. Tucker Secretary ccrd partners Houston, Texas H. Wayne Boyd Treasurer U.S. Safety & Engineering Corporation Sacramento, California James M. Shannon President President and CEO, NFPA *Bruce H. Mullen Staff Officer Sr. Vice-President and CFO, NFPA *Dennis J. Berry Assistant Secretary Secretary of the Corporation, Director of Licensing, NFPA dIRECTORS Thomas W. Jaeger Past Chair Jaeger and Associates, LLC Great Falls, Virginia Terms Expire in 2013 Donald R. Cook Shelby County Department of Development Services Pelham, Alabama John C. Dean Office of Maine State Fire Marshal Augusta, Maine Chief Rebecca F. Denlinger Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Chief Ned Pettus, Jr. Columbus Division of Fire Columbus, Ohio Dean L. Seavers Pinecrest, Florida Keith E. Williams Underwriters Laboratories Inc. Northbrook, Illinois Terms Expire in 2014 Amy Acton The Phoenix Society Grand Rapids, Michigan James M. Clark Management Consultant Germantown, Tennessee Kwame Cooper Los Angeles Fire Department Los Angeles, California Julie A. Rochman IBHS Tampa, Florida Terms Expire in 2015 Peter Holland Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Lancashire, United Kingdom Brian Hurley Palm Beach, Florida William McCammon East Bay Regional Communications System Authority Dublin, California Harold A. Schaitberger International Assoc. of Fire Fighters Washington, D.C. William A. Stewart Toronto Fire Services (retired) Toronto, Ontario, Canada Peter J. Gore Willse XL GAPS Hartford, Connecticut *Not a member of the Board of Directors An Icon Worth Preserving to enforcing that code. At NFPA we know that that is not always the case. Some jurisdictions are only too happy to ride with outdated codes or neglect aggressive enforcement. When budgets get cut in a tough economy, interests that can make money by skirting reasonable code provisions take advantage. We are seeing this troubling trend in many different guises. We certainly see it in the struggle over residential sprinklers and the consensus of both NFPA and the International Code Council processes that sprinklers should be included in all new construction of one- and two-family homes. Homebuilders argue, with no evidence, that the simple inclusion of sprinklers will make houses unaffordable WE hAVE TO raise the visibility of a whole for middle-income people, even system of code development, adoption, and when the experience of jurisdicenforcement that has made our buildings tions that have adopted sprinkler the safest in the world. provisions demonstrates conclusively that housing costs are along with the beautification have come long- not substantially different where sprinklers overdue improvements that will make them are required. Some states are talking about far safer for the millions of visitors they welskipping a whole cycle of code revisions to come every year. save money, denying their citizens the benefit The fact of the matter is that most people of important advancements and the use of do not pay much attention to the safety feaimproved technology that can save lives and tures in the buildings where they live, work, property. Jurisdictions are merging fire and or seek entertainment. A friend of mine who building code enforcement, claiming they’re is a strong NFPA advocate told me about a just trying to make things more efficient, recent visit he made to his longtime doctor when in fact what they’re doing is scaling back who had just moved into a new office. When their commitment to code enforcement. the doctor asked how he liked the new office, We have to make people more aware of my friend said it looked nice, but then asked how codes protect their safety, and we have to the doctor why he didn’t have fire sprinklers raise the visibility of a whole system of code installed as part of the renovation. The docdevelopment, adoption, and enforcement that tor looked up at the drop ceiling and said, “I has made our buildings the safest in the world. thought I had sprinklers.” The stories about Fenway Park and the Statue People assume that if they visit a famous of Liberty, two classically American locations, location, buy a house, or lease a property for illustrate how lucky we are to have in place a a business, then the building must be safe. But system to protect public safety that has stood they should make that assumption only if the the test of time. Our commitment to safety jurisdiction in which the building is located through strong codes is another American has adopted the right code and is committed icon that we have to work to preserve. This edition of NFPA Journal includes two stories about iconic American locations whose recent renovations have received a great deal of public attention. Even so, the real importance of those changes is little understood by the public, or by the media that have reported on them. Fenway Park (“Fenway at 100,” page 48) and the Statue of Liberty (“Upgrading Liberty,” page 60) are two of the most popular tourist attractions in America, but both were built at a time when our understanding of life safety issues was far less developed than it is today. Both have been significantly spruced up, but 4 NFPA JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2012 Photograph: dave Yount/NFPA

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2012

NFPA Journal - July/august 2012
Contents
First Word
Mail Call
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Fenway at 100
Crowning Achievement
Safety at Center Stage
Firefighter Fatalities in the United States, 2011
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - July/August 2012