NFPA Journal - September/October 2019 - 22

Dispatches Ecosystem Watch

THE ECOSYSTEM EXPLAINED
GOVERNMENT
RESPONSIBILITY

NFPA believes that fire, life, and electrical safety are only
possible when a safety ecosystem exists to create a culture
of best practices and stakeholder accountability. To that end,
the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem is made up of eight key
elements: government responsibility, development and use
of current codes, referenced standards, investment in safety,
a skilled workforce, code compliance, preparedness and
emergency response, and an informed public. NFPA envisions
those components as cogs working together-when one cog
fails, the entire system can break down. The items below,
taken from recent news events, represent a survey of ecosystem successes and failures. For more on the NFPA Fire &
Life Safety Ecosystem, visit nfpa.org/ecosystem.

GOVERNMENT
RESPONSIBILITY

MR. LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Elected official David BrooksHill works to remove building
inspection requirements
in his rural district in British
Columbia, Canada. Brooks-Hill
reportedly won his seat by
campaigning on the removal
of building inspection
requirements.

STATION EVALUATION
US Reps. Pete Stauber,
D-Minnesota, and Jared Golden,
D-Maine, introduce The Fire
Station Infrastructure Safety
Act, which would direct the
US Fire Administration to
create a report on the age and
condition of every fire station in
the country to determine where
investments need to be made.

ECOSYSTEM FAIL

INVESTMENT
IN SAFETY

ECOSYSTEM SUCCESS

CODE
COMPLIANCE

DIVERSITY PUSH
The Toledo (Ohio) Fire & Rescue
Department seeks to hire a
minority-owned creative firm
to increase diversity in its
ranks. Experts argue that
a more diverse fire service
facilitates more effective
outreach to a broader range
of community members,
leading to more successful
fire prevention strategies.

ECOSYSTEM SUCCESS

CODE
COMPLIANCE
PREVENTION FUNDS
After a devastating 2018 wildfire
season in California, the city of
Berkeley sets aside hundreds
of thousands of dollars in
its 2020-21 budget for wildfire
prevention programs.

STATE TO SELF: SHAPE UP
The New York State Senate
releases a report showing a
systematic failure to prioritize
code enforcement at all levels
of government throughout the
Empire State. Exposed wiring,
no means of egress, illegal
conversions, and the absence
of working smoke alarms are
just the "tip of the iceberg,"
the report reads.

ECOSYSTEM FAIL

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ECOSYSTEM SUCCESS

DAY-CARE DEATHS
In Erie, Pennsylvania, five children die
in a fire in a three-story house that was
also used as a day-care facility. The home
reportedly only had one smoke alarm,
installed in the attic, despite a state code
requiring one on each floor of a day-care
facility. State inspection procedures for
day cares also reportedly do not include
checking for smoke alarms, which is why
the violation wasn't uncovered.

ECOSYSTEM FAIL

GETT Y IMAGES; DAVID BROOKS-HILL: COLUMBIA SHUSWAP REGIONAL DISTRICT

PREPAREDNESS
AND EMERGENCY
RESPONSE

http://www.nfpa.org/ecosystem

NFPA Journal - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2019