NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 20

Dispatches Ecosystem
in retrofits to reduce risk of loss in a
wildfire and make communities more
resilient; and not only hiring workers
qualified for the job, but [also] ensuring
there are educational and training
opportunities to help them acquire the
skills they need to meet the code and
perform the job safely. There are many
steps to take to improve safety. The key
to reducing losses next year, and in the
years to come, is starting now to make
these changes. "
The 2021 Ecosystem Year in Review
report is the third such survey released
by NFPA's Fire & Life Safety Policy
Institute.
The report breaks 2021 incidents
Responders in Romania escape from a fire in a hospital intensive care
unit last year. The fire killed several patients being treated for COVID19
and highlighted ecosystem shortcomings.
YEAR IN REVIEW
MIXED BAG
A NEW NFPA REPORT EXAMINES AN
ARRAY OF 2021 INCIDENTS-GOOD
AND BAD-THROUGH THE LENS OF
THE FIRE & LIFE SAFETY ECOSYSTEM
By Angelo Verzoni
F
rom record-breaking wildfires to electric
bike batteries that burst into flames, 2021
served up plenty of breakdowns in the NFPA
Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem™
.
In March, the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy
Institute published a report, the 2021 Ecosystem Year in
Review, that surveyed some of the year's most notable ecosystem
successes and failures around the world-from hospital
fires to power-grid collapses-and offered an assortment of
lessons learned from those incidents.
" Commitments to safety pay off, " the report concludes.
" Examples are routine fire code enforcement that holds
owners to account until violations are fixed; information and
support for homeowners and other property owners to invest
20 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
into five categories: wildfire, housing,
consumer products, workforce
and infrastructure, and industrial. It
includes high-profile incidents that
made headlines worldwide-such as
the February cold snap that crippled
the Texas power grid and resulted in
hundreds of deaths-as well as less
widely reported incidents, including
a fatal hospital fire that occurred in
Romania in October. All of the incidents are tied together by
their examination through the lens of the Fire & Life Safety
Ecosystem. The Texas and Romania incidents, for example,
may seem very different on the surface, but both resulted
from electrical systems lacking the resiliency that comes with
investing in safety.
The report isn't all bad news. It also includes information
about recent ecosystem successes, such as the NFPA
Standards Council's approval in April to move forward with
developing NFPA 401, Recommended Practice for the Prevention
of Fires and Uncontrolled Chemical Reactions Associated
with the Handling of Hazardous Waste. Experts say the
new document will help stem the losses associated with an
increasing number of fires involving batteries at waste and
recycling centers.
Meghan Housewright, who directs the Fire & Life Safety
Policy Institute and compiled the report, said it should serve
as a valuable asset not just for reflecting on the past year,
but also for informing policymakers, authorities having
jurisdiction, and others on what decisions to make for a safer
future. " The tools of the ecosystem give us the fundamentals
to develop and apply the practices and policies communities
need to guard against risk, " Housewright said. " Reviewing
the losses of the last year included in this report can help
highlight the places where attention and resources will bring
safer years to come. "
The full report is available at nfpa.org/ecosystem.
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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