NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 6

Editor's Note by Scott Sutherland
Executive Editor, NFPA Journal
Homecoming
I
t's been three years since
we put out a conference &
expo preview issue of NFPA
Journal, and I've missed
it. To be sure, it's a sizable
lift for the Journal staff and our small but
dedicated crew of contributors and fellow
travelers, and it couldn't happen without
the assistance of a lot of able hands. But
it also never fails to capture a sense of the
excitement that accompanies the conference
and the spark that's created when people
gather to acknowledge the power and possibility
of a shared purpose. If nothing else,
the last couple of years have demonstrated
that, while virtual technology makes it
more or less possible to create a facsimile of
that spark, the emphasis is usually on less.
There's just no substitute for the real thing.
It seems especially fitting that our first
post-hiatus meeting should be in Boston, in
NFPA's back yard. A few things have changed
since 2017, when you were here last: five
years ago, Tom Brady was still slinging tuddies
for the Pats, and the Seaport District,
home of the Boston Convention and Exhibition
Center, was home to a fraction of the
restaurants and other amusements that now
populate the area. At NFPA, the association
and an array of fire service partners were
in the midst of a serious push to reduce the
incidence of firefighter cancer, and " power
over ethernet " was all the buzz among NEC
aficionados. Tempus fugit, and change happens.
Nothing underscores change quite
like a proper homecoming, and no city, in
my estimation, hosts a proper homecoming
better than Boston.
This issue of the magazine offers an
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Scott Sutherland
assortment of topics that will receive a lot
of attention in Boston. There are updates
on the 2023 editions of the NEC and NFPA
25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and
Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection
Systems, each written by an NFPA technical
expert. In " ESS Prep, " Angelo Verzoni, the
magazine's associate editor, offers a timely
overview of steps the fire service is taking
to improve firefighter safety around electrical
storage systems, a rapidly proliferating
technology that continues to present safety
challenges. In " A Little Help, " our senior
editor, Jesse Roman, writes about the retooling
of NFPA's longtime falls and fire safety
program into a tech-savvy resource that
addresses safety concerns affecting millions
of older adults. Meghan Housewright, director
of the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy
Institute, details a new tool to help users
leverage the fire & life safety ecosystem. And
in " Letter from Grizzly Flats, " Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan,
director of NFPA's Firewise
program, offers a compelling first-person
account of her years as a wildland firefighter
and applies that experience to her observations
of a small California community
recently leveled by wildfire.
It's not like being at the conference itself,
but it's a start. For the real deal, you'll need
to get yourself to Boston. See you there.
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6 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
ssutherland@nfpa.org
ART DIRECTOR
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Jesse Roman
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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