2001 Vol95 No4

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~ ~NFPA's Building Code r e f e r e n c e s

t h e b e s t g u i d e l i n e s for d e a l i n g w i t h
f o r c e s of n a t ~ ' e
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FEATURES
4 8 Security Premises Standard

RJCHARD P. BIELEN, P.E.
After several false starts, NFPA has a renewed interest in

estabfishing a standard addressing security system
installations.
5 1 Colocation Facilities
ED COMEAU
The growth of businesses' computers sharing space in remote

data centers outpaces fire protection standards.
COLUMNS
26 Heads Up
54 Globalization: Reshapingthe Fire and
RUSSELL P. FLEMING, P.E.
Safety Business
ALAN R. EARLS
28 Structural Firefighting
As fire and life safety businesses expand globally, NFPA

codes and standards are often cited as global standards.
RUSSELL SANDERS & BEN KLAENE
58 Tools of the Trade: The New NFPA921
JERRY LAUGHLIN
31 Just Ask
ANN FREESTONE
Now more user-friendly with several new chapters, NFPA

921, Fire and Explosion Investigation, provides fire
investigators with the tools to do the job.
32 In Compliance
WILLIAM E. KOFFEL, P.E.
3 4 Inside the Beltway
63 Weapons of Mass Destruction
ANTHONY R. O'NEILL
HALLIE EPHRON TOUGER
NFPA plays a key role protecting first responders in

domestic terrorist incidents.
WAYNE MOORE, P.E., FSFPE
66 Firefighter Fatalities in 2000
3 8 Leadership
RITA FAHY, PH.D AND PAUL R. LEBLANC
ROBIN F. PAULSGROVE
36 Buzzwords
Last year, 102 firefighters were killed in the line of duty.
40
Outreach
MERI-K APPY
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J
IN EVERY ISSUE
6 First Response 16 In a Flash!
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page59 / ]
J
91 Datebook
1 0 Mail Call
20 Fire Watch
9 5 Classifieds
1 4 NFPAMeetings
80 In the Market
96 Looking Back
85 What's Hot
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From
the Editor
exclusive report on fireIn this issue you'll find NFPP2s

102 firefighters were
fighter fatalities in 2000. Last year,
killed in the line of duty, nearly 40 percent of them in
fire ground operations- Check out page 66 to learn more
Volume 95/Number4
Group Publisher
Winston A. Johnson
about this annual report.

If you're interested in how the fire protection industry
Publisher
is expanding globally, check out page 54.

On a related note, NFPAJournal and its sister publi-
Executive Editor
cations, NFPA Journal en Espahol and Journal ern
' 'eExpoln
Portugu~s, are co-sponsoring the Amertcas F~r
i Miami, Florida, on July 24 through 26, bringing together
Managing Editor
Kath een M. Robinson
Advertising Sales Offices

New England/Mid-Atlantic
Denise M. Laitinen
Merrie Lynch
CELAssociates, Inc
61 Adams Street
Braintree, MA 02184
(781) 848-9306
Fax {781 848-2063
merrie@qu k cam
thousands of attendees from the Carribean Basin and
Associate Editor
Southeast& Southwest
Central and Latin America.

As always, we're interested in hearing from you. You
John Nicholson
can E-mail us at NFPA~ournal@NFPA'rg"
Stephen D. Murphy
Art D~rectar
David Yount
Assistant Art
Director
Adrienne M Albrecht
Blake & Michelle Holton

Holton Enterprises
724 Long Lake Dr
Oviedo, FL 32765
(407} 971-6286
Fax (407) 971-8598
pubrep@msn cam
Midwest
ABOUT NFPA
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NFT,,a nonprofit voluntary membemhip organ~tion founded in 1896, is a

clearinghouse for information on fire prevention, fimfighting procedures, and
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Latin America
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Calacoto, Calle Jose ~uirre Acha
No 37 Depa..rtamento2
LaPaz, Bolivia
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DuPont FE-36 in your portable extinguishers. It leaves absolutely no residue, which makes for less
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NRPA'
Reaching Our International Members

F
very day, fire safety professionals from around the world

stop in at NFPA headquarters, and we greet their visits as
an opportunity to underscore our international mission.
I
JHowever, we don't limit ourselves to interaction with our
visitors. We're proactive throughout the world. Just ask anyone in our
growing International Operations Division, where hardly a day
passes that they don't propose or plan a project to expand our relationship with our international members.
NFPA recently relocated our Asia@acific operations from Australia to Hong Kong to better support the efforts of Southeast Asian
nations interested in adopting NFPA codes and standards and to
promote NFPA safety education programs in the Pacific Rim.
There's no doubt that the new Hong Kong office has sent a
powerful message to the region regarding NFPB~s commitWe anticipate that our n e w trade ment to the area.
show in Miami will show the world
Another example of our international commitment
that NFPA is ff~ily committed to our is the first NFPA forum in Uruguay, held last April and
attended by more than 150 people. We've also appointed
international constituents.
regional directors for Mexico and Brazil, who, along with our
regional director in Canada, are in the forefront of bringing our message daily to officials and decision
makers. In addition, we've appointed our first global marketing manager, who'll focus on expanding the
global distribution of our products by promoting NFPAcodes and standards, publications,
and workshops.
Then there are our magazines, newsletters, and bulletins. NFPA's Latin American magazines continue to
reach top decision makers. More than 10,000 fire safety specialists in Central and South America read NFPA
Journalen Espan~l,and its sister publication, NFPAJournalemPortugu& is read by 5,000 industry leaders in
Brazil. Our message is being heard and understood.
Continuing this international effort, we're undertaking the Americas'FireExpo, a new international NFPA
conference and exposition to be held in conjunction with the 7th annual Americas'SecurityExpo at the Miami
Beach Convention Center from July 24 to 26. Our involvement in this exciting endeavor brings us closer to
our Latin American stakeholders, and Miami is the most logical location for this important venture. To many,
it's a business center for Latin America, as top distributors, dealers, and customers often travel there to deal
with U.S. companies.
NFPA's Americas'FireExpo, the only fke industry event to deriver a domestic and international audience
from Latin America, the Caribbean Bagin, and the southeastern United States, will include an expo, as well
as a comprehensive, multilingual technical program addressing codes, standards, and general guidance on fire,
electrical, and rife safety issues.
We anticipate that this three-day event, like the opening of our Hong Kong office, will show the world
that NFPA is fully committed to our international constituents, whom we proudly count among our more
than 75,000 members.
Officer=
Martin H Retss. Chair
President and Chief ExecutiveOfficer.
The RJA Group Inc.
Corinne Brodenck, 1st Vice Chair

Senior Vice President,
Massachusetts Medical Society
George Ocku/y. 2nd Vice C~air
Chesterfield, MO
Paul M. Fitzgerald. Treasurer
Holliston. MA
Vinme Bollin, Assistant Treasurer
International Association of Firefighters
Jan Gratton, Secretary

Consultant, Fire and Life Safely Training
George O Millo: President and CEO.NFPA
Arthur E Cote. St. Vice President and
Chief Engineer.NFPA
James M Shannon. Sr Vice President and
General Counset
Perry J. Ludy,Sr Vice President
Business Development, NFPA
Bruce Mullen. Sr Vice President,Finance.
Chief Financial Officer. NFPA
Oenms d Berry, Assistant Secretary
Board of Directors
The president, the etected officers, and:
Herman lie Bnce, Past Chair

Chief. Fire-RescueAdmimstration,
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue
Term Expires in 2002:
S Joe Bhatle. CEO and ExecutiveVice President,
Underwriters' Laboratory
Robin Paulsgrave, Chief,

Arlington, Texas, Fire Department
Lamer Labauve, President.
Delta Laboratory& Gas Testing, Inc
Warren E McOanlels, Superintendent,
New Orleans Fire Department
Russell Reining, Vice President of Engineering
National Fire SprinklerAssociation
Dan Bailey, Staff Officer, USOA Forest Service,

Northern Region
Oenms Compton. Fire Chief, Mesa, AZ
Mary Carso. Washington State Fire Marshal
Tom Jaeger. President & CEO.
Oage-Ba~ock & Associates, Inc.
Louis Joke/. Jekel & Howard LLP
Fred Leber. CEO,
LeberRubesConsultingEngineers
Philip C. Stirtleburg, Fire Chief,
Le Farge Fire Department
F!ona/dl~rtone, BetteneAssociates
H Wayne 8oyd, President and CEO.
U S. Safety and EngineeringCarp
Martin J Maddaloml General President.

United Association of Plumbers,
Pipefitters, and Sprinkle'fitters
Jalme Moncada.Perez, President,
Pirotec. Limded
GeorgeMiller, President
NFPA
6
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST2001
PHOTOGRAPH: KATHYTARANTOLA
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July/August 2001
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II Hotel safety checklist

Thank you for the article "Top to Bottom
Hotel Fire Safety" in the March/April 2001
issue. The checklist provided in the article
was particularly interesting. As a follow-up
to this article, what would be the author's
recommendation on grading a particular
motel's fire safety based on the total number
of deficiencies present? Suggested scale?
Is there any possibility of future articles
similar to the one on motels/hotels for apartments and restaurants?
Jon R Jorgonsen,CPCU
Auto-OwnersInsurance
NFPA responds: Unfortunately, #'s difqcult

to quantify just how bad a life safety deficiency
is with regard to an occupancy's overall safety.
For example, a burned-out light in an exit sign
and an impaired automatic sprinkler system are
both life safety deficiencies, however, the latter is
more serious But how much more serious?
NFPA's technical committees responsiblefor
developing NFPA 101 ~, Life Safety Code ,
have tried to quantify these deficiencies by developing NFPA 101.4, Guide on Alternative
Approaches to Life Safety. NFPA IO1A
describes thefire safety evaluation system, or
FSES, a scoring model used to help designers
and authorities having jurisdiction determine
whether a building meets the goals and objectives of'the Life Safety Code, even if it doesn't
meet the letter of the code in some respect. There
10
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
are separate scoring modelsfor different types of

occupancies. However, not all occupancies have
an FSES available. For instance, hotels don't at
this time.
As afrequent traveler and Life Safety Code
staff liaison and instructor, I lookfor several
things when staying at a hotel. Are the exits
maintained?Are ex# doors, including doors
inside stairways, unlocked and unobstructed?
Does the building have an automatic sprinkler
system? Does the building have afire alarm system and sleeping room smoke alarms?Are fire
and smoke doors improperly held open by
wooden wedges or some other means? Do the
sleeping room doors close and latch automatically? Is the hotel staff responsive when thefire
alarm sounds?
While I can't quantify the defic#ncies, I can
at least bring them to the attention of the hotel
management, and I'm not shy about doing so.
Nobody else should be, either. It's worth itfor
everyone's safety, and I sleep better knowing a
potential life safety problem has beenfixed.
There are other minimum requirements prescribed by the Life Safety Code, however, these
are some of the items that can be verified easily.
The only way to know whether a building is
safe is to perform a complete life safety analysis
against the code requirements. Since that's usually not possible, I try to stay at hotel chains that
areproactive at implementing fire and life safety
measures. For information on those, check out
some of NFPA's technical committee lists
included in thefront of every NFPA code and
standard and the Executive Committee of
NFPA's Lodging Industry Section or.go to
NFPA's web site, www.nfpa.org. A hotel chain's
participation in NFPA's codes- and standardsdevelopment process is a clear indication of its
commitment to protecting its guests.
Gregory E. Harrington, RE.
NFPASenior Fire Protection Engineer
ExecutiveSecretary,
NFPA LodgingIndustry Section
!11 Building height

I was disappointed to read about the construction type vs. height limitations being
considered for NFP/gs Building CoderMin
Mr. Koffel's column in the May/June 2001

issue of NFPA Journal ....
Mr. Koffel states that the height of buildings constructed using Type II (222)
construction will be fimited to a maximum
of 180 feet (55 meters), while the height of
buildings constructed using Type I (332)
construction will be unlimited.
We've know for years that there's a
correlation between fire loading and the
equivalent fire exposure that this fire
loading will produce.
Residential, institutional, and business
occupancies--all light-hazard occupancies
based upon NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems--will produce fires with a
duration of 30 minutes to 1 hour. Given this,
requiting Type II (222) construction provides
a factor of safety of at least 2, assuming
sprinkler system failure, against structural
failure, while requiring Type I (332) construction provides a factor of safety of 3,
again assuming sprinkler system failure,
against structural failure. Is it necessary to
have a factor of safety of 3 for light-hazard
high-rises that exceed 180 feet (55 meters)?
It's my opinion that the committee responsible for developing the height limitations is
ignoring basic fire engineering principles,
which we have known for decades ....
Richard Schulte
Schulte and Associates
Evanston, Illinois
N F P A responds: Mr. Schulte has brought up

some good points concerning the development
of building height limitations. Since limitations
on building heights and areas werefirst imposed
in local building codes, numerous methods,
approaches, and techniques have been used to
steer clear of the subjectiveness of this criterion.
While the argument that a Type II (222)
construction may provide a safetyfactor of
2--approximately one hour to consume combustibles on afloor--for two-hourfire protection
installed on structural members, this approach
can't be viewed completely independently of
other issues. Parametr.icfire tests and actualfire
experience show a tremendous range in how a
ILLUSTRATION: ROB DUNLAVEY
mail
typical light-hazard occupancyfire will behave.
For example, the One Meridian Plazafire in
February 1991 travelled eight stories in an
18-hour period. This looks like an exposure of
2 hours, 15 minutes on eachfloor. Further
compounding the issue is the pre-beating that
tookf/ace on eachsuccessivefloor before ign#ion
of items on thatfloor. In some cases,actual
fire exposure, induding convection, radiation,
and conduction,probably approachedthree
hours. This was in an unsprinkleredhigh-rise
office building.
While the automatic sprinklersystem continues to be the single system orfeature that can best
increasethe levd ofprotection of the occupants
and the structure, codesmust maintain some
level of"what if" redundancy.A fundamental
tenet ofgood building design is avoidance of
structural collapse, whether it's the result offire,
earthquake, or impact loading.As the Report
on Proposals for NFPA 5000, NFPA Building
Code rM, isfinished, the NFPA TechnicalCommittee on Structures and Construction has asked
the task group that developedthe bask outline
for the height limitations of NFPA 5000 to continue to study this issueand to recommend
further changes and improvements.
The debate over building heights and areas
will continuefor years. We welcomecomments
like those of Mr. Schulte.
sally present in a number of residential or

quasi-residential occupancies, including
homes, apartments, hotels, dormitories,
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Ii Upholstered furniture
In Dr. John Hall's [article] "Targeting

Upholstered Furniture Fires" in the
March/April 2001 issue, [he] aptly describes
the outcomes of upholstered furniture fires,
as well as the ignition sources and fuel
packages. What's missing is the risk analysis,
including a cost-benefit analysis as might
be expected as further regulatory action is
contemplated. The solution suggested
[that] more regulation of upholstered furniture seems preordained ....
Dr. Hal] correctly concludes that cigarettes
are the culprit as the ignition source most
involved in this fire scenario. Upholstered
furniture is, and will continue to be, univer-
hospitals, and nursing homes. To a lesser

extent, such furnishings are present in
theatres and other types of commercial
Call for our catalog.

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Stopper' II
SIt 1100
800-888-4STI
Safety Technology International, Inc.
2306AirportRd Waterford,MI 48327

Phone:248-673-9898 Fax:248-673-1246
info@sti-usa.com www.sti-usa.com

JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPAJOURNAL
3_1.
buildings. The standards as currently proposed by National Association of State Fire

Marshals (NASFM) for consideration by the
Consumer Product Safety Commission
(CPSC) would affect all of these occupandes

despite the fact that many prohibit, by law or
by choice, smoking within their confines.
About 70 percent of hotd rooms in this
Easy to Install
Eas er to Spectfy
PROTEWIRE
/
countr~ for example, are now "No Smoking,"

up from about 30 percent 10 years ago.The
enormous costs of such regulation would
have zero benefit, as the primary ignition
source wouldn't be present. Why then should
such occupancies, with tittle risk and no
meaningful fire statistics chronicalling this
hazard, bear the cost of such regulation?
Even the most stringent current standard
in this regard and the one proposed for adoption in the 1993 petition by NASFM
California Technical Bulletin 133 (1991)
doesn't apply in Califbrnia if such upholstered furniture is placed [in] sprinldered
buildings, see California Bureau of Home
Furnishing regulations 4CCR1374(e).
NFPA's own Life SaJbty Codedoesn't require
fire resistance for upholstered furniture in
sprinklered buildings, see NFPA 101-2000,
Section 10.3.2. As many of the occupancies
enumerated heretofore are sprinklered,
should they bear this cost for no benefit?
Cigarette smoking among Americans is on
the wane. Controlling the prevailing
ignition source for upholstered furniture ftres,
the cigarette, which the National Institute of
Science and Technology concluded in 1995 is
technically feasible, would be a cost borne
ultimately by cigarette users. The fire safety
benefit would be significant and not just for
the upholstered furniture fire scenario, as cigarettes are the source of ignition for many
other types of fires. The societal costs would
be a fraction of that proposed for further regulation of upholstered furniture.
Thomas G. Daly
Hilton Hotels Corporation World Headquarters
Beverly Hills, California
!
Call for your free specification disk today.
The Protectowire Company, Inc.
TEL: 781-826-3878 FAX: 781-826-2045
www.protectowire.com
12
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
NFPA responds: Mr. Daly appears to have

missed the points of the article.
The article says thefollowing. First, that
upholsteredfurniture fires and deaths are down
substantially, but it remains the number one
burnable objectfirst ignited in fatal fires. Second,
there's good reason to ask what more could be
done,focusing on homes vohere nearly all t/aefire
deaths in buildings occur. Third, f you focus on
what could be done to upholsteredfizrniture,
how to
reach us
If you wish to comment on anything you've read in Journal, please send your letter to NFPAJournal,
NFPA, One Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02269. You may also fax us at (617) 984-7090 or E-mail
us at nfpaJournal@nfpa.org. When sending E-mail, please include your city and state.
based on the deaths still occurringas theproblem

to be solved, then you'dfavor more resistanceto
cigarette ignitions and~orchanges to delay or
prevent flashowr. You'dbe less interestedin
resistance to small openflame ignitions.
Mr. Daly seemsto have missedthefact that
the article was devoted to the problem of upholsteredfurniture fires in homes and said nothing
about otherproperties, that the article was a
review offire safety optionspresuming afocus on
upholsteredfurniture and not a review of all
possiblefire safety strategies,and that cigarettes
weren't identified as 'the culprit"but only as the
leading heat sourcefor strategies that aimfor
prevention, as contrastedwith mitigation
through delay orprewntion offlashowr.
Mr. Daly seems to have taken the compliment
to NASFM, which was given specificallyfor
their attacking a largepart of the remainingfire
problem, as a blanket endorsementfor the
specificsof theirproposals. The articledidn't say
or imply that, and some of thefacts presented in
the articlearen't supportive of some aspectsof the
NASFM proposals.
Mr. Daly seemsto have taken the compliment
to CPSC, which wasfor carefully reviewing all
proposals before them but acting boldly when a
casehas been made, as an endorsementfor a regulatory solution. The articledidn't say or imply
that, but rather went to some lengths to praise
the industry's own UpholsteredFurniture Action
Councilprogram, which is the most obvious candidatefor creditfor the considerableprogress
we've made to date.
I clearlydidn't write the articleMr. Daly
would have preferred, but I also didn't write the
articleMr. Daly seemsto be trying to rebut.
John Hall
AssistantVice President
NFPAFire Analysisand ResearchDivision
II Errata
It's come to our attention that there was a
technical error in the "Safe 'crackers" article
in the May/June 2001 issue. The article
incorrectly stated that Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) regulates consumer fireworks. In fact, consumer fireworks
are exempt from ATF regulations.
in the next issue of NFPA Journal:
Preview of NFPA'sFag Education
Catastrophic Fires of 2000

Protecting Oil Rig Platforms
Wildfires and Nuclear Facilities
Report on Fire-Loss in the U.S. in 2000
Conference
Smoke Control Door Assemblies
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JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPA JOURNAL
13
..anneetings
NFPA
MEE; U ~ '7 L,, -elF<;rvl~
7"~w"
Fall Education Conference Heads to Dallas /

The focus is on professional development seminars--with some Texas-style fun added.
FOR MOREINFORMATIONOR
TO REGISTERFOR NFPA'S
FALLEDUCATIONCONFERENCE.
GOTOWWW.NFPA.ORG.
FPA's Fall Education Conference, a new name

that reflects our commitment to offering the
highest caliber professional development in fire
and life safety, will be held November 10 to 14
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in DaUas, Texas. Among the
events scheduled are pre-conference seminars, education
sessions, and reports on codes and standards. Attendees
are invited to take advantage of discounted seminar fees by
registering for one of NFPA's pre-conference seminars
before the conference's main events.
The conference will feature more than 40 education
seminars on topics ranging from rapid intervention
crews to combustion controls to commissioning fire
protection systems.
Among the seminars are a two-day session on
NFPA 1500, Fire Department Occupational Safety and
Health Program, to be held November 9 and 10. This
seminar will help those in the process of developing or
revising their fire department's
program. Also being
offered on November 9
and 10 is a two-day seminar covering NFPA 101%
Life Safety Code.
And for those preparing
for the Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS)
Exam, a two-day primer is
being offered on November 9
and 10. Participants will be
provided with information and
~kills needed to take the test and
mderstand NFPA~s Fire Prom.........
the
.~PS
recof
achievement in the fire protection field, is the only

program that specifically addresses the fire protection
engineering technologist. Anyone planning to take the
CFPS exam in Dallas on November 13 must submit
application materials by October 3.
This meeting 'alsoincludes a General Session, as well as
Technical Committee Report Sessions at which the membership will be asked to vote on, and adopt, proposed
NFPA codes, standards, and recommended practices in
accordance with NFPA rules.
Texas-style fun
To get attendees in the Texas spirit, NFPA is hosting a
Monday Night Barbecue and Rodeo. So pull on your
boots and get ready to kick up your heels for an evening of
real Texas fun at the Circle R Ranch!
The evening will include an all-you-can-eat Texas barbecue buffet with compfimentary beer, wine, and soft
drinks. Work up an appetite with a ride on a horse-drawn
hay wagon or mosey on down to the barn and saddle-up
for a horseback ride. Throughout the evening, the Circle R
band wilI play country tunes and provide Texas-style dance
lessons. The evening will conclude with a performance of
the Circle R Ranch "Rodeo Grande," complete with bull
riding, rodeo clowns, and special guest stars.
The Hyatt Regency is a downtown Dallas landmark
within walking distance of the West End entertainment
district and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit RaiI Line. A
$65 million renovation and expansion completed last year
transformed this internationally recognized symbol of
Dallas into a state-of-the-art meeting facility.
To make your hotel reservations, please call the Hyatt
Regency Hotel at 1-800-233-1234. Inform the agent that
you'll be attending the NFPA Fall Education Conference.
Reservations must be made by October 9.
To register in advance, you must send your registration
and payment by September 28 for early bird specials and
by October 19 for discount prices. Alter this date, all registrations and changes must be processed on site at NFPA
Registration in the Hyatt Regency Hotel. You'll be
charged the amount in effect at the date we receive your
registration form.
(
14
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
NFPAsMeetingsDepartment.
extra - )
PAL,'. M .
-t t ,
"-
L NFPA's Treasurer's Report

A look at NFPA's finances for 2000, in which net assets increased by $3 million to $75 million.
he Treasurer's Report is issued to NFPA

members as required by the Articles of
the Association, Section 6.11, Paragraph 2,
as adopted through an Amendment
last November.
Last year was the third year of NFPA's traditional
three-year business cycle, which usually results in the
lowest annual revenue of any year in the cycle.
Although total revenue was $1.6 million less than
1999, it was in line with the budget. However,
expenses were less than budgeted, thereby producing
a better than anticipated operating surplus of $3 million for 2000.
As of December 31, 2000, NFP.~s financial
strength improved compared to 1999. Net assets
increased by $3 million to $75 million. After adjusting for a transfer from investments to cash and cash
equivalents, the portfolio outperformed the overall
market, increasing by 4.3 percent, to $47.9 million.
Year-end cash and cash equivalents increased by $8.6
million, $6.2 million being the transfer from investments referred to above, leaving NFPA's total assets
up by $5.1 milfion.
Total liabilities increased by $3.1 million. Of this,
$2.6 million was part of finalizing the permanent
financing for Batterymarch IV, a four-story office
building on NFPA-owned property that the Association built adjacent to its international headquarters
in Q~incy, Massachusetts. Because member dues are
recognized throughout the year, the growth in
NFPA's membership was primarily responsible for
the increase in deferred revenues.
An analysis of revenue and expenses and excerpts
from the audited financial statements for the year
December 31, 2000 are displayed here.
$'ooo~
2000
1999
Statement of Financial Position
Assets
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Inventory, accounts receivable, and other assets
investments
Property and equipment
Total assets
Liabilities and net assets
Accounts payable and other liabilities
Deferred revenues
Long term loan
Total liabilities
Total net assets
Total liabilities and net assets
$16,102
16,057
47,966
41,448
121,573
$7,489
14,666
52,342
41,934
116,431
11,927
11,602
22,500
46,029
75.544
121,573
13,314
10,610
19,976
43,900
72,531
116.431
63,506
(60.493)
3,013
72,531
75.544
65,061
(55,157)
9,904
62.627
72,531
3,871
2,218
2,524
8,613
7.489
16,102
13,174
(29,628)
18.600
2,146
5,343
7,489
Statement of Activities
Revenue
Expenses
Change in net assets
Net assets as of beginning of year
Net assets as of end of year
Statement of Cash Rows
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities
Cash flows from financing activities
Net increase In cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents as of beginning of year
Cash and cash equivalents as of end of year
Expenses:$60.5 Million
Revenue: $63.5 Million

Contracts3%
3%
JI Investments
Seminars1 ~
7~-~
ng8%
/
PublicEducation3%
International1%
///
I~
Put]lications
37%
Contracts1% Seminars
4"/0
Paul M. Fitzgerald is Treasurer of NFPA.
CHARTS: CHRISTOPHERJ. MCCUSKER
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPAJOURNAL
15
, , ii,.flash
FEMA Disaster Expenditures

January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1999
Weather Disasters
he U.S. has sustained 48 weather-related disasters in the past 21
years in which overall damages and costs reached or exceeded
$1 billion. Some 41 of these disasters occurred during the
1988-2000 period, with total damages exceeding $180 billion.
In 1998 alone, there were seven disasters costing billions of dollars,
the most occurring in a single year. Also in that year, the federal government declared 65 disaster areas. During that year, 399 people died as a
result of severe weather, which included ice storms in New England and
Minnesota, Hurricanes Bonnie and Georges, and flooding in Texas.
The largest loss of life due to weather-related disasters in 21 years, an
estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people, occurred in the summer of 1980, when
a drought and heat wave gripped the central and eastern United States.
These statistics represent the estimated total costs in terms of
dollars and lives. Insured and uninsured losses are included in damage estimates, and direct and indirect deaths are included in fatality
totals. Economic costs are included for wide-scale, long-lasting events,
such as drought. @
Number of declared
disasters
FEMA funding*
(in $billions)
8.22
)
0.43
*Fundingrepresentstotal FEMAexpendituresobligatedfrom the President's DisasterReliefFundfor declareddisasters,emergencies,and

fire suppressiongrantsas of February29, 2000. Expendituresinclude
costs for FEMA'sdisasterassistanceprogramsand hazardmitigation.
Figuresare in currentdollars and don't includefunding providedby
otherparticipatingfedera~agencies.
Billion-Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters Since 1980

Dollars in Billions, Cost Normalized to 1998 Dollars Using GNP Inflation/Wealth Index
Sources: National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, and FEMA.
16
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST2001
ILLUSTRATIONS:ANNIE81SSETT
NFPA CODE 72
THE CODE EVERY INSTALLERa
OF SMOKE DITECTORS MUST
A National Fire Protection Association Code, NFPA 72 state
in brief, that an aerosol may be used to test a smoke detector
only if it is listed and has been specifically approved by the
smoke detector manufacturer concerned.
Warning: If the manufacturer has not specifically OK'd the ~
use of the aerosol product, this automatically absolves the tester
manufacturer of any liabili W. Further, the detector manufacturer
may be expected to declare the detector(s) out ofwarran W
if it is learned that a "non-approved" aerosol has been used.
Smoke Detector Tester, of Home Safeguard Industries,
has been OK'd by nearly all smoke detector manufacturers.
In fact, it is used by several in the manufacture of their detectors.
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Class 2 rated p o w e r limited output.

Switch selectable 12VDC or 2 4 V D C output.
4 amps continuous supply current at 12VDC.
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A C fail supervision.
AL6OOULX
5PECIFICATIONS;
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Input 115VAC / 60Hz,
USTED
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Switch selectable 12VDC
or 2 4 V D C output.
6 amps continuous supply current
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AC fail supervision.
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115VAC 50/60Hz 1.9 amp
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AL802ULADA & AL602ULADA - Typical Application Diagrams
L' Ol oo o o
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.ouT,_ .o,~_
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ilii
To FACPNAC1
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Input l l 5 V A C 50/60 Hz,

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UL1481 ~
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Field selectable 24VDC or 12VDC voltage
regulated power limited outputs.
8 amps continuous supply current.
Separate 50mA auxiliary output with built-in and
remote reset capability.
Two (2) Class A or two (2) Class B FACP inputs.
Two (2) N.C. dry contact trigger inputs.
Programmable supervised indicating
circuit outputs:
Four (4) Class B or Two (2) Class A or One (1)
Class A and Two (2) Class B.
2 wire horn/strobe Sync mode allows audible
notification appliances (horns) to be silenced
while visual notification appliances (strobes)
continue to operate.
Temporal Code 3.
Steady Mode.
Input to Output Follower Mode
(maintains synchronization of notification
appliances circuit).
March Time.
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Output loop supervision steered to input 1
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circle No. 039 on Reader Service Card
ii
MERCANTILE
Electrical short in
heat tape ignites office
wall
ALASKA
A strip mall of offices was heavily damaged by a fire started

when heat tape in a concealed
wall space ignited densely
packed thermal insulation. The
fire, which spread in the wall
void and attic, went unnoticed in
the unoccupied end of the mall
until a passerby saw smoke coming from a west-facing wall.
The single-story, wood-frame
building housed seven businesses, mostly clinics and
medical offices. Measuring 188
feet (57 meters) long and 64 feet
(19 meters) wide, its wood truss
roof was covered by plywood
decking and built-up roofing
material. Only one occupancy
had a fire alarm system, which
consisted of interconnected
smoke detectors that sounded

only a local alarm. There were
no sprinklers.
A passing motorist called 911
at 6:31 p.m. Arriving firefighters, who found heavy,smoke
coming from the roof eaves and
fire showing inside the west
wall, spent three hours and used
more than 170,000 gallons
(64,000 dekaliters) of water to
control the blaze.
Investigators discovered that a
roof drain spout in the west wall
had been wrapped with electrical
heat tape before the wall was
insulated. Arcing from the heat
tape ignited the fberglass insulation, and the fire spread to the
wood wall void 2 feet (0.6
meters) above ground level.
Aided by a natural chimney
effect, the fire traveled up the
void through the attic, and
emerged from the roof overhang.
It appeared that the insulation
covering the heating dement
had deteriorated during the
;~d:)l;~ rl~ .] T~eJlli?!Ol JS /i ~C'Chl;iCJ ptoJ~c~
~SS/St~:!nt i',stl~ Fio?v~'9- Coit~m~.h'~lt,es ~l]d 3

C,~c~ I,t?ugen~r~t lwtt; ~t]e L(2~ng?ot].
Massac!~usc-tts. F~.~e Depa,h~,~?,'~r
20
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
An electrical fire in a single-story strip mall heavily damaged seven

offices and injured three firefighters. The building was a total loss.
course of 15 years and had never

been inspected. Once the wiring
was exposed, it arced against a
brass connection, igniting nearby
combustibles.
The building, valued at

$900,000, was a total loss. Contents, estimated at $600,000,
suffered losses of $250,000.
Three firefighters were injured.
PHOTOGRAPHS: M. SC01~MOON
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Circle No. 019 on Reader Service
4A
I ~ OUR
FROM
FILES
Arson fire spreads to

stock beyond in-rack
sprinklers
TF.XaS
An incendiaq, fire in a large
home-remodeling store spread
through racks of goods containing paints, aerosols, wooden
doors, and trim.
The one-story building was
460 feet long (140 meters) and
300 feet (91 meters) wide with a
high ceiling. Unprotected steel
fi'aming was covered by precast
concrete tilt-panels, and the
metal roof was composed of steel
joists and a built-up asphalt
covering. The fire sprinkler ~stern included overhead and
in-rack sprinklers in the paints
and aerosol storage areas. A fire
pump was also part of
the system, which an alarm
company monitored.
The business was closed at the
time of the fire, but seven
employees were in the building
stocking merchandise. The
employees and the alarm company called the fire department
at 12:39 a.m. Arriving firefighters tbund the blaze had been
limited by 24 ceiling-mounted
and 3 in-rack sprinklers.
During the first hour of the
incident, the fire pump stopped.
The circuit breaker was reset and
the pump restarted. A post-fire
inspection revealed that the
pump case was cracked and that
debris had broken the impeller.
Investigators determined that
the fire was started intentionally
when someone poured a gallon
(4 liters) of Class II combustible
liquid paint thinner over wood
doors and ignited it. Flames
spread to the paint solvents and
began to consume quart and
pint cans of methyl ethyl
22
NFPA JOURNAL
watch
ketones, xylene, toluene, and
methyl isobutyl ketone, 'all stored
outside the coverage area of the
in-rack sprinklers. The fire
then spread into the stored
aerosols section and across
the aisles to other wood and
plastics materials.
The building, valued at $5
million, had losses of $150,000.
Contents, valued at $15 million,
had losses of $1 million. There
were no injuries.
ASSEMBLY
Sprinkler holds
restaurant fire in check
A mother and son were killed and four others were mjured in this
house fire, the doors and windows of which were covered with bars.
It took 55 firefighters three hours to put out the blaze.
[LL1NOIS
A pizza restaurant in a mall
was damaged by a fire that
started when empty, cardboard
boxes placed under electric
warming registers ignited. The
store was opening for the day
and not fully operational. The
property had no smoke detectors
and the smoldering boxes went
undetected until they burst
into flames, at which point a
single sprinkler activated and
extinguished the fire.
The single-story restaurant
was built of masonry, on unprotected steel with a metal roof
deck and a tar and gravel roof
covering. It was 72 feet (22
meters) long and 30 feet (9
meters) wide. A wet-pipe sprinkler system provided full coverage
with 12-foot (4-meter) spacing,
and a central station alarm
company monitored water flow.
A store emplwee opening the
restaurant is believed to have
turned on the electric heat registers that kept pizzas warm.
The fire department received a
water flow alarm from tile alarm
compaW and a call from the
JULY/AUGUST
2001
employee at 8:58 a.m. They

arrived a minute later to find light
smoke coming from the front
door. Firefighters quickly found
the source of the smoke, noted
that the sprinkler had activated,
and shut down the warming registers and the sprinkler system.
Salvage tarps were placed over
computer equipment, and the
remaining water was removed.
Despite the fire, the store
opened later that evening 'after
cleaning crews had serviced it.
The restaurant, valued at
$250,000, sustained losses of
$10,000. Damage to the contents, valued at $50,000, was
$500. An adjacent cable
compaW and dry cleaner
suffered water damage from
the sprinkler runoff.
RESIDENTIAL
Two killed in home

equipped with burglar
bars
FLORIDA
Firefighters responding to a
structure fire had to force their

way into a building that had
burglar bars on the doors and
windows to rescue six unconscious occupants ranging from 5
to 82 years of age. Despite their
rapid removal, a 31-year-old
woman and her 9-year-old son
died of smoke inhalation.
The single-family, woodframe house had no smoke
alarms or sprinklers. Investigators determined that the fire
started in the den, which had
been converted from a carport.
Firefighters responding to the
11:02 p.m. blaze found their
access blocked by bars on the
windows and doors. Using an air
chisel, fire crews removed the
bars from the front door within
30 seconds and entered the
house, followed by a team with a
hose line to keep fire off them.
As the first-in officer headed
to the rear of the structure to
begin a primary search, he
found the first victim, a 5-yearold girl, in the hallway near the
kitchen. Shortly atierwards, the
crew with the hose line found a
PHOTOGRAPH:M JACKLUEDKE/FLORIDATIMES-UNION
watchl
FROM
OUR FILES
10-year-old girl in the dining

morn. Firefighters then found
a 51-year-old man in the bathroom, followed by three others,
including an 82-year-old
woman, in the rear of the
house. Two residents were in
cardiac arrest and the other
four were in respiratory arrest
when they were removed from
the house.
It took 55 firefighters three
hours to extinguish the blaze.
The den conversion at the
rear of the house included
unlicensed and improper
additions and modifications
to the electrical service. A
bundle of wires 21/-, inches
(6 centimeters) thick ran from
a circuit breaker along exterior
walls, across some concrete
steps, into the den, and behind
a wooden bookrack or shelf,
where an unspecified malfunction ignited the fire.
The bookrack or shelving
held an array of electronic
equipment, including amplifiers,
citizens band radios, and wiring
to a communications tower on
the property, all of which suggested the heavy power demand
being placed on the makeshift
wiring. Temporary power cords,
including a 75-foot (223-meter)
extension cord jammed underneath equipment, were being
used, as well. Investigators also
found an operating portable
battery charger supplying power
to two 12-volt lead-acid batteries, which continued to arc even
after firefighters shut off the
electrical service.
The structure, valued at
$60,000, sustained $25,000
in losses. Its contents, valued
at $20,000, sustained a
$15,000 loss. No flrefighters
were injured.
PHOTOGRAPH: NFPA
Sprinkler
extinguishes fire
No injuries in early
morning apartment fire
WASHINGTON
A sprinkler extinguished an apartment fire, even though the efforts
of the unit's occupant to put out
the blaze had caused the flames to
spread fiatther.
The wood-frame, three-story,
12-unit apartment building was
130 feet (40 meters) long and 50
feet (5 meters) wide and had an
asphalt shingle roof. Single-station
smoke alarms had been installed in
the bedrooms, hallway,and living
room of each apartment, and the
building had a sprinkler system
that complied with NFPA 13R,
Installation of Sprinkler Systemsin
Residential Occupanciesup to and
Including Four Storiesin Height.
The system was connected to a
central station alarm company.
A third-floor resident melting
paraffin wax in a small saucepan
on an electric range in the kitchen
left the stove unattended, and
when be returned, he found the
wax had ignited. He threw a
glass of water at the saucepan,
spreading the flames from the
pan onto the stove and counter.
A sprinkler 8 feet (2 meters)
from the stove activated and
extinguished the flames.
Firefighters responding to the
11:13 a.m. water-flow alarm
found that the fire had been
extinguished. Damage to the
building, valued at $1.2 million,
was estimated at $30,000. Its
contents, valued at $50,000,
sustained losses of $2,750. Water
damage to units below the unit
of origin accounted for a huge
share of the loss, although fire
and water damage would probably
have been much greater if the
sprinkler hadn't activated.There
were no injuries.
MICHIGAN
Seventy-five residents of an
apartment building for older
adults were evacuated safely even
though smoke and flames spread
to two floors and the attic during an early morning fire.
Firefighters and sprinklers were
able to limit Ere spread to one
interior fire division.
The L-shaped, 72-unit apartment building contained 24
units per floor, and the two
wings were connected by a central common area. Each wing
had a center corridor nearly 142
feet (43 meters) long by 58 feet
(18 meters) wide. The common
areas, which measured 94 feet by
58 feet (29 meters by 18 meters),
included a day room, a lobby, a
mechanical room, and storage
rooms. The apartments and
common area had hard-wired
smoke detectors monitored by a
central station alarm company.
Standpipes and a partial wetpipe sprinkler system protected
the hallways and common areas.
At 1:56 a.m., the fire department received a 911 call
reporting smoke on the second
floor.Arriving three minutes

later, firefighters noted smoke
coming from the roof and
second floor and, with the help
of police officers, began evacuating the building and rescuing
occupants from balconies.
The frst five responding
flrefighters were joined by
roughly 270 other emergency
workers. They provided numerous ambulances and dry school
buses that transported the residents from a temporary staging
area in a nearby parking lot to
the hospital, where the cafeteria
was used as a temporary processing center. Five residents were
treated for smoke inhalation.
The blaze began in an unoccupied second-floor apartment,
where an unknown heat source
ignited an upholstered chair. The
fire spread to nearby curtains
and out the open patio door,
allowing the flames to spread up
the building's wall to a thirdfloor apartment and the attic.
Using numerous resources,
including a fire partition in the
attic and a pre-incident plan,
firefighters stopped the blaze
from spreading into the
common area and the building's
other wing. The activation of
When an early morning fire erupted in an apartment building for older

adults, all 75 residents were evacuated safely.
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPAJOURNAL
23
I ~ HROM
OUR F n . ~
watch
material. They declared the
fire incendiary.
Damage to the building and
its contents, which had an estimated combined value of
$00,000, came to $320,000.
One firefighter suffered heatrelated injuries. All the residents
escaped safely from the building.
Leaking gas stove

connection ignites
deadly blaze
A 12-unit apartment building suffered $320,000 in damage when fireworks landed on the roof and burned through the roof into the attic,
20 sprinklers also helped

prevent the fire fi'om spreading
and protected the hallways
for evacuation.
The $1.6 million building
suffered $850,000 in damage.
Contents, valued at $1.5 million,
sustained a $750,000 loss. No
firefighters were injured.
Fireworks start fire

on apartment roof
OHIO
One or more airborne fireworks
landed on the roof of an apartment building, starting a fire that
burned into the attic, heavily
damaging the building. Firefighters tried an interior fire attack,
but partial collapses forced them
down and finally out, into a
defensive attack.
The two-ston; 12-unit, woodfranle apartment building had a
brick veneer and an asphalt shingle-on-plywood roof. There were
smoke 'alarms in the hallways,but
none in the units or attic and
there were no sprinklers.
A resident reported seeing a
glow on a balcony and called
911 at 12:57 a.m. Firefighters
arrived four minutes later to find
24
NFPAJOURNAL
that flames were showing fi'om a

second-story balcony and that the
building's occupants had reportedly been evacuated. Advancing a
preconnected hose line into the
unit of origin, they discovered
that the fire on the balcony had
spread along the soffit from a
well-involved attic fire.
Pulling the ceiling down to
gain access to the attic, the firefighters attacked the flames until
they were driven out by a partial
roof collapse. A second collapse
forced them f?om the second
floor, and so firefighters moved to
the southern section of the building, where a fire wall held the
flames in check. When they
opened ceilings, however, they
tbund that the fire had burned off
the roof and circumvented the fire
wall, forcing them to leave as the
ceilings began to collapse.
Firefighters used elevated master streams and deck guns to
knock down the fire in the attic
and second floor, allowing crews
to re-enter the building. They
extinguished the blaze in four second-floor units, which were
heavily damaged.
Investigators determined
fireworks ignited the roofing
JULY/AUGUST
2001
MICHIGAN
Two occupants of"a single-family
house died of severe burns they
received when natural gas leaking from a flexible appliance
connector ignited with explosive
force. The explosion and subsequent fire destroyed the house
and damaged several exposures.
The two occupants, although
burned, were able to leave the
structure on their own and
were aided by neighbors until
firefighters arrived.
The one-story, wood-frame
house had a brick veneer and
was 35 feet (11 meters) long and
29 t~et (9 meters) wide. The roof
was constructed of wood and
covered with asphalt shingles.
There were no sprinklers, but
single-station, battery-operated
smoke alarms had been installed.

Just after 7:00 a.m., a 78-yearold woman and 79-year-old
man were about to prepare their
breald':ast. Unaware of the gas
leak, the woman turned on the
stove, causing the gas to ignite
with explosive force. Contents
ignited in every room of the
floor of origin, and the wall and
ceiling finish of the stairway to
the basement caught fire, as well.
The couple escaped, collapsing
on a nearby lawn where a neighbor smothered the woman's
still-burning clothing.
Responding to a 911 call, firefighters found the house well
involved, with all its doors and
windows blown out and two
injured victims. They concluded
that the two victims were slowed
in escaping by their age but that
this probably wasn't a factor in
their deaths.
Investigators found a crack in
the flexible line supplying the
stove with natural gas. The couple evidently didn't notice the
leaking gas, which collected in
the house for an unknown
length of time. The building and
its contents, valued at $121,318,
were a total loss. At least two
other houses and a motor vehicle
were also damaged.
An elderly couple was killed and their home destroyed when a natural
gas leak ignited. Two other homes and a car were also damaged.
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RUSSEL:
F;. t. LL,'L'!,,q.,. P . E .
Renewed Interest in Exposure Protection Systems

The NFPA 13 sprinkler committee is looking at new exterior protection options.
FORMOREINFORMATION
'FPA 13, Installation of

SprinklerSystems,has grown
through the years as
information ,\xf,~at
was added about new \ x . ' ~ ~ ~
types of sprinklers
and new protec~x,ll
~
ABOUTTHE SWEDISH
tionoptionsand NN~'.~,.~~NN,
xNN~,~ "
INITIATIVE,GOTO
a.s system !nstalhx,~ ~ -~ ~

non reqmrements
,
were explained in ~
more detail. As such,
it's difficult to believe ~
that the standard con- ~
~
~
tains less information ~
~
~
on any subject today
~
than it has in the past.
~
Still, this is the
situation with exposure protection sprinkler
I~o
systems used to protect
building exteriors, particularly those of combustible structures susceptible to damage from adjacent hazards. For
example, an exterior sprinkler system is credited with
having saved the historic Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone
National Park when flames ravaged the area in 1988.
FORMOREINFORMAIIDN
ON SPRINKLERSAND
NFPA 13 AND FIREWISE.VISIT
OUR WEB Sfi'EAI
WWW.NFPA.ORG.
WWW.SPRINKLERWORLD,ORG.
still a gap in terms of discharge criteria for protecting

combustible walls, guidance on installing and spacing
detection equipment, and other basic information
on system layout and detailing. The old
criteria contain terms, such as
"ridge-pole sprinkler," that
aren't evenrecognizedin
'~NN,~ ~
\T~I_._._
today's
firesprinkler
~ ' ~
~ 3 ~
~,.~~-~-------'-'try.
"
,'/~"~
~
~_~~/i.~--"
1---To remedy
, ( J ~ _ ) : l ~ ~
Ni/ ~'-],~____
th,.s sltu,a~ / /3 \ I, )/1"~'~"'-7~. x i / [ I / ~ ' - ' non, me
~ )
~J/ ) ~ f ~ ' ~ / ~ /
= ,
* W~
Waning interest
That's not to say that NFPA standards ignore exposure
protection altogether. NFPA 80A, Protectionof Buildings
from Exterior Fire Exposures, allows credit in the form of
reduced minimum separation distances when deluge-type
exposure protection systems are installed to protect combustible exteriors or openings in fire-resistive walls.
Fifty years ago, however, rules for exposure protection
systems were the subject of an entire chapter in a much
smaller version of NFPA 13. But interest in the subject
waned, and the 1991 edition contained only scattered
paragraphs that eliminated most design details.
Although discharge criteria for window protection has
been returned to the standard in recent editions, there's
Russell t? Fleming, R E. , is vtce president of Engineering

for tt]e National Fire Spnnkler Association and a memOer
of the NFPA Techmcal Conelattng Committee on Automatlc Spnnklers.
26
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST2001
"-/~----.
~
- ('/~/
~
Z
~
~
Committee
~
on SprinklerSystem
.
Discharge
C riteria
is proposing
additional guidance
on exposure protection in the system guide in the 2002
edition of the standard. It's an opportune time to revisit
the subject, since there appears to be renewed interest in
exposure protection sprinkler systems.
A lesson from Sweden
In Sweden, the International Fire Sprinkler Association

is working with the Sprinkleffr/imjandet organization to
install exposure sprinklers to protect an entire street of
historic wooden structures in the town of Eksjt. Earlier
this year, a whole block of the wooden center of the
Swedish city of Jtnktping burned to the ground. To prevent this from happening in Eksjt, a row of open
sprinklers will be installed along the top of each side of
the street front, with an additional row where the building heights are more than 20 feet (6 meters). Both
organizations view this as a demonstration project, hoping similar installations can prevent future losses of
unique Swedish building features.
In the United States, NFPA is partnering with the U.S.
Department of Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, and other
organizations in the new Firewiseprogram, aimed at protecting communities against wildland fires. It includes
educational programs that discuss various techniques for
designing homes and other structures to withstand such
fires. Based on past experience, exposure protection sprinkler systems can play an important role in that effort, i~
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~ ~ AE;v,~: e.; RUSS S A N D E R S
Firefighters" Use of Elevators)

Using elevators during a fire requires establishing specific SOPs.
f firefighters can safely use elevators during fire

operations on the upper floors of a building,
fireground logistics are dramatically improved.
Unfortunately, elevators often stall or act erratically
under fire conditions, leaving firefighters in an elevator
stalled between floors in substantial danger. Firefighters
in an elevator that stops at a floor with considerable fire
involvement may also be in immediate danger. Therefore,
some fire departments forbid the use of elevators during
high-rise firefighting, while others establish rules for
using elevators as part of the department's standard operating procedures (SOPs). When writing elevator SOPs
consider the following rules.
Never use an elevator of questionable safety and don't
use elevators for fires on lower floors.
An SOP should spell out the lowest floor where an
elevator can be used.
Never take an elevator directly to the fire floor.
Instead, get off at least two floors below the fire.
When available, take advantage of fire separations
and split-bank elevators.
Place elevators under independent fire department
control.
Control all elevators in multiple hoistways.
Never overcrowd elevators and always wear
personal protective clothing, including self-contained
breathing apparatus.
Firefighters using elevators should carry forcible
entry, tools and stop periodically to make sure the elevator
is under control, checking floors for signs of smoke or fire
and victims and to review the floor configuration.
A lot can be learned about elevator operations during
pre-incident planning. For instance, some buildings are
divided into fire zones, while others, such as hospitals, are
typically built with fire-rated separations. This separation
is important when controlling the spread of fire and smoke
and protecting internal exposures. In a hospital, for
example, it's better to move patients horizontally to a
The decision
to permit firefighters
to use elevators
during a fire depends
on many factors and
is part of the IC's
risk-versus-benefit
analysis.
THISCOLUMNIS ADAPTED
FROMTHE BOOK
STRUCTURALFIREFIGHTING.
AVAILABL[THROUGHNFPAAT
WWW.NFPA.ORG OR (800)
344-3555. THE BOOK'S
OBJECTIVEIS TO PREPARE
THEFIREOFFICERTOTAKE
COMMANDAT STRUCTURAL
FIRES. USINGAVAILABLE
RESOURCESSAFELYAND
EFFECTIVELY.
protected zone in the building than to try to evacuate

bedridden patients by elevator. If an elevator must be used
to move firefighters or evacuate victims, it's safer to use
those separated from the fire area by two or more firewalls.
In addition, some elevator lobbies are similar to
smoke-proof stairs. They aren't connected directly to the
main building but are separated by open air. It's usually
safe to use sprit-bank elevators if the incident commander
(IC) is certain that the elevator shaft ends below the fire
floor. All this information should be included in the
department's pre-incident plans.
The IC must conduct a risk-versus-beneft analysis
before allowing firefighters to use an elevator. Examples of
size-up considerations are the building's height and configuration, automatic fire suppression equipment, and the
potential rife hazard. Elevator SOPs should be kept
current, and all firefighters should be familiar with them.
These procedures should include alternative measures for
getting needed equipment to the frre floor when elevators
can't be used.
Split-bank elevators with upper and lower zones.
Hit
ele
set
firs
anl
nin
fou
floq
rise
itor
Bh
sh;
28
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST2001
at
h
TRUCK
[~ HOSE
:r
!
r j !
,I i
. .
~.
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The Competency of Haz-Mat Responders

NFPA 472 specifies training levels and adds competencies.
NEPA472 IS IN THE FALL

2001 REVISIONCYCLE.FOR
MOREINFORMATION
ON NFPA472, VISIT
WWW.NFPA.ORG.
hen
hazardous
materials
are
accidently released from their containers, an emergency incident begins. Those
responding to these emergencies must be
well trained to handle them. NFPA 472, ProfessionalCom-
petence of Respondersto Hazardous Materials Emergencies,

specifies the minimum competencies for those whose job
it is to respond to hazardous materials incidents.
at's the relationship between NFPA 472 and
.~derel regulations related to hazardous waste
operations and emergency response in 29
CFR 1910.120, Paragraph (q)?
What are some examples

defensive actions?
of first-responder
NFPA 472 is compatible with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
hazardous materials regulations found in
1910.120, Paragraph (q), which addresses
emergency response to hazardous substance
releases. Both documents, originally developed in
the late 1980s, initially described the training and
:ompetencies for first responders at the awareness
~el, first responders at the operations level, hazdous materials technicians, hazardous materials
,ecialists, and on-scene incident commanders.
Defensive actions at the awareness level include detecting

the presence of materials, surveying the incident from a
safe distance to identify the hazardous materials, collecting
hazard information from appropriate reference books,
initiating the notification process for other trained
response personnel, and securing the area. At the operafional level, defensive actions also include predicting the
probable behavior of a material and its container, estimating the potential harm, identifying emergency
decontamination procedures, establishing and enforcing
control procedures and zones, using personal protective
equipment,and communicating the status of the response.
N has NFPA 472 evolved from its original contion of levels of competence?
What's the North American Emergency Response

Guidebook, which is referenced in the standard?
detailed levels of competency were added in the

1992 and 1997 editions. The original hazardous
materials specialist was dropped from NFPA 472 and
replaced with competencies for private-sector
i
specialist employee levels A, B, and C. New
competency levels have been defined for
hazardous materials branch officers and
hazardous materials branch safety officers and
for technicians with a tank car spedahy, a cargo
tank specialty, and an intermodal tank specialty.
The Emergency Response Guidebook was developed for

firefighters, pofice officers, and other emergency services
personnel who may be the first on the scene of a
transportation incident involving a hazardous material. It
helps first responders identify the specific or generic classification of the materials involved in the incident so that
they can protect themselves and the public during the initial response. The 2000 edition dropped the term "North
American" from the fide.
What's the main difference between the

first responder levels and the
technician levels?
First responders at the awareness and operational levels

respond in a defensive manner to recognize and react to a
release from a safe distance to keep it from spreading.
Technicians respond up close to a release, as needed, using
specialized chemical protective clothing and specialized
control equipment. Technicians are trained at the
awareness and operational levels and undergo specialized
training that teaches them to analyze situations and to
plan and implement a response.
Jerry Laughlin JS NFPA staff liaison to the Technical

CommtUee on Hazardous Materials Response Personnel.
What are the parameters of a response plan for a

hazardous materials incident?
A response plan must be within the capabilities of

available personnel, as well as their personal protective
equipment and control equipment. It must include safety
considerations and be consistent with the local emergency
response plan, as well as the organization's standard
operating procedures.
CONTINUEDONPAGE83
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
31
,com pli,,a n t e
Calculating Occupant Loads
Proper calculations are crucial to accurate code applications.
J
FOR MORE INFORMATION
ON NFPA IOl ".
LIFE
SAFETYCODE', CHECK OUT

WWW.NFPA.ORG.
hen applying both NFPA 101, Life Safety

Code, and the model building codes to any
structure that will be occupied, the designer
must take into account its projected occupant loads. The occupant load of a building affects the
number and capacity of its means of egress, as well as has
an impact on the structure's occupancy classification,
its plumbing fixtures, and its ventilation rates. Therefore,
it's essential that a proper occupant load calculation be
performed when a new building is designed or an existing
one analyzed.
Unfortunately, the selection of the proper occupant load
factor is often misunderstood, as is the potential to
increase the calculated occupant load based upon the
number of people anticipated in a space.
Occupant load factors

Table 7.3.1.2 of the Life Safety Code identifies the occupant load factors to be used as part of the way the space is
used, rather than on its occupancy classification.
For example, an office conference room should be calculated using a different measure than the surrounding
office space. While the surrounding
office space may be calculated at 100
gross square feet (9 square meters)
per person, the conference room is
~1~
calculated using 15 net square feet
~,~
(1 square m e t e r ) p e r person,
..
assuming that the conference
~{
room will be furnished with
"-L':s and chairs. This is
because the designer
can anticipate that the
concentration of peo31e in the conference
al will be greater than the
:entration in the surrounding offices. If divided by
the occupant load factor of 15
dm square feet (1 square meter), a
300-square-foot
(28-square~ ~ meter) conference room would have a
W~lham E. Koffel, P.E.. ~s president of Koffel Associates.

an independent fire protection firm with offices in
Maryland. Connechcut. and Tennessee.
32
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
calculated occupant load of 20 people. While this

number is less than the number in the Life Safety Codethat
defines an assembly occupancy, the occupant load
factors for assembly use should be used.
In most cases, a design team must analyze the function
of the space to determine the actual number of people
anticipated in a certain space. This information is often
found in the program requirements.
If an office tenant indicates that a 300-square-foot (28square-meter) conference room needs to accommodate 25
people seated at tables, the designers can analyze the
room's geometry and the type of tables and chairs to be
used. Should the room actually accommodate 25 people,
the calculated occupant load will be 25, regardless of the
number calculated using an occupant load factor.
If the actual design or furniture configuration requires
the conference room to be 400 square feet (37 square
meters), however, the occupant load for design purposes
will be 27 people. This is reached by dividing 400 by 15
square feet per person. Even though the owner has indicated that the room is to accommodate 25 people, it could
easily accommodate 27 with different furniture or a
different furniture configuration.
Maximum occupant load
In most cases, the calculated value using the appropriate
occupant load factor is the minimum occupant load. Using
the higher of the values is the conservative approach. Since
the occupant load is also used to determine the capacity of
a structure's means of egress, including the direction of door
swing, the types of egress, and the need for panic hardware,
using the higher number will place a greater demand on the
egress system. This higher value should also be used when
posting the occupant load permitted in a space.
While the occupant load may exceed the value calculated using an occupant load factor, the codes usually
establish a maximum occupant load permitted in an
assembly occupancy. For example, the Life Safety Code
states that the occupant load shall not exceed one person
per 7 square feet (0.6 square meters) when the area of the
space exceeds 10,000 square feet (930 square meters). For
spaces smaller than 10,000 square feet (930 square
meters), the occupant load is not to exceed one person per
5 square feet (0.4 square meters).
Since occupancy classification may be based on the
occupant load calculation, these calculations are essential
to the proper application of code requirement.
ILLUSTRATION: DAVE EMBER
~!~i~!i
11111111111111
The Preferred Code S e t |

Why NFPA's Building Code T~ will become part of the federal government's code set.
TONY O'NEILL AND NFPA'S

WASHINGTON. D.C.. OFFICE
STAFF CAN BE REACHEDM
WDC@NFPA.ORG.
ow will the federal government view NFPA

5000, NFPA's new consensus-based Building
CodeTM, when it debuts a year from now? Several
federal agencies are currently reviewing the
recently released second draft of NFPA 5000 to see if it fits
into their plans. I predict it will.
Previously, federal agencies that build and operate
buildings have depended on three regional model building
codes as sources for federal structural criteria. Last year,
those building codes were merged into the new International Building Code(IBC). So why hasn't the federal
government grabbed the IBC and run with it? Most
agencies are holding off on a decision for several reasons.
First, one must look at the code adoption decision from
the user's viewpoint. The key question is how compatible
NFPA 5000 will be with the codes and standards federal
agencies already use. How do agencies keep their existing
"built environment" at an acceptable level of safety? The
answer in most federal agencies is their successfid
use of NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, and ~ .
NFPA 1, FirePreventionCode.
The Life Safety Code
II
The role of NFPA's Life Safe(v

Code in the t?deral govern- /
ment's decision to choose a
building code can't be underestimated. The Feds want a
building code that represent~
state-of-the-art data fiw
structural and fire s a f c t , ~ ~ _ ~
design
and
that ~,,~:~~\,~[~!([;:f~
addresses natural disas~.
~ ' { i i ~ , ~b;-~: .i;~
'~'
ters, such as earthquakes \ \ ' ~ ' ~ i ~ m
wind, and floods. They also
want a building code that harmonizes with their current codes
and standards - - which leads directly
to NFPA's Life Safety Codeand the need
for a new national building code to be integrated with it.
Anthony R. O'Ne#l is a
senior
Federal representatives in the code-development

process want to be active participants in advancing stateof-the-art of building design and fire safety, not
bystanders. This means voting at the technical committee
level. Of the more than 400 committee members helping
to develop NFPA 5000, several are federal code users.
One reason federal agencies choose to adopt NFPA
codes and standards is because NFPA uses a full-consensus codes- and standards-adoption process, and federal law
and White House directives require federal agencies to use
consensus-based technical standards wherever practical.
The practicality of using NFPA's consensus-based
BuildingCodehas never been clearer.
The bottom line
Federal stakeholders want a comprehensive set of codes

compatible with the consensus codes and standards they've
relied on to maintain the safety of their properties in the
past. This means NFPA's consensus~
Building Code will more
than likely become an
integral part of the preferred federal code set.
t=E. \
"
consultant with NFPAs
Government Affairs Department, in our Washingto&

D.C., office.
34
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
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WAYNE D. MOORE, P.E., FSFPE
The Only Constant Is Change

As users of NFPA's codes and standards, we experience change on a scheduled basis.
J
WAYNE MOORECAN BE
REACHEDAT
WMOORE@HAIFIRE.COM.
l ave you noticed that chan~e

occurs when
expected? "
it
ofte
comes when we're
least prepared to deal
with its consequences? As NFPA
members and users
of NFPA's codes
and standards, we
experience change
every time a hardworking technical
committee revises a code
or standard.
~ , ~
Spencer Johnson, M.D.,
"~
who wrote Who Moved My__
Cheese?, advises that the best way. . .to
.
cope with change is to anticipate it. Well, it's
time again to anticipate changes to NFPA 72 ,
National Fire Alarm Code.
How it's done
Last January, the technical committees responsible for

the various sections of NFPA 72 met at the Report on
Proposals(ROP) meeting in San Antonio, Texas, to review
and act on 537 pubfic proposals to change the code. As
many as 55 new or revised definitions were proposed.
These changes result from advances in technology; fire
research, lessons learned in actual fires, and numerous user
requests for interpretations of the code.
Committee members, who may also submit changes
during a committee meeting, are currently preparing
responses to these proposals. If a committee revises or
rejects a proposal in whole or in part, it must state the
reason. After discussing and verbally voting on the proposed changes, the committee members must also approve
their report by letter ballot.
If two-thirds of the committee members eligible to
vote approve the report, the process continues. For the
Wayne D. Moore. P E.. FSFPE. is chair of the National Fire

Alam~ Code Techmcal Conelatmg Committee, a
member of NFPA 909, and director of Operations for
the New England office of Hughes Associates, Inc.
36
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
National
Fire Alarm
Code, this is the
point at which the
~-'~ "~D
technical correlating comD
mittee reviews each of the
committees' actions to make
sure that they don't conflict.
Once the ROP becomes
available this summer, anyone can
submit a comment on the proposed changes during a
60-day public comment period. The front o the ROP
booklet includes blank public comment forms, which
may be submitted by mail, by fax, or at NFPA's web
site, www.nfpa.org.
This process clearly fits into another of Dr.Johnson's
corollaries: monitor change. Interested parties should
read the proposed changes to the National Fire Alarm
Code to ensure that they agree with the committee's
interpretation of, and action on, each proposal. You'll
find that the majority of committee members give their
best efforts to make NFPA 72 more user-friendly and
technically accurate.
At one time or another, each of us can be accused of
resisting changes to NFPA 72, if for no other reason
than that we're familiar with the existing material. I'm
probably typical of many engineers in that I don't always
accept changes in my life quickly. Before we lament that
NFPA 72 is changing, however, we should remember
that these changes are being made to improve the code.
So, as Dr. Johnson says, "Be ready to change quickly and
enjoy it again!"
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Circle No. 040 on ReaderService Card
leadership
Recognizing Team a n d Individual Efforts
A good leader emphasizes healthy competition and its benefits.
J
CHIEFPAULSGROVECAN BE
REACHEDAT:
PAULSGROVER@CI.
ARLINGTON.TX.US.
n the 1980s, when many U.S. companies

introduced quality, management initiatives
rooted in Japanese industry, the seminar gurus
told us that competition was uniquely American.
Japanese counterparts, they said, demonstrated a
commitment to the company and to the team.
In the past decade when dot-corns dominated
business and economic expansion, a new generation
of entrepreneurial employees was lured from one
company to the next with increased salaries, stock
options, and novelty benefits. They exchanged one
company logo for another, without a backward
glance.
The fire service remains one industry where career
employment is the norm. In the Arlington, Texas,
Fire Department, distributing 10-, 15-, and 25-year
service tenure awards and recognizing the retirement
of veteran fire service leaders mark ever), year. It's a
rare instance when a member of our organization
leaves before retirement.
Loyalty to the "company" and to the mission is
ingrained. The nature of our service and the magnitude of
the tasks, along with the risks associated with an
uncontrolled environment, make teamwork fundamental.
Spirit remains
Whether unique to the American spirit or not, individualism and competitiveness remain. In some departments, the
fire apparatus bears the team name stenciled with a logo on
the side of the truck. The "Smoke Eaters" and the "Red
Dragons" signify a fire company's personal signature.
While the larger organization may be more difficult to
identify, smaller work groups bond and compete.
It isn't difficult to embrace the morale-enhancing
benefits of team identification, but it can be more difficult
to evaluate when competition is heal@ and when we're
using natural tendencies to our advantage.
When an officer uses his or her unit's personal identity
to inspire, challenge, and motivate that team, that clearly
can have a positive impact on the organization.
Conversely, a battalion chief who negotiates personnel
-'x
~ / ~ Robin F. Paulsgroveis the cl~ief of the 4rlmgton.
Texas. F/re Department. immediate past chart of the
I
IAFC.NFPAMetro Chiefs Sechon. and a member of NFPA's
Board of D~rectors.
38
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
assignments to make his or her battalion the strongest,

without regard for the impact on the system, is leading a
competitive team without leading the organization.
An extreme disadvantage
As a leader, my goal is alignment around a single vision.
While every unit is critical, I want employees to identify
with the larger team, with each unit striving to achieve the
organization's objectives. That's where the fire service is at
an extreme disadvantage.
Stations scattered throughout a service area and personnel divided among a number of shifts make it difficult for
individual units to feel part of the whole. In fact, when we
communicate performance results to our department, they
want to see the numbers broken down by companies.
Workload measures, like the number of runs per
company, are important in the organization and members
take pride in being on a unit that"beats" other units. While
Station Two isn't responsible for the call volume, it's the
busiest company, recognized and respected by others in the
organization. We try to capitalize on that competition by
communicating performance within the control of fire
units. For example, we share the number of public
education events on a shift and unit basis to increase
exposure and accountability and to inspire competition.
The success of the Arlington Fire Department isn't as
dependent on the performance of individual superstars as
it is on everyone's dedication to a winning team.
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Now, T h a t D e s e r v e s a Standing Ovation
Risk Watch helps students grow io unexpected wws.
FOR MORE INFORMATION

ON RISK WATCHL VISIT OUR
WEB SITEM
WWW.NFPA.ORG.
hey filed quietly into the conference room,

crackling with energy. Mrs. Hebb's class of 20
second- and third-graders were fresh off the bus
from their school north of Boston. All decked
out in their Sunday best, they were ready to show NFPA's
2001 Champion Management Teams (CMTs) how much
they'd learned from their weeks of Risk Watchinstruction.
Guided by the school's health curriculum coordinator,
the students had worked ~fll winter researching the risk
areas of their choice and developing presentations to give
to an audience of more than 100 adults. Their teachers
had explained that they'd be making their presentations to
state-level teams of fire, law enforcement, health, and education professionals from the CMTs representing Florida,
Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and southern
California, as well as ma W visitors from the United States,
Canada, England, and Japan.
Outlining program goals

Mrs. Hebb outlined her Risk Watchobjectives for the kids
in her classroom, an exceptional blend of second- and
third-graders in one class that includes children of varying
developmental levels.
The number one goal, Mrs. Hebb explained, was to
teach her pupils how to avoid preventable injury. Second,
she wanted to differentiate instruction so it would meet
the needs of a diverse group of learners with an instructional range of about six years, enabling the children to tap
their multiple intelligences.
"And third," said the busy teacher, "we wanted to
integrate the Risk Watchcurriculum in such a way that it
would meet other required learning standards."
After their introduction, the children took center stage.
Presenting in groups of two or three, they explained how
each team had researched one of the eight risk areas covered in Risk Watch.They became "class experts," teaching
their specialities to each other, their parents, and the firstgrade classes at their school. Using computer software,
drama, videos, exhibit booths, and other methods, each
team created its own educational presentation.
The children took advantage of their local community
safety professionals to get answers to their questions, and
they consulted experts in their school.
"Do your own children fall a lot?" Cordelia asked her
school nurse in a videotaped interview designed as a television news report.
"Not really," Ms. Decker replied. "How about you?"
Cordelia revealed that she had suffered a badly bruised
knee on the playground a few years back and that Melanie
had split her lip and needed stitches. Both girls, now
expert Risk Watchers,explained how these injuries could're
been prevented.
Other presentations featured bike safety hand signals, a
statistical review of childhood deaths from choking, and a
Lewof common household poisons.
I1fantastic experience
The Risk Watchpresenters demonstrated an impressive understanding of their subject matter, and, as
they concluded, the audience, including NFPA's
Public Education staff, rose in a standing ovation.
That evening, while still at the conference, the
school's health curriculum coordinator told me
the teachers felt that Risk Watch had been a fantasic experience for the children, especially for one
dent with a developmental disability. Before that
aay, she had never spoke out in class and here she was
confident and poised in front of the microphone. If selfesteem contributes to a child's educational success, general
health, and well-being, then Risk Watch and the teachers
and community partners who support it may be doing
more than we ever imagined---and that deserves a standing ovation. #
40
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2001
ILLUSTRATION:CYNDY PATRICK
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NFPA's Building Code TM references the best guidelines for dealing with
forces of nature.
SHELLYREESE
~. %;,/-
4:
'hile the term "trial by fire" may imply the ultimate test, NFPA committee members working on NFPA 5000, NFPA Building CodeTM, know other disasters
represent serious structural threats. Call them trial by earthquake. Or water. Or
snow, ice, or hail. Natural disasters may be the ultimate barometer of a building
code's mettle because they represent some of the most extreme conditions to which a structure
will be subjected.
With that knowledge, the NFPA 5000 technical committees have relied on referencing existing guidelines and standards to craft the new code, which will be available for public comment
August 1 and voted on in May 2002.
The technical correlating committee's methodology will be familiar to anyone who has ever
filled out a sports All-Star ballot. The task: select the best of the best. The goal: compile the best
possible team or, in this case, develop a scientifically sound and economically feasible set of minimum design requirements.
A storm front approached downtown Houston, Texas, in March 2001. (opposite)

In the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge
earthquake in Southern California, a gas
pipeline ruptured and ignited as the street
was flooded by water from broken water
mains. (below)
FORTHE LATESTINFORMATIONON NFPA'SBUILDING
CODUM. GO TO WWW.NFPA.ORG.
Deferring to the experts
NFPA 5000 isn't intended to reinvent the wheel, emphasizes Robert Solomon, NFPA~s chief
building fire protection engineer. Rather, it seeks to bring together the best consensus-based
guidelines and standards developed by other organizations. While the code may highlight certain
key points tbund in these other standards, the excerpts won't be considered in a vacuum. Instead,
NFPA 5000 refers users to the original documents in their entirety.
"We aren't pretending that knowing these basic elements is enough,"
says Solomon. "We want designers, engineers, contractors, and code
officials to refer to the base documents. We didn't want to select standards
piecemeal. When you do that, there's always the chance something might
get amended and conflict with the underlying reference document. Our
approach guarantees consistency over the years and ensures that requirements will be scientifically based."
Loads: Describing the environment
When designing a structure, engineers and architects must first consider
the forces, or loads, both internal and external, that a building max
encounter during its lifetime. Then they design it to resist those forces.
While NFPA 5000 references a wide array of standards and guidelines,
the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) standard, Minimum
Design Loadsfor Buildings and Other Structures, also known as ASCE 7, features prominently.
"The philosophy of structural engineering design is that you have an environment, and the
building is set into it," explains Bonnie Manley, NFPA's structural engineer. "The environment
includes certain environmental loads, such as wind, seismic, snow, flood, and rain loads. There
are also dead load, which is the weight of the building itself, live load, or the people it will
shelter; and impact load issues. ASCE 7 bases its assumptions for loads on probable events."
To assess environmental loads, ASCE 7 uses detailed maps to track where a wind, seismic, or
snow event might occur and the probable severity of that event. ASCE 7 also requires structures
in areas to be designed to meet building requirements with those design perils in mind.
As a result, buildings in different states are required to meet different environmental-load
standards. For example, an elementary school near the New Madrid fault in Missouri needs to
meet different seismic criteria than a similar school in Miami, where seismic activity is unlikely,
but hurricanes are a threat.
ASCE 7 also considers a building's occupan~ when determining minimum load requirements. The standard divides buildings into four categories based on their importance and
assigns a corresponding multiplier. For example, a hospital is held to a higher standard than a
retail outlet. Similarly, a power station needs to meet stricter requirements than a barn.
ASCE 7 is "the standard that's used by the structural community," says Jim Rossberg,
director of ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute, so NFPA 5000's heavy reliance on it means
engineers "won't find any surprises" in the new building code.
PHOTOGRAPH: AP/WIDEWORLD
Shelly Reese is a frequent contributor to

NFPA Journal.
JULY/AUGUST 2003.
NFPAJOURNAL
43
Dozens of homes were destroyed and at least 33 people died when El NJ~o-driven
tornadoes ripped through central Florida in 1998.
ASCE 7 has earned a great deal of credibility in the structural community because it's
based on Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) guidelines. These guidelines, rooted in research, provide an
unassailable foundation for ASCE 7 and,
ultimately, NFPA 5000.
"What I think is different about the development of the natural hazard side of the code
is that a lot of the information is driven by
FEMA guideline documents," says Solomon.
"Those recommended provisions may not
have been written into code language but they
get the point across. It's unique that a federal
government agency sets the bar."
ASCE 7 is a keystone document because
it translates federal guidelines for flood
and seismic protection into code language.

"It's a load standard, so it doesn't cover
everything, but it's a great starting point," says
Michael Mahoney, a geophysicist with
FEMA's National Earthquake Program office.
Resistance: Surviving the environment
NFPA 5000 committee members are turning

to another group of experts to address resistance issues because ASCE 7 focuses on the
load side of the structural equation.
In general, resistance describes how the
building will withstand the loads it may be
exposed to during its lifetime and tends to be
a material-specific matter. For example, comparable steel and concrete structures next to
each other might respond differently to an
earthquake or hurricane. The same holds true

for brick or wood. Consequently, NFPA 5000
cites standards developed by the professional
organizations specializing in specific types of
building materials.
On the resistance side, NFPA 5000 draws
on guides and requirements prescribed by a
variety of organizations, including the American Institute of Steel Construction, the
American Iron and Steel Institute, the Portland Cement Association, the American
Concrete Institute, the American Forest
and Paper Assodation, and the American
Wood Council.
Standards referenced in NFPA 5000 reflect
up-to-date information about maximizing a
specific material's ability to withstand the
stress imposed by natural disaster, as well as
consensus-based thinking, a key component
of NFPA 5000.
"Consensus-based thinking is important
when we look at other documents because
they bring together a wide range of backgrounds," says Gary Keith, NFPA's vice
president of Building Codes and Standards.
"By bringing all those different backgrounds to the table, you're bringing
together the best of the best. To us, that's
P R E S S S Research Program
o
en years ago, when the National Science Foundation (NSF) began to

study precast, prestressed concrete, it asked industry representatives
to identify the issue most in need of research. For industry representatives, the answer was obvious: the effect on precast, prestressed concrete
of significant seismic activity. Precast, pretstressed concrete is a concrete
structural member cast and cured in a position other than its final position
in the structure with an initial compressive stress applied to it either before
or after it cures.
Historically, "precast concrete hadn't been used in the majority of seismicprone zones becausenot enough researchhad been done on how it responded
to earthquakes;' says Paul Johal, director of Researchand Developmentfor the
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) in Chicago. "It needed more
research to win acceptance in seismic zones, such as California7
So the NSF,the PCI, and the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Manufacturers
Association of California, inc. launched a coordinated effort dubbed the Precast Seismic Structural Systems (PRESSS) Research Program. In all, more
than a dozen U.S. research teams analyzed ways to improve concrete's seismic performance.
The research teams set out to develop comprehensive design recommendations needed for wider acceptance of precast concrete in different seismic
zones and to develop new materials, concepts, and technologies for precast
construction in these areas. While the goal of design codes is to prevent collapse and loss of life, PRESSS also sought to minimize earthquake damage.
44
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
During the project's initial phases, PRESSS concentrated on design and

analysis. The final phase focused on research and development, culminating
in September 1999 with the construction of a five-story building at 6D-percent scale to test five key seismic systems, including four ductile frame
systems and a jointed shear wall system, using precast concrete components
developed during earlier phases of the project. The building model was then
subjected to testing for low, moderate, and severe earthquakes.
According to Johal, all five seismic systems were tested beyond the maximum cycled drift required by building codes, and each passed the test.
Each system incorporated more ductile joint connections, he says, which
were essential to their performance. Traditionally,joints were created to be as
strong and rigid as the structure beams and columns. Consequently,damage
could occur virtually anywhere. The new, more flexible joints, although more
susceptible to damage, localize failures, making them easier to find and repair.
"In the past, damage would be random and severe, but this concept has
really changed things;' says Johal.
The test dispelled long-held notions about how precast components operate and the role that joints can play in seismic design, he says. Flexiblejoints
can, with proper design, represent a structural advantage because they help
absorb the force of an earthquake by flexing with it.
Although design guidelines are in draft form, Johal says a report based on
the project is currently being completed, and program participants are starting to incorporate findings into model building codes, such as NFPA 5000.
PHOTOGRAPH:AP/WlDE WORLD
SAC Steel Proiect

J
n January 17, 1994, the Northridge earthquake, which registered 6.7 on

Ithe moment magnitude scale, struck Southern California, causing more
than $30 billion worth of property damage. Also destroyed were conventions about the ability of welded steel moment-frame buildings to withstand
earthquakes without suffering significant damage.
The frames, frequently used in high-rise construction between 1964 and
1994, were widely considered resilient because steel is a ductile material that
can be bent out of shape without breaking. For that reason, researchers were surprised to discover that roughly one-third of the nearly 200 steel moment-frame
buildings suffered damage, often in the form of cracks at the welded connections
between beams and columns.
"Our feeling before Northridge was that steel was one of the best seismic performers;' says Michael Mahoney, a geophysicist with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's (FEMA) National Earthquake Program office. "Northridge
wasn't the ultimate test, but we were getting brittle fractures"
Although the steel moment-frame buildings didn't collapse, "they didn't
behave the way we expected them to, and, had a longer or stronger quake
occurred, we could've had more problems," he says.
This potential for cracking called into question common wisdom and existing
building codes, and inspired FEMA to undertake a massive investigation. The
resulting six-year, $12-million program studied the effects of seismic activity on
steel moment frames, quantified the risk inherent in steel structures, and developed practical engineering criteria to reduce it.
FEMA contracted with the Structural Engineers Association of California, the
Applied Technology Council, and California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering to form the SAC Joint Venture, which takes its name from the
first letter of each partner's name, and conduct the study.
Drawing on the skills of structural engineers, engineering researchers, and
building officials, participants initially embarked on a two-year research program
to develop interim solutions for the identification, evaluation, repair, and modification of damaged welded steel moment-frame buildings. New design and
construction approaches were devised. Those efforts culminated in a set of
interim guidelines known as FEMA 267, published in August 1995.
With interim measures in place, the team set about dissecting building codes
that were developed during the past 20 years to address welded moment frames,
Design criteria were questioned, tested, and, in some cases, revalidated. New cri-
the best way of putting the codes and referonce documents together."
Each material, whether it serves a structural
purpose, acts as a cosmetic veneer, or serves a
dual function, ~ll have its place in the building
code. Thus, the code will include chapters on
concrete, aluminum, masonry, steel, wood,
glass and glazing, gypsum board, lath and plaster, and plastic. Prescriptions addressing natural
disasters will be included throughout the document. However, an entire chapter will be
dedicated to flood-resistant design and construction, while hail ~ be covered primarily
in the roofing systems chapter.
teria and construction standards were tested and written in cases where
existing criteria fell short.
"l think this effort is unprecedented," says Ron Hamburger, chief structural
engineer for EQE Structural Engineers in Oakland, California, who was in charge
of writing the guidelines. In all, more than 100 professionals from around the
country, including engineers and welding and design experts, participated in
the program.
Last September,the group's efforts resulted in the publication of four practice
guidelines intended to help engineers design safer welded steel moment-frame
buildings, to help building owners determine whether and how to upgrade their
buildings, and to help inspectors assessthe safety of the buildings after a quake.
These guidelines, FEMA 350, Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New
Steel Moment-Frame Buildings; FEMA 351, Recommended Seismic Evaluation
and Upgrade Criteria for Existing Welded Steel Moment-Frame Buildings; FEMA
352, Recommended Post.Earthquake Evaluation and Repair Criteria for Welded
Steel Moment-Frame Buildings; and FEMA 353, Recommended Specifications
and Quality Assurance Guidelines for Steel Moment.Frame Construction or
Seismic Applications, are free and can be ordered directly from FEMA.
FEMA produced a fifth, non-technical guide, FEMA354, Policy Guide to Steel
Moment-Frame Construction, to answer building owners' questions about the
SAC project and its findings,
Backed by research, FEMA's guidelines are written so they can be incorporated into building codes. Many of the design recommendations included in
FEMA 350 have been incorporated into the consensus seismic standard design
specifications developed by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC).
Others have been proposed for inclusion in later editions of AISC and American
Welding Society specifications. The guidelines are also being included in the
National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP)Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations of New Buildings and Other Structures. NFPA
5000 will referenceAISC'sseismic standard, as well as ASCE7, a load document
that incorporates the NEHRPrecommendations.
Although the Northridge quake inspired the study, "FEMA really took a proactive approach with this project~' says James Malley, senior principal with
Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco, California, and project director for topical investigations for the SAC project. "It really took the attitude that an ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure:'
All perils aren't created equal

While NFPA 5000 devotes space to natural
disasters, this umbrella term covers a multirude of threats, many of which affect
buildings quite differently.
For example, a flood might exert one or
several forces on a building, says Christopher
Jones, a coastal engineer and independent
consultant.
"You've got the fbrces from standing or
slowly moving water that can lift buildings off
their foundations," he says. "You've got hydrodynamic forces from fast-moving water that
try to push buildings off their foundations,
and, in some cases, you've got scour and erosion forces from breaking waves."
The load is quite different during an earthquake, says Rossberg.
"A seismic event, by its very nature, isn't a
load," he says. "In a classical sense, a load is
something that's exerted on a structure. A
wind load exerts pressure. A snow load exerts
weight. With a flood load, you've got speed of
the water. Those loads result in displacements
that might cause a beam to bend. A seismic
event is a displacement of the building, and
that movement introduces displacements
within the structure."
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
45
The residents of this wood frame house

climbed down a hill after an earthquake
severely damaged their California home.
Seismic events also involve unpredictable

factors. A building's behavior will depend
on the magnitude of the quake, its
proximity to the epicenter, ground conditions, and other factors.

Seismic and flooding hazards receive the
most government attention because they often
result in deaths and catastrophic property
damage requiring FEMA intervention.
Although the results of other natural disasters,
such as hail, snow, and wind, are often less
devastating, property damage can be costly,
especially for private insurers. For that reason,
the private sector has also contributed
to ASCE 7.
For instance, the fact that NFPA 5000 will
define specific tests for different types of roofing materials to demonstrate their ability to
withstand fire, wind, and hail represents
another step forward, says Jeff Sciaudone,
associate director of Engineering at the Institute for Business and Home Safety.
"This code should go beyond life safety and
include property protection and firefighter
safety,"says Sciaudone.
Many voices, one goal

With so many different disasters, standards,
building materials, and building uses to
consider, it's not surprising that NFPA is
relying heavily on the members of NFPA
5000's 16 technical committees.
"You put all that expertise into a project
like NFPA 5000, and you're going to have
many people who know a great deal about the
requirements for concrete, steel, or wood,"
says Solomon. "You have people familiar with
the requirement for a building code and what
you need to reference."
The value of shared expertise, committee
participants say, represents a key ingredient of
NFPA 5000.
I think the strength of the process that
I've seen to date is that it's following a consensus-based standard and allowing for
input," says FEMA's Mahoney. "By bringing in a variety of viewpoints, you catch
problems taster.
CUREe-Caltech Wood-frame Project

or all the pain and suffering it caused, the
Northridge earthquake spawned seismic
research on an unprecedented scale. A
primary beneficiary of that movement has been
the wood-frame construction industry.
According to California Universities for
Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREe),
it's estimated that the Northridge quake caused
about $40 billion in property damage. More
than half of that was incurred by wood-frame
structures. That's about double insurance
industry forecasts, according to Michael
Mahoney of the FEMA's National Earthquake
Program office.
That performance convinced FEMA to award
$5.2 million in federal disaster assistance to
the California Governor's Office of Emergency
Services to investigate the problem and find
reliable, economical ways of improvingthe seismic performance of wood-frame buildings. In
all, about $6.9 million in federal and non-federal funds have been devoted to the research.
The Earthquake Hazard Mitigation of Woodframe Construction project, more commonly
known as the CUREe-CaltechWood-frame Project, was officially launched in September
1998. It consists of coordinated engineering
investigations and implementation activities,
46
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
the objective of which is to significantly reduce

earthquake losses to wood-frame construction.
This category of construction includes apartment and condominium buildings, houses, and
non-residential buildings, such as schools
and stores.
The project is divided into five interrelated
elements, including testing and analysis, field
investigations, building codes and standards,
economic applications, and education and outreach. While the testing and analysis part
involves extensive examination of components
and sub-components, it also involves studying
two full-size structures, a two-story house and a
three-story, wood-frame apartment building at
the Universityof California, San Diego, and the
Universityof California, Berkeley,respectively.
Much of the testing and analysis portion of
the project will be completed this summer. Recommendations based on those tests will be
compiled and written by the end of the year,
says project director Bob Reitherman.
Although wood is commonly used in residential construction, it's typically been given short
shrift in terms of seismic study, Reitherman
says. That's because, while major steel-frame
projects involveextensiveinput from engineers,
most wood-frame construction follows
conventional construction practices, which

often draw on accepted common wisdom. The
CUREe-Caitechproject will use scientific testing
to affirm those practices or, where appropriate,
recommend changes, Reitherman says.
"The CUREe wood project models the
FEMA/SAC Steel Project in that both projects
did a good job of bringing together the academic researchers,as well as the designers and
builders who have to use the building material
in question;' says Mahoney. "The projects put
research in a languagethat the engineers and
the builders alike will be able to use"
Given the number of existing wood-frame
houses, the impact of the CUREe-Caltech
project could be enormous. Project leaders
estimate that 99 percent of residences
and many schools and commercial buildings in
California are of wood construction, as are
some 80 to 90 percent of all buildings
nationwide.
By carefully studying the effect of seismic
activity on these types of structures,the project
will enable building authorities to improve
building codes, such as NFPA 5000, insurance
professionalsto make more accurate rating and
loss estimates, and designers and builders to
improve their techniques.
PHOTOGRAPH:AP//WIOE WORLD
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After several false starts, NFPA has a renewed interest in establishing a

standard addressing security system installations,
mCHARDP. mELEN, P.E.
, .
.I.: I - . ,
; ~:
,.
WWW.NFPA.ORG
:.-
. . . .
'
:i-,
fter a prolonged discussion about

scope and committee responsibility, NFPA has finally begun to
~nove fi~rward with a muchneeded premises security standard designed
to address the installation and maintenance of
building security systems.
The project, which has been cancelled,
reintroduced, and amended during the past
six years, has been approved by NFPA
Standards Council, and the Premises Security
Technical Committee will soon start work on
a draft of the document.
The Technical Committee on Premises
Security conducted its first meeting on June 5
in Baltimore, Maryland. After discussing the
pros and cons of a premises security code versus an installation standard, the committee
voted to pursue an installation standard. The
committee is now in the process of developing the outline of the standard and collecting
and reviewing supporting materials, such as
existing security standards.
"c
physical security
L
..~
supplies
wiring
It may take a year or two to complete the

draft, although it's conceivable that it may be
ready sooner if committee members come to
an early consensus on the direction of the project. After the dr~'t is released, it'll take
approximately two years to complete the cycle
and put it up for adoption.
The new standard will cover installation,
testing, and maintenance of physical security
systems and address such fundamentals as
common system requirements, power supplies, wiring, documentation, detection, access
control, signal communication, voice communication, video assessment and surveillance,
integrated security systems and other physical
security features, and commissioning.
Projecthistory
The NFPA Standards Council first established a Burglar/Security Alarm Systems
Project in July 1994 and the Board of Directors approved it in December 1994. However,
the board reconsidered the action in March
documentation
detection
s y ~,.~,, ~-oo~ver
48
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2001
ILLUSTRATIONS: A N D E R S W E N N G R E N
1995 and deferred the implementation of the

project pending broader input. After soliciting
and evaluating input, the Council voted in
July 1995 to halt the project because interest
didn't appear to be widespread.
Later that year, the insurance industry
asked NFPA to establish a Premises Security
standard. Final action on this newly proposed
project was deferred until a panel discussion
at the 1995 Fall Meeting in Chicago, and the
Council voted against the project in January
1996 because there wasn't a clear consensus.
For the next three years, the project lay
dormant until the Standards Council reconsidered the request in June 1999. Shortly
afterward, the Council announced its intent

to proceed with a Premises Security Project.
Further impetus was provided when the
Board of Directors told NFPA staff to
develop a detailed plan for integrating NFPA'S
codes and standards into a full set of codes for
the built environment.
After reviewing the public comments on
the Premises Security Project, the Standards
Council voted in April 2000 to reaffirm its
decision to proceed with the project and
approved the scope for the Premises Security Project Technical Committee in July
2000, giving it responsibility for documents
a c c e s s control
on the overall security program for the protection of premises, people, property, and
information specific to a particular occupancy.
Document details
The Council envisioned that the committee
would develop an occupancy-based document
similar to NFPA 101, Life Safety Code. It
wouldn't contain any installation requirements, although it would reference
appropriate installation documents. The
NFPA document covering security systems
installation would be NFPA 72, NatianalFi~v
,q/arm Code, which historically has addressed
be developed only after an industry-accepted

standard for the installation of premises security equipment had been written, preferably
by a single committee.
Conceptually, the proposed security standard could be similar to NFPA 72, a
non-occupancy-based installation standard.
Creating a stand-alone project

On January. 15, 2001, the Technical Correlating Committee on Signaling Systems' Task
Group on Security, met with the chair of the
Premises Security Technical Committee and
others to discuss the direction of the new
project. Chief among the recommendations
was that the security project that should be a
stand-alone project that wouldn't be part of
the Technical Correlating
should develop Committee on Signaling Systems for the Protection of Life
commended
and Property's scope.
emises
In addition, the group
advised that the security prolittee should
ject should develop a standard,
oping the
not a recommended practice,
and the Premises Security
Technical Committee should
be responsible for developing the installation
integrated fire alarm and security systems standard, which should cover installation,
from the standpoint of maintaining uncom- testing and maintenance of security systems.
promised fire alarm systems. A task group was
These recommendations will be delivered
appointed to review existing industry installa- to the Technical Correlating Committee on
tion standards for security systems and to Signaling Systems and to the Standards
recommend a course of action to the NFPA Council, which voted last January to expand
72 Technical Correlating Committee.
the scope of the Premises Security Technical
However, the Standards Council's stance Committee to include responsibility for
on the proposed occupancy-based document installation standards.
changed at its October 2000 meeting. As the
It now appears that the Standards Council
meeting progressed, the Council determined and the task group members agree on the
that the development of such a standard as an scope, development method, and proposed
occupancy-based document was premature form of the new standard. The next step is to
and that an occupancy-based standard should begin developing the document itself.
signal
communication
voice
communication
video a s s e s s m e n t
& surveillance
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
49
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The growth of businesses' computers sharing space in remote data centers

outpaces fire protection standards. E# COMEAU
t should come as no surprise that the amount of traffic moving over the Internet has grown
dramatically during the past year or that it increases dail)~According to Forrester Research,
worldwide e-commerce will grow from $657 billion in 2000 to $6,790 billion in 2004. In
addition, the number of subscribers to digital service lines grew 447 percent to 4.5 million
lines in 2000, according to the research firm IDC, and it's expected to grow to 66.4
million by 2004. America OnLine, the United States' leading Intemet service provider, has
1.2 million peak simultaneous users and moves 166 million E-mails every da)~
In fact, the Internet has become an integral part of the waywe live and work, and the network
supporting the Internet is becoming critical to many business operations. To meet the growing
demand of companies whose business is migrating to the Internet, a new type of computer
facility has sprung up intemationaUy: the colocation facility, or colo.
Like the Internet, the colocation market is growing quickly. Analyst house JP Morgan
estimates that colocation facilities are the fastest growi_ngsector in telecommunications and one
of the most lucrative. Colocation facility activity in the United States, already $1.9 billion in
1999, is expected to reach $6.3 billion in 2003. In Western Europe, investment in colocation
facilities is expected to rise from $74 million in 1999 to $828 million by 2004.
The fire detection installation at FirstWorld

in Denver, Colorado, protects the data
center/telecom/battery room of the
FirstWorld's colocation facility.
FOR MOREINFORMATIONON NFPA75 AND NFPA76.
GOTOWWW.NFPA.ORG.
Ed Comeau is the principal writer for

writer-tech.con], a technical writing
firm. He ~s tl~e former ehtef fire investi-
The function of colos
gator for NFPA and was a fire
Historically, a company's computer room served that company alone containing only the
company's electronic equipment. Today, however, the one-company-one-computer-room
protection engineer for the Phoenix Fire
PHOTOGRAPH: VERADOHOLDINGS, DENVER
JULY/AUGUST 2001
Departn)ent and Pnme Computer
NFPA JOURNAL
51
CASE STUDY
ne project that challenged the vendor, AHJ,and contractor alike was
the conversion of an old newspaper building in downtown Phoenix,
Arizona, into a colocation facility. Among the problems they had to
deal with was the issue of electrical power.
According to Scott Lacey, a fire protection engineer with the city of
Phoenix, "the owner odginally came to us asking to install 14 generators
and a tank for diesel fuel in the sub-basement. We went through a few vadations on this plan, looking at putting them outside. We came back to
putting them in the basement, compartmentalized into several 2,000gallon (7-kiloliter) tanks instead of one bulk tank."
Why so much fuel?
"Every tenant wanted control of his own space, his own generator, his
own fuel~' says Lacey. "That's one reason the bulk tank didn't work:'
A part of the problem was that the existing codes didn't address this
type of installation.
"We worked through the Uniform Fire Code and tried to find out what
would apply," says Lace),. "There wasn't anything in the code relating to the
sub-basement that would work in this scenario, so the engineering firm had
to improvise:'
Part of the trade-off, the fire department required the installation of a
foam extinguishing system. The tenants wanted their own foam systems,
too, but that would've created a maintenance nightmare, Lacey says, so
they stuck with one common system.
In an effort to keep construction costs down, the facility's owner made
the tenants responsible for fire protection within their areas of the building, a common move in the industry. As a result, however, a building may
have several different sprinkler and alarm systems that all function differently. Not only does this create problems for firefighters, who must be
familiar with the way several different systems operate, but the fire alarm
detection and suppression systems of a tenant who gives up his lease may
not be properly maintained.
Fortunately, only two contractors were installing systems in the colocation facility in Phoenix, says Lace),.
Because the building wasn't completely leased when it opened, some
areas had no computer equipment, which meant that they had a lower level
of fire protection than other parts of the building. To bring the protection
level up to par, contractors converted the sections of sprinkler piping in
those areas to dry-pipe sprinklers.
Another problem emerged when the stock of a tenant who was mid-way
through renovating his space dropped dramatically. The tenant vacated the
space and put a freeze on construction.
"There was a portion of the building that was under control of the
tenant, but not in an acceptable state;' says Lace),. "The landlord has to
make sure that the lease says that the owner has the right to go in and take
control of the fire protection systems"
Although some of the building was unsprinklered and unoccupied when
the building opened, "ninety percent of the building was sprinklered;' says
Lacey,"so we gave them a temporary certificate of occupancy for 180 days.
After that time, the space would either be protected by a tenant, or the
owner would have an approved system installed;' Lacey felt that the concrete building's non-combustible construction made the risk acceptable.
In terms of detection, a variety of systems was installed.
52
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
"There's a mix of spot detectors, alternating between photoelectric and

ionization. They have to compensate for airflow, so they used reduced spacing. There are also highly sensitive systems, such as aspirating smoke
detection systems. Some tenants are installing redundant systems with
spot and aspirating smoke detection systems, where some are installing
just the aspirating smoke detection systems," says Lacey.
When asked what lessons he learned from this project, Lacey stresses
the need for cooperation between the AHJ and the contractor. He also
stressed networking.
"Contact cities in which this type of project has already been done;' he
says. "You really need to ask around and deal with people who've done it.
"Also, if you have a large facility, more than a single story, the owner
should be required to complete a life safety report that's approved before
any plans are approved. This gives you a chance to sit back and see if it
works or not"
Getting the local fire department's operations division involved was
critical dudng construction.
"We had them out there a number of times, getting their input on
whether it was going to work or not" Lacey notes. One of the features the
Operations Division required was a stairwell dedicated to fire department
operations with a lock-box containing keys to every tenant space and
plans.
Because the systems in a building such as this are so complex and varied, Lacey also learned not to approve a building plan without elevation
drawings that showed the location of the ductwork, cable trays, spdnkler
systems, and other components.
"The engineers may design their stuff, then the sprinkler and fire alarm
contractors have to try and figure out how to get protection and detection
in and around iC' Lacey says. "It's unfair that they should have to do that.
The engineer should be doing that, instead of leaving it up to the sprinkler
contractor"
Finally, Lacey suggested that smaller cities require owners of colocation
facilities to him an engineer to review the plans for the city
"The number one thing they should do is require a third-party engineer
who works for the fire department or building department to review the
plans at the builder's expense;' he suggests. "Since the owners are interested in saving time, they're generally not going to bat an eye at the cost."
PHOTOGRAPH:ViSiON SYSTEMS/VESDA
arrangement is often impractical and unnecessary. A company that needs space for a
single server would hardly find it economically feasible to build a facility to house just
one unit. Hence, the growing popularity of
colocation facilities, structures equipped
with telecommunications, power, cooling,
security, and fire protection in which
companies rent space for their servers.
Colocation facilities provide several
different functions, among them giving a
large, national Internet service provider a
local "point of presence" that allow customers to dial a local telephone number to
access the Internet. They may also house a
company's mission critical computers.
"Say you're a company doing business in
California," says Jim Hook of DPR
Construction, Inc. "You have the hazard of
earthquakes. Arizona is a good alternate site
because you have continuous fiber optics,
and you can set up a mirrored facility quickly
if the California one should come down."
"Uptime," then, is the watchword for
colos. Because downtime due to fire,
earthquake, or terrorist acts can have a
catastrophic effect on a colo's tenants,
colos are invariably equipped with redundant power supplies, biometric security
systems, and fire protection systems.
Many colos are staffed around the clock
with security personnel.
As a result, "an uptime of 99.99 percent
isn't unusual," says Hook.
An uninterrupted supply of electrical
power is important, says Hook, and not only
the primary power provided by the public
power company, but the backup power, as
well. To ensure uptime, backup generations
are usually installed in colos to provide an
uninterrupted flow of electricity for the
computers and the cooling systems in the
event the primary power is lost.
"They like to use a belt and suspenders
approach when it comes to power," Hook says.
"The amount of power they consume is
phenomenal," he continues. "In the past, we
thought 50 watts a square foot was a lot.
Now, people are looking for 300 watts a
square foot (0.09 square meters)."
One computer manufacturer has even
come up with a computer rack system that
draws 16,000 watts over 4 square feet
(0.4 square meters).
Fire protection needs
Despite their growing popularity, these facilities "are young when it comes to fire
protection," says Ralph Transue, senior vice
president of RolfJensen and Associates and
technical committee chair of NFPA 76, Fire
Protection of TelecommunicationsFacilities.
In addition, "a colo facility can be a lot of
things," says Hook. "It can be in a shopping
center or an office building, or a standalone facility."As a result, the fire protection
needs of colocation facilities haven't been
clearly defined.
The protection of colos in existing office
buildings is generally governed by local
building codes, which may require sprinklers.
While sprinklers will protect the building,
they may not be the best choice to protect the
colo's large, uncompartmented spaces, which
contain heavy fire loads and sensitive
electronic equipment. Gas suppression systems are more desirable, but these tend to be
costly, so colo developers have moved towards
pre-action sprinkler systems that allow them
to meet the requirements of the code and
guard their equipment from water damage.
Unfortunately, pre-action systems can be
expensive and difficult to install. And filling
the pre-action system ofa colo encompassing
a building can be time-consuming - - so
time-consuming that a fire could conceivably
grow out of control before water is applied,
says Hook.
To get around this problem, one colo in
PhoenLx, Arizona, developed a system called
"shafting" that breaks the building up into a
number of different pre-action zones. Vertical
shafts are run through the building, and the
pre-action valves are installed in the
basement. In the event of a leak, water will
run down into the basement.
Other facilities rely more heavily on detection, according to Gerard Miller, an account
executive with Vision Systems-VESDA.
"They've taken the money away from
suppression and moved it toward detection,"
he says.
"Some of the new facilities are cash-limited, so they don't want to go with the
total-flooding systems," says Adrian Lloyd, of
Vision Systems-VESDA.
What happens when a colo's detection
system activates?
Typically,says Lloyd, installations don't shut
down the equipment automatically based on an

alarm from the detection system, particularly if
the system is an aspirating smoke detection
system. This .type of system, Lloyd says, will
pick up problems early and allow for human
intervention to control the problem before the
automatic suppression system activates.
Writing new standards
Because colocation facilities are new and are

being installed at Internet speed, they're creating challenges for authorities having
jurisdiction (AHJs) 'all over the country.
"The AHJ sometimes sees colos as large
computer rooms," says Transue, and treats
them as such during the plan review process.
"But that may not always be the best approach
because of the different application.*
In an effort to give AHJs and the rest of the
industry some guidance, the technical committee responsible for NFPA 76 is
determining what changes it should make to
ensure that colos are adequately protected in
the next edition of codes to be voted on in
November at NFPA Fall Education Conference 2001 meeting in Dallas, Texas.
Current NFPA standards, including NFPA
75, Protection of Electronic Computer~Data

ProcessingEquipment, focus more generally on
computer rooms inside individual facilities.
Since colos provide services to a number of
companies out of a remote location, their fire
protection needs are necessarily different.
"For example, current NFPA documents
require a power cut-off switch to a computer
room," saysTransue. However, this may not be
the best approach for a large room housing a
number of independent systems that could ,all
be taken down by a problem only one system
is experiencing.
"It's a learning curve," says Lloyd. "Companies are racing to get facilities in, and they're
not in tune with the requirements of the
building codes. For example, a facility may
have an aspirating smoke detection system,
which is above and beyond the AHJ's requirements, so the colo owners don't understand
why there may be questions about the facility's
fire protection."
Similarly, the AHJ may not understand the
unique needs of the colocation facility."Right
now, the AHJ doesn't have a lot in his or her
tool bag," when it comes to evaluating such
facilities, says Transue.
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
53
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G' 710 Tlllz,l a "tol rl

Reshaping the Fire and Safety Business
As fire and life safety businesses expand globally, NFPA codes and standards
are often cited as global standards. ALAN R. EARLS
oday, in the fire and safety business, globalization is more than a buzz word, it's
a fact of life. Driven by the mechanisms that have created a universal stream of
commerce in other industries~easy movement of information, monies, and
goods---fire and safety equipment manufacturers and consultants are embracing
new markets and new ways of doing business.
And it's big business.
While there are no complete global market studies, anecdotal data and regional market
studies abound. According to a U.S. State Department report, for example, the European
security and safety market, including items as diverse as alarms, locks, and fare suppression
equipment, is estimated to be worth as much as $21.3 billion annually.
In Sweden, which has a large domestic market and many local suppliers, sales of domestic security systems are increasing by 40 percent a year. While at least one Swedish farm,
Securitas AB, has grown to be a major player in the European market as a whole, with about
10 percent of the alarms market at home, U.S. farms and companies from countries such as
Germany, the U.K., and Switzerland are competing for market share on equal terms.
NFPA v, GI oBAL OPPRAII~)NS IN,. LbDI (.'Fi I(;i!S IN

>([!iJ'ft 2'~1L7<i{ :'t LAII"I ;;MERIt.'\ I ANA[JA I'~;-ID
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Am.i;,.{
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Alan R. Earls is a freelance writer based

in Franklin. Massachusetts. who
specializes in business, technology.

and property issues.
ILLUSTRATIONS: JAMES KACZMAN
JULY/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
NFPAJOURNAL
55
The State Department's trade estimates

predict Sweden will make $264 million in
various safety gear, export $193 million, and
import $370 million this year. While there
are no formal trade barriers for security and
safety equipment, there's a range of standards and tests for all the electrical
equipment sold in Sweden. For instance,
items must have the Conformit~ Europ~ene
(CE) mark and must comply with the
European Union (EU) directiveson electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). CE marking on a product is a manufacturer's
declaration that the product complies with
the essential requirements of the relevant
European health, safety, and environmental
protection legislations and has been legally
placed on the market. Domestic testing tbr
that he has doubled his 1998 estimate of the

Latin American fire protection and firefighting equipment market from $270
million to $500 million today.
"And that's a conservative number based
on factory shipments, not on installed
value," says Candee.
The global market for fire apparatus is
also expanding. American LaFrance, America's oldest fire apparatus manut~acturer,
owned by Freightliner LLC, a DaimlerChrysler company, works with established
international sales networks and complementary equipment providers to introduce
its custom apparatus worldwide. In the
United States and elsewhere, the company is
now marketing its traditional lineup of fire
apparatus, as well as its equipment built on
of the team because we've usually done

something like that already, ofYen in the
U.S.," he says.
Because of this, Moncada notes that
RJA frequently ends up being a standards
evangelist. Similarly, when a global
company in the hospitality, retailing, semiconductor, or automobile industry builds a
facility,it tries to fbllow the same codes and
standards in each location, and those standards are frequently supplied by NFPA.
While NFPA codes and standards haven't
achieved the statutory, relevance they often
possess in the U.S., they're recognized and
followed in many places where there's no
legal obligation to do so.
Indeed, Moncada says that when
local codes and standards wouldn't be
hen a global company in the hospitality, retailing, semiconductor, or automobile industry builds aj'hcility, it tries to fbllow
the same codes and standards in each locatioH, arid those
standards arefrequently supplied by NFPA.
the CE mark is conducted by the Swedish the Unimog, an all-wheel drive chassis built
Board for Testing and Approval of by Mercedes-Benz for more than 50 years
Electrical Equipment. Some firefighting and traditionally marketed in Europe.
equipment is also tested by the Swedish
"Apparatus sales opportunities in the
Institute of Standardization and by the world market will continue to expand," says
National Rescue Services Board. These lat- American LaFrance Vice President of Sales
ter tests aren't required by law but are and Marketing Arnold Heller. "More airport expansions mean there's a need for
strongly recommended.
U.S. State Department numbers "also more ARFF-type apparatus. Continued
highlight growing opportunities in industrialization also creates the need for
Malaysia. While the meltdown of the more specialized fire apparatus to support a
region's economies in the late 1990s signaled variety of manufacturing and production
a retrenchment for the region's markets, facilities,from chemical plants to refineries."
there's still opportunity for local and overseas manufacturers. In 1998, nearly $44 The standards underpinning
million in safety and security equipment was Jaime A. Moncada, P.E., vice president of
imported into the countries belonging to the International Development, for ChicagoAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations based RolfJensen and Associates, Inc. (RJA),
(ASEAN), and exports in the same year notes that, as the company's clients have
were nearly $63 million.
become global, so has RJA, with completed
Canada also absorbs hundreds of millions project work in more than 70 countries, from
Malaysia to Spain to Venezuela.
of dollars in safety exports.
To the south, Latin America is poised for
In most of the developedworld,you mustfoltremendous growth, according to Nick low a code if you want to build, saysMoncada.
"When an architect designs a tall building
Candee, NFPA executive director for
Global Operations. Indeed, Candee says in Asia, they ask someone like us to be part
56
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
appropriate for a project, "we work to

demonstrate to local officials that NFPA
codes and standards provide a level of
safety that's equivalent or better."
NFPA's Candee says the insurance organizations, such as FM Global and Swiss
Reinsurance, have also been effective standards advocates. Candee stresses that more
often than not, NFPA's standards are the
best available.
"We had some folks in Washington,
D.C., asking why Marriott Hotels didn't
adopt Geneva-based International Standards Organization (ISO) standards for
its hotel facilities around the globe," he
says. "The company's response was, 'Why
would we want to use something that's
not the best international standard?'"
says Candee.
The relative positions of the two organizations' standards can been seen in the
example of NFPA 2001, Clean-Agent Fire
Extinguishing Systems. NFPA 2001 has
been the de facto international standard
since its inception 10 years ago, but it's only
now being accepted by ISO.
Standards or trade barriers?
NFPA's standards system and a panEuropean system built on the German

Deutsche Institut fiir Normung (DIN) and
ISO are both expanding their spheres of
influence, with NFPA dominant in the
Western Hemisphere and much of the
Asia-Pacific region, and Europe picking up
influence in parts of Africa and other areas.
And while trade barriers are generally
becoming more permeable worldwide and,
in many cases, disappearing altogether,
there are exceptions. On

the export side of the equation, for example, the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction
Agency (DTRA) keeps a close watch on
advanced technologies deemed to have
potential dual use. In the case of Raytheon
Commercial Infrared, a manufacturer of
thermal imaging cameras for the fire protection OEM market, as well as several
complete mobile and handheld cameras
that can be used for exterior firefighting,
DTRA is a major impediment. While the
company is working with two master
distributors in Europe and the Middle
East, it's had difficulty getting access to the
markets of India and China.
"There's great demand for our technology, and we've shown that the price points
are reasonable, but DTRA says we have to
identiff the ultimate user of the technolog);

which is almost impossible when you work
through distributors," says David Fisher,
manager of OEM accounts at the Dallasbased company.
On the import side of the equation, standards and testing can also slow commerce
or some times bring it to a standstill. As one
expert said, France, a country that participates in the EU, finds ways to 'allow local
regulations and custom to weigh on
procurement choices.
"Many countries say, 'Let's globalize,'
i_. . . . . . . . . . . . . :~ce of the pie too,"
Garson, vice presIndustry Affairs at
tens-Cerberus.
In fact, the widest
ariability and the
greatest potential
for the creation of
de facto trade
barriers remain
in the testing
process, not in
the
standards
arena, says Garson. Things are
:hanging as testing
ganizations such as
terwriters Labora(UL) expand
[e.
tce, it's now easier
for manufacturers with existing UL
test reports based on International Electrotechnical Commission requirements to
obtain Argentine certification for their electrical and electronic products because of a
new law, Disposition 786/2000, published
in ,4rgentina's OfficialBulletin by the Direcci6n Nacional de Comercio Interior.
Disposition 786/2000 permits UL de
Argentina SRL to formally exchange test
data with UL in the United States, its
parent company.
Harmonization
Bringing standards and testing into greater

harmonization is a goal that most in the
world fire and safety community support,
says Candee.
"Key markets are already globalizing, and
glob~flized companies tend to encourage
what they consider best practices wherever

they operate," he notes.
Garson says several committees are currenfly looking at harmonizing European
and American standards. In the Western
Hemisphere, that effort is taking practical
form in Latin America, where Mexico has
agreed to accept EU standards and other
nations are looking at similar arrangements.
"For our part," he adds, "we've never
found any impediments to selling in the
Latin America market."
Global prospects
Stephen Summerill, vice president of

business development for the North
American Fire Protection Division of
Kidde-Fenwall, a unit of the U.K.-based
global giant Kid& PLC, says his company
has "tried to have a global perspective while
tailoring products to local markets." Summerill says that means trying to achieve
economies of scale in production, planning,
and product development on a global basis.
That strategy has borne the most fruit in
the fire suppression market. But, Summerill
admits, in the detection area, especially
high-sensitivity products, "It's hard to satisfy European and North American
standards with the same product." Until
harmonization is a reality, it will remain
that way.
However, size matters and Candee says
that global players, such as Tyco and KiddeFenwall, have made sure they've the critical
mass to succeed in a world arena.
"Given that many customers are globalizing, it isn't surprising that the leaders in
the fire and safety community are also globalizing," says Candee. This often means that
the large global companies are choosing
to acquire elements of their distribution
network to give them greater participation
in end markets, he says. Those business
decisions, supported by actions in the
standards-setting community, will shape
the market realities of the 21st century.
"There are about 200 countries in the
world," says Candee, "and at the moment,
I don't think we've reached more than
20 percent of them in terms of standards
information."
That means there's room to grow--and
there's still plenty of work ahead.
JU~/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
NFPAJOURNAL
57
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Now more user-friendly with several new chapters,

NFPA 921 provides fire investigators with the tools
to do the job. ANN FREESTONE
t the Fall Education Conference in

Orlando in November 2000, NFPA
membership voted to adopt the 2001
edition of NFPA 921, Fire and Explosion
Investigations. Among the changes in the new edition are
five new chapters dealing with building systems, firerelated human behavior, wildfire investigations, fire and
explosion deaths and injuries, and failure analysis and
an~ytical tools. In addition, the committee reorganized
the material into subjects and addressed hot-button
issues, such as spoliation.
FO~! ;d(i?~ ?b r!i~L1A~I()H !!% N} ;';~ q2 1 (,0 TO

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The first nine chapters of NFPA 921 cover fire investiILLUSTRATIONS: ROB DUNLAVEY
JULY/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
NFPA JOURNAL
59
the reader to the way building systems support

and protect a structure in a fire.
"How a building fails can have some value
in determining where it burned first," explains
Churchward.
This chapter helps investigators determine
whether the fire or the building contributed to
the building's failure. According to Churchward, this chapter gives investigators the
correct construction terminology, which
allows them to remain credible with a judge,
jury., and engineers.
"Not all fire investigators know what a stud
or a rafter is or the difference between a joist
and a truss," he says, "so the terminology is
very helpful."
gation background knowledge. The next six

deal with how to conduct a fire investigation,
and the final seven address specialized topics,
such as wildfire investigations.
Dan Churchward, NFPA 921 committee
chair and president and owner of Kodiak
Enterprises, Inc. in Fort Vv:ayne, Indiana,
considers the first section "basic training," the
second "journeyman training," and the third
"advanced training," which provides a logical
progression as a teaching aid. An appendix
points readers toward more information.
According to Dave Smith, president of
Associated Fire Consultants and leader of the
task group that developed the wildfire
investigations chapter, when the committee
added intbrmation in the past, it would "go to
the end of the line," rather than organize it
into subject areas as they have this time.
According to Frank Florence, an NFPA
senior fire service specialist, the new chapter
organization makes the document more
user-friendly because readers needn't search
the book for information, as they did in
earlier editions.
Fire-related human behavior

Investigators can also learn more about
human behavior in a new chapter addressing
research that helps explain why people act the
way they do during a fire.
"There's variability of human behavior in a
fire," says John DeHaan, committee member
and president of Fire-Ex Forensics, Inc. in
Vallejo, California. "It isn't a simple choice of
fight or flight."
In fact, as NFPA 921 shows, people's
responses to fire can range from
ignoring the problem to investigating it, fighting it, giving the
alarm, rescuing or aiding others,
remaining in place, fleeing, and
reentering after escaping.
"This chapter is an attempt by
the committee to show readers
that there's a great deal of
research to help them explain
~.
what happened at a fire when it
'.'.'."
comes to the factors associated
"'
with human behavior," says
Churchward. These factors
include physical and cognitive
limitations, the type of group a
person is in at the time of the
fire, the location and number of
exits, and the presence of flames.
The chapter'also features a section on children who start fires.
Building systems
The chapter on building systems introduces
F
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60
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2001
Wildfire investigations
Another new chapter provides
information on wildfire investigations. The committee added
this chapter because many fire investigators

don't have training in wildfire investigations
There are certain similarities in investigating wildfire and structure fires.
"In a structure fire, you identify travel patterns," says Smith. "You do the same thing
after a wildfire, but you look at vegetation and
how it burns and falls."
However, there are significant differences,
as well. In a structure fire, says Smith, "there
are V patterns or cone patterns, while in a
wildfire, those patterns are different, and
NFPA 921 specifies what they are.
'Till kinds of subtle things influence the
dynamics in a wildfire. For instance, the south
side of a hill gets more sun so fire spreads
faster because the wood is dryer," says Smith.
Fire and explosion deaths and injuries
"When people die in a fire," says DeHaan,
"our investigation efforts tend to be most
critical. If it isn't a property crime, it might be
murder, so it's a focus of what we do."
According to Churchward, the new chapter on fire and explosion deaths and injuries
will help investigators gather information to
explain what happened to those involved in a
fatal fire, such as where the bodies were
found, how the victims died, and how the fire
affected the bodies. It also guides investigators on what information they should request
from a pathologist
"It prompts the investigator to ask questions, not provide answers," says Churchward.
In addition, the chapter covers postmortem
tests and documentation, fire and explosion
injuries, the mechanism of death, and remains
identification.
Failure analysis and analytical tools
The chapter on failure analysis and analytical
tools provides the information the
investigator needs to complete an investigation, including time lines, fault trees, failure
mode and effects analysis, mathematical
modeling, and fire testing.
Fire investigators may apply these tools to
any size fire or explosion, to logically organize
information and identify areas where more
information is needed.
For example, the fault tree arranges the
investigative process and keeps the investigator from omitting critical information says
Churchward.
Fire modeling, on the other hand, can

help predict how a fire acted, giving investigators an insight into the behavior of both the
structure and its occupants. And fire
testing can validate models.
"If a model says the sprinklers activated in
30 seconds, you can conduct a small-scale test
to see if the model matches the test," says
Churchward.
In addition to the five new chapters, the
chapter on motor vehicle fires was rewritten to
provide detailed information on fuel and electrical and mechanical systems, as well as a
description of a modern automobile.
The committee also rewrote parts of the
chapter dealing with electricity and fire to
include better photographs and a discussion of
electrical systems.
Process of elimination
In addition, the committee addressed hot

buttons, such as process of elimination,
spoliation, and the scientific method.
Process of elimination addresses with
what's known as "negative corpus," which
means that an investigator proves what caused
a fire in the absence of all other proof, says
Churchward.
To use the process of elimination, fire
investigators must have a defined origin,
which can be as big as a city block or as
small as an ashtray.
"We're going back to the premise that
absence of proof proves the case," says
Churchward.
This particular issue is controversial
because it can be easily abused, leading to false
conclusions. Before using the process of
elimination, Churchward says, investigators
must remember that they may not have taken
unusual circumstances into account.
Another hot topic is spoliation, which is
defined as "the loss, destruction, or material
alteration of an object or document that's
evidence or potential evidence in a legal proceeding by who is responsible for its
preservation."
Removing evidence from a fire scene
doesn't constitute spofiation, because physical
evidence may have to be moved in order to
determine the cause of the fire.
For example, the maker of an appliance may
be unknown until the appliance is examined.
The committee felt it was important to
" ~ , ~ I "r.,
define
;,
" ~
B'
ence between
spoliation
and
bl~ ~
\
removing evidence from
a fire scene to allow an inves,~.,
tlgation to continue, in order to
ensure that the legitimate removal of
evidence would'nt be characterized during
a trial as evidence of tampering and used to
discredit the investigation.
"We felt the need to discuss the legal perspective because it's interwoven throughout
fire investigations. Any time you alter a scene
you could spoil it, so this had to be addressed,"
says Churchward.
"If the plaintiff says you spoiled the scene
To help clarify what the document
just by moving debris, it should not be consid- means by the term "scientific method," the
ered spoilage. There's wiggle room in this."
committee added language to explain that
testing a hypothesis doesn't necessarily have
to involve experimentation, but can be cogThe scientific method
In the past, NFPA 921 has been regarded as nitive, as well. The addition of the word
controversial because it recommended using "cognitive" allows investigators to use reathe scientific method.
son based on their experience to help prove
The rulings in three milestone court cases the facts that support their hypothesis.
determined that expert witnesses must be able
"The scientific method is the recomto justify scientifically the opinions and mended method," says Florence. "Certainly;
methodologies they used to come to their experience helps you process a scene, but the
conclusions.
scientific method is an organized way of
The controversy began in 1997 in the processing it. It could involve scientific testcase of Benfield v. Michigan Millers Mutual ing, but it may not."
Churchward agrees.
Insurance Company when a fire investigator
wasn't permitted to enter into evidence his
"If people follow NFPA 921, they'll do a
investigation because he "had difficulty thorough investigation," he says. qt's the only
articulating his methodology, his hypothe- consensus document that discusses how fires
ses, and his scientific theories in accordance should be investigated. That makes it stand
with NFPA 921."
far above others. It defines our business." #
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
61
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N;PA plays a key role protecting first responders in

domestic terrorist incidents. HALLIE EPHRON TOUGER
t may simply begin as an EMS call requesting aid for someone having difficulty breathing.
No loud explosion, no threatening phone call to authorities, no indication to arriving
personnel that they're about to face a terrorist incident. Before they realize what's
,happened, the first responders may find themselves exposed to a lethal chemical or
biological agent.
During the last five years, communities across the United States have awakened to the reality
that responding to the unthinkable--a terrorist act involving weapons of mass destruction
(WMD)--is a local responsibility. No federal force is going to swoop in and take over. In fact,
it may be several hours before the military or the FBI arrives to provide technical support and
assist with crisis management. What happens in the first minutes can mean the difference
between life and death.
From the smallest city to the largest, U.S. communities must possess the essential plans,
training, and equipment needed to respond effectively to WMD terrorism. Coordination across
jurisdictions--including law enforcement, fire and rescue services, private and public health,
military, intelligence, and federal agencies--is also essential.
NFPA, with its time-tested, consensus-based code- and standards-development process and
its history of leadership in defining standards for handling hazardous materials, is again taking
a leading role to ensure that first responders have the knowledge and the protective clothing and
equipment to respond to WMD terrorist acts.
"
Congress takes action
Three events woke Congress up to the needs of local first responders: the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing in New York City, the 1995 Sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway,
and the bombing of the Alfred E Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma Ciff. This final event,
in particular, shook most Americans out of the false sense of security that had lulled them
into thinking it couldn't happen here. If it could happen in Oklahoma City, it could happen
anywhere, and most communities were unequipped and unprepared.
In 1996, Congress passed the WeaponsofMass DestructionAct, which required the Department
PHOTOGRAPH:CORBIS/SYGMA
The 1995 Satin nerve gas attack ~n

Tokyo is one of three terrorist events that
prompted Congress to review needs of
first responders.
//
HaltJe Ephron Touger is a ffeOuent

contributor to NFPA Journal.
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPA JOURNAL
63
P~
of Defense (DoD)to help prepare federal,

state, and local emergency personnel to
respond to incidents involving chemical,
biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive
(CBRNE) terrorism. Funding was appropriated to provide training, technical support,
equipment and to conduct preparedness drills.
In response, the DoD began forming 22member National Guard units, called Civil
Support Teams (CST), available to be activated and to respond around the country.
CSTs are organized, equipped, and trained to
support local authorities with consequence
management once the initial crisis ofa WMD
terrorist attack has been contained. They're
under state control, so they can be deployed
quickly, without federal authorization.
Equipping for interoperability
When the DoD Consequence Management

Program Integration Office started to equip
the CST teams, its goal was to provide them
with equipment enabling them to work seamlessly with local authorities. However, the
DoD quickly discovered what civilian agendes discovered when they went to spend their
equipment grant dollars: that there was no
consensus about what equipment was needed.
The protective equipment on the market
wasn't being certified to any broadly accepted
standard, and the military standards were
designed for a battlefield environment, not the
type of closed space where a domestic WMD
event was likdy to occur. NFPA standards
focused on protective equipment for fires and
hazardous materials, so the cumbersome, protective suits that met NFPA standards didn't
meet the needs of emergency medical personnel, who require a high degree of manual
dexterity to treat victims.
"We needed equipment tailored to ourjobs,
and a more relaxed regulatory atmosphere
allowing us to take an acceptable risk," says
Lieutenant Eric Hahn of the Boston, Massachusetts, Police Department. He explains that
police first responders were looking for a lower
level of protection that would still be adequate, as well as inexpensive and simple to use.
Communities realized that the scale of a
WMD response would require them to work
with their neighbors, as well as with the state
and federal governments. Any equipment purchased would have to be compatible with that
used by the support entities.
64
NFPAJOURNAL
dULY~AUGUST
2001
Charles Bell of the U.S. Marine Corps

Systems Command remembers asking the
civilian first-response community for advice in
equipping the special National Guard units.
"It made more sense to train our small
National Guard units to work and be interoperable with the civilian community, rather
than trying to change the minds of 20,000 fire
chiefs and make them interoperable with us,"
he says. "So we advised DoD consequence
management officials on the equipment that
was made for them."
Bell invited the most experienced officials
he could find to discuss the issue. These
included first responders from around the
country in the fire, police, and medical communities, as well as representatives of civilian
agendes, such as NFPA, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST),
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
"We got together in October 1998 with the
intent of developing a generic standardized
equipment list that would be interoperable
across the different agencies," he says.
After an initial two-day meeting, the group
had a rudimentary roster.
"W&l accomplished our original work, but
we needed to dig deeper," says Bell.
lAB established
That was the beginning of the InterAgency

Board for Equipment Standardization and
InterOperability (LAB).The result of this first
meeting was the Standardized Equipment List,
used today as a guide for equipping first
responders and included in equipment grant
application packages from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for State and Local
Domestic Preparedness Support.
The Standardized Equipment List describes
the levels of protection needed for defined levels of risk, without mentioning specific
products. It's updated in the LAB's annual
reports and published on its web site
www.iab.gov.
"The Standardized Equipment List started
out looking fike a really expensive shopping
list," says Julie Holt of Battelle, who coordinates the work of the LAB. "Now it's
something people pay attention to."
Today, the IAB meets quarterly, which has
nearly 80 members, including nearly 35 first
responders, that represent more than 48 local,

state, and federal organizations.
"The LAB is unique," says John Frank of
the Department of Justice, who has served
on the LAB since its inception. "It's a real
worker-level group, willing to roll up its
sleeves and work."
The lAB provides a venue for military
experts to help civilian agencies reach an
appropriate level of preparedness, in part by
sharing technology and tactics.
Robert Murphy, chief warrant officer 4 and
emergency services officer with the U.S.
Marines' Chemical Biological Incident
Response Force (CBIRF), advises the LAB.
"CBIRF's charter is to take a piece of"~ersonal protective equipment that's used in the
military and turn that into a piece of civilian
equipment," he says.
To ensure that the Marines can x,ork
with local first responders, CBIRF ~ses
NFPA standards for response to hazardous
materials incidents.
The LAB has helped make protective
equipment
affordable
to
civilian
agencies by 'allowing them to buy it through
the military acquisitions system. The LAB is
also facilitating the use of military labs to test
equipment for outside agencies.
By providing a forum, the LAB enables loLL
first responders to make their needs known.
"We can present an immediate need, and
show we have economies of scale because
maW of us will need the same thing," says
Battalion Chief Ron Watson, of the Los
kalgeles County Fire Department. "Then w
can get it researched, manufactured, and
defivered in a timely fashion. No other organization has had that effect on industry-"
N FPA's role
NFPA is an important player on the LAB.

"NFPA offers a unique perspective and has
an overarching view of standards in general,"
says Bell, who has served on the LAB since its
inception.
Stephen N. Foley,NFPA's senior fire service
specialist, plays a key role as chair of the LAB
standards coordinating committee.
"My committee's job is to identify existing
standards and the standards that need to
be developed, modified, or revised," says
Foley. "NFPA signed a memorandum of
understanding with NIOSH, OSHA, EPA
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and NIST that we wouldn't compete with

one another or be in conflict as it relates to
development of those standards, particular
to CBRNE."
While NIOSH has been given the lead in
testing and certifying respiratory protection
equipment, NFPA has the lead in creating
standards for basic personal protective clothing and equipment for handling a chemical or
biological event.
As a start, NFPA'S technical committee on
hazardous materials reviewed and revised the
existing hazardous materials standards,
including NFPA 471, Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents; NFPA 472,
Professional Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents; and NFPA 473,
Competenciesfor EMS Personnel Responding to
Hazardous Materials Incidents, to address
response to CBRNE incidents.
To put something in place quickly, NFP.Ns
technical committee on personal protective
clothing and equipment amended NFPA
1991, VaporProtective EnsemblesJbr Hazardous
Chemical Emergencies, to include an application for protection from chemical and
biological warfare agents.
This technical committee then turned to
the development of a new standard, NFPA
1994, ProtectiveEnsemblesfor Chemical or Biological Terrorism Incidents, which will apply to
first responders. The standard focuses on
affordable, disposable suits that can be carried
on emergency response vehicles.
"We wanted them to be able to take a
sealed package, unzip it, and know they had a
pristine garment designed to give them the
protection they needed," says Bruce W. Teele,
NFPA staffliaison for NFPA 1991 and 1994.
In developing NFPA 1994, the committee
worked closely with the U.S. Army
Soldier and Biological Chemical Command
(SBCCOM), the military authority on protective equipment.
NFPA 1994, which was approved by the
NFPA membership at the 2001 World Fire
Safety Congress and Exposition vM last May,
defines three levels of protection. A Class-l,
totally encapsulating suit, for example, might
be used by a first responder when assessing a
situation, while a Class-3 suit might be used
by responders working on the periphery to
manage traffic.
NFPA 1994 enables fire service, law
enforcement officials, and EMS providers to

buy protective clothing that complies with
NFPA requirements for chemical and
biological threats.
"Everything manufactured in compliance
with NFPA standards must be third-party
certified," says Teele. "That's not only testing
and evaluating the product but also a~ixing a
mark to certify compliance with the appropriate NFPA standard. It provides a follow-up
ISO-9000 program, that checks to ensure that
ongoing production remains in compliance."
Teele's dual role as an NFPA committee
liaison and a member of the lAB subgroup on
personal protective and operational equipment guarantees that NFPA's standard rolls
directly into the IAB's Standardized
Equipment List.
Training to NFPA standards
An actual WMD event is no place for on-thejob training. Today, first-responder training
relies heavily on NFPA standards.
NFPA472 technical committee member
Charles Wright manages the development of
WMD training for employees and emergency
personnel working along till the Union Pacific
Railroad tights-of-way.
"WMD are nothing more than hazardous
materials with an attitude," says Wright, quoting Chicago Battalion Chief Gene Ryan.
Wright and his staff use the competencies
defined in NFPA hazardous materials
standards, along with a job task analysis, as
the basis for their training performance objectives. Union Pacific has trained more than
140,000 people outside the company to these
objectives, as well.
Jerry Laughlin, NFPA staff haison for
NFPA's hazardous materials response technical committees, notes that a WMD incident is
also a crime scene.
"Crime scenes add a new wrinkle, including
the need of legal documentation and chain of
custody,"he says. "Haz-mat folks are having to
learn about new hazardous materials, such as
nerve agents, blood agents, choking agents,
biological agents, toxins and irritants, and desiccants. These are all hazardous materials we
had to consider in the past, but WMD implies
much larger scope."
Simulations give first responders a chance
to practice and to test the effectiveness of their
plans. The IAB members and their organiza-
tions have participated in large-scale, congressionally

mandated,
domestic
counter-terrorism exercises, in which toplevel officials, emergency managers, first
responders, and law enforcement personnel
all participate. They involve multi-day, multicity, multi-agency crisis and consequence
management exercises. Communities also
conduct exercises.
"On a routine basis, we conduct tabletop
and classroom exercises interdepartmental]y,"
says Los Angeles County Fire Department
Battalion Chief Watson. In a tabletop exercise, key individuals sit down and "walk"
through a scenario.
"Exercises are a critical part of our preparation," says Boston Police Lieutenant Eric
Hahn. "The first one is always a wake-up call.
We've learned that, if everybody doesn't play,
it's not worth having a game."
Some cities have sent their first responders
to training at Fort McLellan, Alabama, where
they experience live-agent training.
"For graduation, they put you in a Sarin
environment. It's a real confidence booster.
Once you find out it's survivable, it brings
your fear level way down," says Hahn.
Smaller communities exercise their readiness, as well. Gregg Noll, a consultant and
member of NFPA'S technical committee on
hazardous materials, participates in regional
counter-terrorism task force exercises.
"In central Pennsylvania, we have an eightcounty task force," he says. "Scenarios can
easily exceed a single jurisdictions resources.
We've had chemical and biological exercises,
a unified command exercise where the decision-makers of lead agencies work together.
Everyone feels more prepared to deal with a
real incident."
NFPA continues to be a key player in making sure that first responders have the
personal protection needed to respond to
WMD terrorist acts. With its history of consensus-based decision-making and widely
accepted standards that are referred to in
OSHA guidelines, NFPA has earned a place
at the table.
As NFPXs Foley says, "Most people arefft
aware of our involvement in the national
security arena. It's important to emphasize
that NFPA is a key participant in providing
standards that will protect those who respond
to these types of incidents."#
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
65
LV~
~k
a,,r
i,-~k~pk~
~
.i:~~ , ,
~ ~
Ib
U.S. Firefighter Fatalities

Last year, 102 firefighters were killed in the line of duty.
RITA FAHY~ PH.D.~ PAUL R, LEBLANC
ince 1977, NFPA has documented more than 2,700 firefighter fatalities in the United
States that resulted from injuries or illnesses while the victims were on-duty (see Figure
1). Last year, 102 on-duty firefighters died, a decrease of 10 fatalities from 1999 s toll of
112.1 This is only the fourth time in the past decade that the total number of deaths
was more than 100. From 1977 to 1991, firefighter deaths topped 100 every year.
The proportion of flre ground deaths last year dropped below 40 percent, the second lowest
percentage in that category in the 24 years of this study. Typically, during the past decade, half,
or nearly half,,of each year's deaths occur because of fire ground injuries.
In 2000, there were five two-fatality incidents. In February, two firefighters in Texas died
when they were trapped by a roof collapse. In March, two firefighters were shot to death as they
arrived at a dwelling fire in Tennessee. Two federal ~brestry employees were killed when their
spotter plane crashed at a wildland fire in May. In August, two prison inmates cutting fire breaks
at a wildland fire were electrocuted in a lightning strike in Utah. Finally, in September, two
North Carofina state forestry employees died in a helicopter crash en route to a fire prevention
program at a field day for school children.
This report examines the types of duty associated with
firefighter deaths, the cause and nature of fatal injuries to
firefighters, and the ages of the firefighters who died.
The report 'also highlights deaths in vacant buildings, in
incendiary or suspicious fires, and in motor vehiclerelated incidents. 2
In addition to members of local career and volunteer
fire departments, victims in this NFPA study include
seasonal and flail-time employees of state and federal
agencies for whom fire suppression responsibilities are
part of their job description, prison inmates serving on
firefighting crews, military personnel performing
assigned fire suppression activities, civilian firefighter.,
working at military installations, and members of industrial fire brigades.
Type of duty
Figure 2 shows the distribution of the 102 deaths by type
of duty. The largest proportion of deaths--38 percent, or
39 deaths--took place on the fire ground. Since 1977, however, the only year that had a lower
proportion of fire ground deaths than 2000 was 1996 when there were 32 fire ground fatalities
out of 96 deaths, or 33 percent.
Of the 39 fire ground deaths, 14 were due to heart attacks, 8 to asphyxiation, 7 to internal
trauma, 5 to burns, 2 to electrocutions, 2 to pneumonia following traumatic injuries, and 1 to
stroke. Twenty-one of the victims were volunteer firefighters, eight were career firefighters, four
were career employees of state forestry agencies, three were contractors to state and federal
forestry agencies, two were state prison inmates, and one was a career employee of a federal
forestry agency)
Another 24 deaths occurred while firefighters were responding to, or returning from, alarms.
PHOTOGRAPHS:BILL EISNER,OPPOSITE:AP/WlDE WORLD, THISPAGE.
A 27-year-old firefighter and one elderly

occupant died from asphyxiation and
another firefighter was injured when they
became trapped during a rescue attempt.
The fire in the apartment house was
intentionally set.
A funeral procession (below) honored a
firefighter who was shot to death while
collecting money for a fire department
sponsored charity.
Rita Fahy. Ph.D.. is manager of NFPA

Fire Data Bases and Systems. Patti
LeBlanc is a member of NFPA's Fire
Analysis and Research Division and a
career lieutenant with the Boston,
Massachusetts. Fire Department.
JULY~AUGUST2001 NFPAJOURNAL
67
CAREER
VOLUNTEER
FIREFIGHTERS
FIREFIGHTERS
Number
Percent N u m b e r Percent
of Deaths of Deaths of Deaths of Deaths
CAREER
VOLUNTEER
FIREFIGHTERS
FIREFIGHTERS
Number
Percent Number
Percent
of Deaths of Deaths of Deaths of Deaths
I~ .. D i 'lr~ from heart attacks only
Operating at fire ground

Responding to or
returning from alarm
Training
Operating at non-fire
emergencies
Other on-duty
TotaLs
.......
28.6
21
36.8
5
5
17.9
17.9
18
5
31.6
8.8
2
8
7.1
28.6
5
8
8.8
14.0
28
100.0
57
100.0
26
31
36
41
46
to 30
to 35
to 40
to 45
to 50
1
0
0
3
3
10.0
0.0
0.0
30.0
30.0
51 to 55
56 to 60
2
0
20.0
0.0
over 60
10.0
Totals
10
100.0
12
42.9
30
Firefighter
Company officer
Chief officer
Totals
7
6
2
0
1
28
25.0
21.4
7.1
0.0
3.6
100.0
15
8
3
1
0
57
26.3
14.0
5.3
1.8
0.0
100.0
10
5
3
1
4
1
1
0
1
0
1
1
28
35.7
17.9
10.7
3.6
14.3
3.6
3.6
0.0
3,6
0.0
3.6
3.6
100,0
28
17
5
3
0
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
57
49.1
29.8
8.8
5.3
0.0
1,8
1.8
1.8
0.0
1.8
0.0
0.0
15
10
3
28
_JIl~
0
0
4
4
3
7
6
3
0
1
0
28
53.6
100.0
JULY/AUGUST
2001
40
35.7
10.7
!oo o
57
o~o-*
50.0
0.0
12.5
25.0
0.0
0.0
12.5
0.0
100.0
3
1
0
1
1
0
1
21
66.7
14.3
4.8
0.0
4.8
4.8
0.0
4.8
100.0
5 or less
28.6
16
28.1
6to 10
11 to 15
16 to 20
21 to 25
26 to 30
1
5
6
6
0
3.6
17.9
21.4
21.4
10
8
4
4
17.5
14.0
7.0
7.0
0.0
7.1
3
9
5.3
15.8
m
mm
over 30
Not reported
Totals
2
0
28
15.8
..........~ ....
2!.4
I0
~
1]
6
1
~.o
.. ~$.6
18
3
3
...... Jl:,
ii:
25.0
t07
0o
8o.0
- - DF.ATHS*
10.7
14
4
0
1
2
0
0
1
0
8
70.2
0~0
14,3
14.3
In the past decade, it's been typical for a quarter of the deaths to occur while responding to
or returning from alarms. Twelve of these 24
deaths were due to collisions or roUovers.
Eight were due to heart attacks. Two firefighters were shot to death on arriving at a
dwelling fire. One firefighter was struck by
a vehicle while crossing the road to assist at
a motor vehicle crash, and one firefighter,
trying to board a moving ladder truck, fell
under the wheels. Eighteen of the 24 vicNFPAJOURNAL
1
7
3
3
12
28
Dwellings and apartments

Brush, forest
Vacant
Public assembly
Storage
Railroad trestle
Nursing home
Under construction
Totals
Incendiary and suspicious fires

Search and rescue operations
68
3.6
0.0
3.6
3.6
25.0
10.7
10.7
42.9
100.0
/-:I_-I-TF=D PROPERWUSE
52.6
~,,~,~~-,.
Heart attack
Internal trauma
Asphyxiation
Burns
Gunshot
Stroke
Drowning
Pneumonia
Barotrauma
Aneurysm
Seizure
Hemorrhage
Totals
20 and under
21 to 25
26 to 30
31 to 35
36 to 40
41 to 45
46 to 50
51 to 55
56 to 60
Over 60
Not reported
Totals
1
0
L ...... " " ' ~
Stress
Struck by or contact
with object
Caught or trapped
Fell
Exposure
Hemorrhage
Totals
.......
1(
I
10
]his tabledoesnot includethe 17 victimswhowerecontractorsfor or employeesof stateor

federalwildlandagencies,militaryfirefighters,industrialfirefightersor assignedto an inmate
forestrycrew.Thetermvolunteerrefersto any firefighterwho is not a full-time,permanent,
paid memberof a firedepartment.
*Sincetheseattributesare not mutuallyexclusive,totalsand percentagesare not shown.
57
tiros were volunteer firefighters, 5 were

career firefighters, and 1 was an employee
of a federal forestry agency.
Eighteen firefighters died during the performance of non-emergency-related on-duty
activities. Eight died while engaged in normal
station activities--six as the result of heart
attacks, one as the result of a stroke, and one
due to complications related to a recent cancer
diagnosis. Four died while engaged in maintenance activities--two in separate incidents
when they fell while repairing overhead door

openers, one when a hose and coupling separated during hose testing and he was struck
by the pressurized hose stream, and one who
was struck by a passing vehicle while working
on a broken-down apparatus.
Two firefighters died when their heficopter
crashed while they were en route to present a
fire prevention program to schoolchildren.
One firefighter suffered a heart attack while
inspecting his district. Another suffered a
heart attack while at a fire department fund

raiser, and a third had a heart attack while
ventilating a dwelling where a dead body had
been found. One firefighter was shot to death
while raising money for a fire departmentsupported charity.
Fourteen deaths occurred during training
activities. Five firefighters suffered fatal heart
attacks. Two died at llve training fires, one as
the result of burns when he became trapped in
the attic and the other of an aneurysm while
operating a pump. Two firefighters died during underwater training exercises, and one
firefighter suffered a fatal seizure during
ground ladder training. Another firefighter
was shot in the eye during SWAT training
when a pistol malfunctioned. One forestry
firefighter fell to his death when his parachute
failed to open, another was run over by a fire
department vehicle during training, and
another died in a tanker crash during training.
Seven deaths occurred at non-fire emergencies, as well. These deaths include four heart
attacks--three at the scene of motor vehicle
crashes and one during a medical call. Two firefighters were hit and killed at the scene of
motor vehicle crashes. One firefighter drowned
while attempting a rescue in a flash flood.
Cause of fatal injury or illness
Figure 3 shows the distribution of deaths by

cause of fatal injury or illness.The term "cause"
refers to the action, lack of action, or circumstances that resulted directly in the fatal injury.4
Stress and overexertion, usually resulting in
heart attacks, continues to be the leading
cause of fatal injury, as it has been in almost all
of the years of this study. Of the 44 stressrelated deaths, 2 were due to strokes, 1 to an
aneurysm and 1 resulted from a seizure. The
remaining 40 resulted from heart attacks.
The second leading cause of death, was
being struck by an object or contact with an
object, which resulted in 31 percent or 32
deaths. These include 21 firefighters who died
in motor vehicle crashes and 5 who were hit by
motor vehicles. Four firefighters were killed by
gunfire. Another was struck by a section of a
storage tank when it exploded. Another was
hit by a pressurized hose stream and thrown
against the fire apparatus when the hose separated from the coupling during a hose test.
The next leading cause of injur~ resulting
in 16 deaths, or 16 percent, was being caught
FIGURE1
O n - D u t y Firefighter Deaths, 1977 - 2000
, .... ii1!1,
'1
r~
FIGURE2
Firefighter Deaths by Type of D u t y - 2 0 0 0
Training (14%)
Non-fire Emergencies (7%)
/
Other on-duty (18%) ~
Reponding to or
Returning from
Alarms (24%)
Fire Ground (38%)
3J
FIGURE3
Firefig6ter Deaths by Cause of Injury- 2000
Other (1%)
Struck by or
Contactwith
Caughtor
Trapped (16%)
Falls (6%)
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPAJOURNAL
69
while repairing overhead doors. One firefighter

fell onto his camera, injuring his spleen, while
investigating aftre. Another fell offthe apparatus while putting a ladder away. One firefighter
slipped under the wheels of a moving ladder
truck, and a forestry firefighter fell to his death
when his parachute failed to open.
In the remaining incidents, three firefighters
died as a result of exposure, including two who
or trapped. Eight firefighters were caught by

rapid fire progress, and four were caught in
structural collapses. Three firefighters became
trapped underwater; two drowned, and one
died of barotrauma when he surfaced too
quickly. One firefighter became lost inside a
burning structure and his tank ran out of air.
Six firefighters 'also died as a result of faUs.In
separate incidents, two died when they fell
FIGURE 4
Firefighter Deaths by Nature of Injury- 2000

Stroke (6%)
Burns ( 6 % ) ~
Gunshot (4%
5
~
Electrocution (2%)
Asphyxiation (8%)
Pneumonia (2%)
FIGURE 5
On-Duty Firefighter Deaths byAge and

Cause of Death - 2000
25
Non-heart attack
20
Heart attack
15
/ /
.gl
z 10
p I
t.
i.
II
26-30
31-35
II II
16-20
21-25
P
36-40
41-45
Age Group
70
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
46-50
51-55
56-60
Over60
were struck by lightning at a wildland fire and

a third who was asphyxiated as a result of
exposure to smoke. Finally, one firefighter
died while on duty as the result of internal
hemorrhaging related to recent surger~
Nature of fatal injury or illness
The term "nature" refers to the medical

process by which death occurred and is often
referred to as cause of death on death certificates and in autopsy reports. Figure 4 shows
the distribution of deaths by nature of fatal
injury or illness.
The largest proportion of deaths, 39 percent or 40 deaths, was due to heart attacks,
which were attributed to stress or overexertion. Heart attacks, which are typically the
leading nature of injury, usually account for
approximately half of the total deaths, but
while the proportion of heart attack deaths
has held fairly steady during the past 24 years,
the number of heart attack deaths has been
declining markedly, except in 1999. The average number for the last five years was 43.4
deaths per year, compared to 65.4 deaths per
year between 1977 and 1981, the first five
years of NFPA~s study. This represents a onethird reduction in the average number of heart
attack deaths annually.
Of the 40 heart attack victims in 2000,
11 had previous heart problems, usually
heart attacks or bypass surgery, and medical
documentation showed that four had severe
arteriosclerotic heart disease, one was
hypertensive, and one was diabetic. No
medical documentation was available for
the other victims.
During the past 24 years, medical documentation has been available for 642 of the
1,256 heart attack victims. Of those, 49.4 percent had had previous heart attacks or bypass
surgery, and another 30.5 percent had severe
arteriosclerotic heart disease. Another 12.8
percent had hypertension or diabetes.
In 2000, the other major categories were
internal trauma, which resulted in 32 deaths,
asphyxiation, which caused 8 deaths, burns,
which caused 6 deaths, and gunshots, which
resulted in 4 deaths. Two of the remaining
victims were electrocuted, two drowned, two
had a stroke, and two died of pneumonia.
One also died of barotrauma, one of an
aneurysm, one from internal hemorrhaging,
and one during a seizure.
Fireflghter ages
The firefighters who died in 2000 ranged in
age from 17 to 80, with a median age of 47.
Figure 5 shows the distribution of deaths by
age and cause of death.
As expected, heart attacks account for a
higher proportion of deaths among older
firefighters. Three out of five of these over
age 45 who died in 2000 died of heart
attacks. The youngest heart attack victim
was a 27-year-old firefighter who had no
known existing health condition.
Figure 6 shows death rates by age, using
firefighter fatality data for the five-year period
from 1996 to 2000 and estimates of the number of firefighters in each age group from
NFPA's 1998 profile of fire departments. 5
The lowest death rates, for firefighters in
their 20s and 30s, are a third lower than the
average. The rate for flrefighters in their 50s is
double the average, and for firefighters age 60
and over, it's four times the average. Firefighters 50 and older account for almost two-fifths
of all firefighter deaths during the five-year
period, although they account for less than
one-seventh of all firefighters.
Fire ground deaths
Figure 7 shows the distribution of the 39 fire
ground deaths by fixed property use. The
largest proportion of deaths, 46 percent,
occurred in residential smactures. These 18
deaths included 14 in one- and two-family
dwellings, 3 in apartment buildings, and 1 in a
detached garage.
There were 14 deaths in wildland fires, 2 in
a restaurant fire, 2 at fires in vacant buildings,
1 at a nursing home, 1 in a building under
construction, and I at a railroad trestle. The 14
deaths at wildland fires, coupled with the
deaths of two tirefighters responding to wildland fires, are a sharp decrease from the 28
wildland-fire related deaths reported for 1999.
To put the hazards of firefighting in various
types of structures into perspective, NFPA
examined the number of fire ground deaths
per 100,000 structure fires by structural property use. Estimates of the fire experience in
each type of property were obtained from
NFPNs annual fire loss studies between 1995
and 1999--the 2000 results aren't available
yet----and from the updated tirefighter fatality
data for the corresponding years. The results
are shown in Figure 8, which illustrates that,
FIGURE 6
On-Duty Deaths Rates per 10,000 Firefighters

- 2000
4
3.5
m
r.-
2.5
2
1.5
e~
Average
0.5
.
16-19
20-29
3(I-39
41)-49
50-59
60 a n d O v e r
AgeGroup
FIGURE 7
Firefighter Deaths by Fixed Property Use - 2000

Vacant (5%)
Nursing Home (3/o).~ ~
/Under
Construction (30/0)
:le (3%)
Restaurant (5%)
although more firefighter deaths occur in residential structures than in any other type of
structure, fires in nonresidential structures,
other than educational or health care and correctional properties, are more hazardous to
firefighters on average.
There were 10.7 fire ground deaths per
100,000 nonresidential structure fires from
1995 through 1999, compared to 3.7 deaths
per 100,000 residential structure tires. The
highest death rates during the five-year period
occurred in special structures, which includes
vacant buildings and buildings under construcdon. The low rate in health care and
correctional, and educational buildings may
reflect the fact that these occupancies are
among the most regulated and most frequently inspected and that their occupants are
among the most likely to call the fire department to report fires while the fires are still in
their early stages.
A disturbing trend can be seen when death
rates per 100,000 structure fires since 1977 are
examined. In spite of advances in firefighter
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
71
protective clothing and equipment, incident

management, and training, the number of
firefighter deaths on the fire ground at structure fires hasn't declined any faster than the
number of structure fires. As a result, the
death rate at structure fires overall was no
lower in the late 1990s than in was in the late
1970s and early 1980s. This is an area that
needs closer examination in order to determine what ~lcrors are involved.
FIGURE8
O n - D u t y Fireground Deaths per 100,000
Structure Fires - 1995-1999
Motor vehicle-related incidents
In 2000, 21 firefighters died in motor vehicle

crashes, 5 were struck by vehicles, 2 were
killed in falls from apparatus, and 1 died in a
parachute training mishap.
Nine of the firefighters killed in collisions
or rollovers were responding to alarms, and
three were returning from emergency calls. Of
these 12 firefighters, three were driving their
own vehicles and were the sole victim. One
struck a tractor head-on on a blind curve, and
another was struck head-on by a vehicle driven by drunk driver. The third swerved to
avoid another vehicle at an intersection and
skidded into a city, bus. Two of these victims
were wearing seatbelts at the time of the
crashes. No information on seathelt use was
available for the other.
The nine other firefighters were killed
while driving or riding on fire apparatus in
one-fatality incidents. A firefighter driving
a pumper lost control on a curve. The driver-side seatbelt had been removed from
the vehicle, and he was driving too fast for
road conditions.
Another lost control of a pumper on a
turn and hit a power pole. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was driving too fast on a wet
road, and had no Class B endorsement to
drive a pumper.
A third firefighter responding to a mutualaid call as a passenger in a tanker was killed
when the tanker was broadsided at an intersection. The driver of the tanker didn't stop at
the intersection and thought that the other
driver, who had the right of way, would see
him and stop. There was no information on
seatbelt use in that crash.
A fourth firefighter was returning fi'om a
false alarm when he lost control of the pumper
when the right f?ont fire drifted off the road
and he overcorrected, ultimately causing the
vehicle to roll over. He was ejected because he
72
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
200"1
r~
li
FIGURE
F i r e f i g h t e r D e a t h s - L o c a l C a r e e r vs. Local Volunteer

1977 - 2000
100
8O
60
.~
40
=
Z
20
Year
wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Driver inattention

was cited as a cause of the crash.
Another firefighter was driving a wildland
fire apparatus to a brush fire when the apparatus was struck head-on by a speeding vehicle.
The firefighter wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Nor
was a firefighter driving a ladder truck that
was broadsided at an intersection, although it
was fire department policy to do so.
A flrefighter riding as passenger in the fire
department command vehicle was killed when
it was hit by a car it was trying to pass. The
victim wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
Still another firefighter, returning from a
false call, tried to drive an aerial truck around
a railroad crossing gate. A stopped train

obscured his view of the track, and he drove
into the path of a second train. He wasn't
wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from,
then struck by, the truck. His fire department
also had a policy requiring seatbelt use.
Fin,ally, one firefighter was killed when a
helicopter he was in crashed during take off
to return from a wildland fire.
Of the 11 victims of road crashes, eight
weren't wearing seatbelts. Excessive speed was
dted as a factor in two of the crashes. Other factors cited were driver inattention, failure to stop
at a stop sign, and driving with a suspended
license and without a Class B endorsement.
There were six motor vehicle-related deaths

during wildland firefighting operations, five
involving aircraft crashes. Two federal forestry
contractors died when their reconnaissance
aircraft fell nose-first to the ground a few
minutes after takeoff. In two separate incidents, helicopters crashed while conducting
water drops at wildland fires. No details were
available on the cause of these three crashes.
In a separate incident, an aircraft struck a
radio tower after dropping its load of fire
retardant, killing the state forestry contract
pilot. The sixth death involved an ATV that
overturned while climbing a steep incline. The
victim was fatally burned when spilled gasoline ignited.
Two state forestry employees on their way to
present a fire prevention program to schoolchildren died when their helicopter crashed in
fog, and a firefighter partidpating in water
shuttle training lost control of the tanker he
was driving when the back fire w e n t off the
road, he overcompensated, and the tanker
rolled over. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and
was partially ejected through the windshield.
His passenger, a 17-year-old trainee who also
wasn't wearing a seathelt, was completely
ejected but not killed.
Another five firefighters were hit by vehicles and killed. In three separate incidents,
firefighters were struck while working at the
scenes of motor vehicle crashes. One was
crossing a highway to reach the crash victim
when he was hit by a passing vehicle. Another
was directing traffic around the crash vehicle
when he was struck. The third was hit by a
drunk driver who ignored the flashing lights
of the emergency vehicles and drove over the
flares. One of the five victims was run over by
a fire department vehicle at a training session.
Excessive speed and horseplay were cited in
that incident. Another firefighter working on
a broken-down apparatus was killed while
crossing a highway to bring jumper cables
back to a disabled vehicle.
Two firefighters died in falls from apparatus. One was returning a ground ladder to its
rack on top of the vehicle when he fell. He
spent four days in the hospital recovering from
a broken vertebra and wrist, and died of pneumonia the day after he returned home from
the hospital. The other was trying to climb
into the j umpseat of a moving apparatus when
he slipped under the wheels and was run over.
Other findings
Nine firefighters died in connection with

incendiary and suspicious fires, six at five separate structure fires, one at a wildland fire, and
two who were shot as they arrived at a
dwelling fire.
From 1991 through 2000, 104 firefighters, or 10.8 percent of all on-duty deaths,
died in connection with incendiary and suspicious fres. This is a drop of more than 50
percent from the first 10 years that NFPA
conducted this study and is, in part, a reflection of the decline in incendiary fires over
the same period.
Six firefighters died as a result of false
alarms in 2000. Two died in crashes while
responding to calls and two in crashes while
returning. One firefighter suffered a fatal heart
attack after returning from a false call, and one
died of a stroke while still at the scene of a false
call. During the past 10 years, 27 firefighter
deaths have occurred during false calls,
whether malicious or alarm malfunctions.
In 2000, three firefighters were fatally
assaulted and another was accidentally shot
during SWAT training. In the 20-year period
between 1981 and 2000, 23 firefighters were
fatally assaulted.
Of the 102 firefighters who died in 2000,
85 were members of local municipal career
and volunteer fire departments, 6 were
employees of state forestry agencies, 3 were
employees of federal forestry agencies, 3 were
contractors to federal or state forestry agencies, 2 were members of a state inmate
forestry crew, 1 was a civilian employee of the
military, I was a military firefighter, and 1 was
a member of an industrial fire department.
The distribution of deaths of career and
volunteer firefighters from local municipal
fire departments is shown in Figure 9. Firefighter fatalities among career firefighters
reached their lowest level in 1993. The totals
have generally risen since then, although the
number of deaths in 2000 is down from the
two previous years.
For volunteer firefighters, the trend has
been less clear. Although the number of
deaths annually can vary greatly from year to
year, there seems to have been an upward
trend since 1994, when the death toll for volunteer firefighters was at its lowest since this
study began. As with career firefighters, the
number of deaths fell in 2000. A comparison
of the fatality experience of career and volunteer firefighters in 2000 is shown in Table 1.
Firefighter fatalities
collapses
due to structural
In 2000, four firefighters were killed when

they were caught or trapped in structural collapses, including two who died in a fire in a
fast-food restaurant. That incident, which
involved a structure with a lightweight, woodtruss roof, prompted a review of firefighter
fatalities that occurred in structural collapses
during the past 10 years.
In this study, structural collapses are
defined as incidents in which the failure of
structural members resulted in the collapse
of a structure or portions of a structure. The
study breaks structural collapses into two
categories: incidents where firefighters were
working inside or on the structure, and
those where firefighters were outside the
structure and were fatally struck by collapsing structural materials.
From 1991 through 2000, 303 firefighters died at structure fres, 56 as a result of
structural collapses. This included 42 firefighters killed while operating inside or on
a structure at 27 fires and 14 firefighters
who died while operating outside the
structure at 12 fires.
Operating inside, outside, or on a structure
Of the 42 firefighters who were killed by

structural collapses while operating inside or
on a structure, 22 died of asphyxiation, 12 died
of burns, and 8 died of crushing injuries or
internal trauma. Twenty-five of the victims
were career firefighters, and 17 were volunteer
firefighters. The largest number of deaths,
which killed 21 in 12 fires, resulted from floor
collapses, tbllowed by roof collapses in which
19 died in 13 fires, and ceiling collapses in
which two died in two fires.
Eighteen of 23 firefighters who died as a
result of being caught in floor and ceiling collapses involved in various fire suppression
activities inside the structure, 2 were performing forcible entry, 2 were involved in
search-and-rescue operations, and 1 was
directing operations.
Of the 19 firefighters who died in roof collapses, four were operating on the roof of the
structure at the time it collapsed. Three of the
four were performing ventilation, and the
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
73
other was involved in fire suppression. Twelve

firefighters were involved in various suppression activities inside the structure at the time
of the collapse. The other three were searching
the building for possible occupants when the
roof collapsed.
Of the 14 firefighters operating outside a
structure when they were struck by objects
during structural collapses, 11 died of crushing injuries and 3 died as a result of internal
trauma. Eight were career firefighters, and six
were volunteer firefighters. All but two of the
victims were hit by walls or pieces of walls, and
those two were struck by collapsing chimneys.
Ten of the victims were operating hand lines
at the time of the building collapses.The other
four were performing forcible entry; ventilation, or post-incident investigation.
Patterns in collapse incidents
Of the 39 structures involved in these fires, 32

were one or two stories high, 6 were three stories, and 1 was four stories. The collapses
occurred in a range of occupandes. Twelve
fires and 16 deaths occurred in stores and
offices, 10 fires and 12 deaths in residential
properties, 7 fires and 11 deaths in public
assemblies, 6 fires and 7 deaths in vacant
buildings, 2 fires and 8 deaths in manufacturing facilities, and 2 fires and 2 deaths in
storage facilities. Twenty-one of the 39 fires,
resulting in 32 of the 56 deaths, were of incendiary or suspicious origin.
Multiple-fatality incidents occurred in
every year but 1994. The worst two incidents
occurred at a printing company in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, where four volunteer
firefighters died, and at a warehouse in Seattie, Washington, where four career firefighters
were killed. Overall, more than half of the victims of these multiple-fatality incidents, or 59
percent, were career firefighters.
Seven of the 12 fres of 2000 where fatal
floor collapses occurred involved basement
fires. In at least two of these fires, the victims
weren't aware that the fire was burning
beneath them. These 7 collapses resulted in 13
deaths. Where it's possible to identify construction details, we found that 6 of the roof
collapse incidents, resulting in 11 deaths,
involved buildings with truss roofs. In these
fires, the estimated elapsed time between fire
department notification and collapse ranged
from 13 to 42 minutes, illustrating the
74
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
potential risk to firefighters of this type

of construction.
Media reports of fatal structural collapses
often include quotes from people on the scene
saying the building "collapsed without warning." But, conditions in some of these
incidents provided warning that extreme caution was required. These include heavy fire
conditions on arrival, roof-mounted air conditioning and heating units, snow load on flat
roofs, dropped ceilings with heavy smoke conditions at the eave or roof line, and the
presence of parapets, overhangs, or other
appendages, including chimneys.
Another factor to look for is a bowed roof
or a large flat roof that may indicate truss construction. Although a building might have
been designed to handle current loads, fire can
weaken a structure, making operations below
more hazardous.
Some operations conducted on the fire
scene exposed firefighters to increased risk of
structural collapse. These included simultaneous interior and exterior suppression
operations, conducting overhaul after master
streams had been in use for a long time, exterior hand line operations too close to
fire-weakened structures, operating in narrow
alleys between fire buildings and their exposures, freelancing, and working too close to
structures after safety lines had been established. Backdrafts and partial roof collapse
should also be seen as indicators of potential
disaster. Failure to communicate that a structure has been evacuated is an example of
preventable situations that occurred in some
of these incidents.
How can these deaths be prevented?
It's easy in hindsight to point out what went

wrong in a particular incident and to suggest
what should have been done. But what can a
fire department do to prevent building collapses from killing firefighters?
Pre-incident planning is key to recognizing problems in or with a structure that may
make it more likely to collapse during a fire.
The factors to look for include lightweight
construction features, such as wood trusses
and unprotected open-web steel joists in
both roof and floor construction. Buildings
that have obvious signs of weakness include
those in which there was a previous fire,
those where an adjacent structure with a
common separating wall has been removed,

and those whose reinforcing rods are
exposed in concrete construction. The use of
dropped ceilings indicates the presence of
confned spaces where a concealed fire could
grow above the heads of working firefighters. Over time, building alterations can alter
a structure's integri .ty.
Ifa building has no automatic suppression
or detection equipment, a more advanced
fire may exist by the time the fire department
is notified. There are signs to look for on
arrival at an incident. Although it isn't usually possible to know at the outset that a fire
was intentionally set, the occupancy status
can give a good indication of the likelihood
of arson. Buildings that are vacant, condemned, being demolished or renovated, or
even closed for the night are frequent targets
of arson. Heavy roof loading, including
heating and air conditioning equipment, as
well as snow, can reduce a roof's integrity
under fire conditions. Fires of long duration
can also weaken structural members. It's
important to realize that every 250 gpm
stream applied to the building can add up to
one ton per minute to the load the weakened structure is carrying.
Many fire departments work with city
officials to board up vacant buildings or
demolish them when they become a hazard.
If access to a building is prevented, the likelihood of an incendiary fire or even a
vagrant igniting a fire for warmth or cooking is greatly reduced, and the fire
department can be reassured that no trespassers will be in the building, requiring
dangerous search and rescue operations.
NFPA technical committees have received
proposals to include a building marking system to alert firefighters to specific building
hazards, related to type of occupancy and
construction. A placarding system, similar to
that found in NFPA 704, Systemfor the Iden-
tification of the Hazards of Materials for

EmergencyResponse,is being developed by the
technical committee on fire service occupational s~ety. Using the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
and NFPA firefighter fatality investigation
report recommendations, this system will be
included in the annex of the 2002 edition of
NFPA 1500, Fire Department Occupational
Safety and Health Program.
U.S. Department of Justice death and disability benefits

for public safety officers
d e a t h s : The Public Safety Officers'

Benefits (PSOB)Act, signed into law in 1976, proine of duty
vides a federal death benefit to the survivors of the

nation's federal, state and local law enforcement officers, firefighters,
and rescue and ambulance squad members, both career and volunteer, whose deaths are the direct and proximate result of a
traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty.
In 1988, the Act was amended, increasing the amount of the benefit from $50,000 to $100,000. To avoid erosion of the benefit's
effectiveness by inflation, the 1988 amendment included an annual
cost-of-living escalator. On October 1 of each year, the benefit
increases as a result.The current benefit is $151,635, tax free.
PSOB covers all federal, state, and local public safety officers, with
its principal focus on firefighters, including volunteers, and law
Fatality factors
Each year, NFPA notes the same factors in firefighter fatalities on the fire ground and some of
the means for reducing the death toll annually.
These include incident management, accountability systems, and the use of PASS devices. A
comprehensive safety and health program
designed using NFPA 1500 is an important
step in achieving the goal of further reducing
firefighter deaths and injuries. However, we
need to take a closer look at fire ground fatalities to determine why the rate of deaths on the
fire ground per thousand fires attended has
barely changed during the past 24 years.
Although a significant number of firefighter fatalities each year occur on the fire
ground, it's important to remember that the
majority of fatal incidents don't. Deaths while
responding to, or returning from, alarms or
deaths during training exercises often strike
observers as among the most senseless. Horseplay was even cited as a factor in one of the
fatalities in 2000. In the past few years, a few
fire departments have been candid enough to
admit that horseplay goes on, and this should
serve as a warning to others that the carelessness that goes with horseplay can have fatal
consequences.
In crashes of fire department and personal
vehicles while responding to, or returning
from, emergency calls, the same factors are also
cited repeatedly. Responding fire department
vehicles aren't exempt from tr'~c laws, such as
speed limits and traffic controls. Careless
enforcement officers. A decedent's spouse and minor children are

usually the eligible benefciaries. Parents become eligible for the
death beneft if a decedent public safety officer wasn't married, and
there are no eligible children.
Line o f d u t y disability: In 1990, Congress amended the
PSOB benefits program to include permanent and total disabilities
that occur on or after November 29, 1990. The amendment covers
public safety officers who are permanently unable to perform any
gainful employment. PSOB is reserved for those few, tragic cases
where an individual barely survives a traumatic, line of duty injury.
Only then, in the presence of the program's statutory and regulatory
qualifying criteria, will PSOB's disability benefit be awarded. The bill's
supporters anticipated that PSOB wouldn't approve more than a
small number of cases annually.
actions, such as driving around railroad barriers, especially when there's a visual obstruction,
or assuming that other drivers will yield to
emergency apparatus can be, and often are,
fatal as illustrated in this year's report.
When we look at firefighter fatalities, the
overwhelming issue is the role of cardiovascular-related deaths. As part of its frefighter
fatality investigation program, NIOSH fields
a team of investigators to examine on-duty
deaths associated with cardiovascular disease.
Many of their reports can be found on the
NIOSH web site at www.cdc.gov/niosh/firehome.html.
There are health conditions that should preclude certain individuals from serving as active
firefighters. Medical requirements for frefighters are detailed in NFPA 1582, Medical
Requirementsfor Fire Fighters and Information

for Fire Department Physkiam. The intent of
these requirements isn't to deprive individuals
of the opportunity to serve their communities,
but to protect their colleagues who rely on
them for their survival and protection during
emergency calls.
References
1. NFPA's files for firefighter on-duty fatal

injuries are updated continually for all years.
2. For this report, the term "motor vehiclerelated incident" refers to motor vehicle
collisions, including aircraft and boats, and
rollovers, as well as to incidents, such as falls
from or struck by vehicles, where the involve-
merit of the vehicle played an integral role in

the death.
3. For this report, the term "volunteer" refers
to any firefighter who isn't a fuU-time, paid
member of a local, municipal fire department.
The term "career" refers to full-time, paid,
local, municipal fire department members or
employees of career organizations whose
assigned duties include firefighting.
4. These categories and those in the next section are based on the 1981 edition of NFPA
901, Uniform Codingfor Fire Plvtection.
5. Michael J. Karter, Jr., "U.S. Fire Department Profile Through 1998," NFPA Fire
Analysis and Research Division, Q~incy,
Massachusetts, November 1999, unpublished.
The analysis shown here assumes that the
number of firefighters adequately estimates
exposure and that the age distribution of
career and volunteer firefighters is similar.
Credits
This study was made possible by the cooperation and assistance of the United States fire
service, the Public Safety Officers' Benefts
Program of the Department of Justice, the
United States Fire Administration, NIOSH,
the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Bureau of Land Management of the
U.S. Department of the Interior. The authors
would also like to thank Stephen Foley and
Carl Peterson of NFPA's Public Fire Protection Division for their assistance on the study.
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPA JOURNAL
75
fatality Incidents
Fire captain dies in house fire
On January 27, 2000, a fire captain died as a

result of rapid flame propagation in a singlefamily dwelling fire.
At 1:16 p.m., a neighbor called 911 to alert
the fire department of the fire.The assistant fire
chief was first on the scene two minutes later
and reported that fire was venting from the roof
with heavy dark gray to brown smoke coming
through the cracks in the roof and dormers.
The single-story, wood-frame dwelling was
2,048 square feet (190 square meters) and had
a full attic resting on a pier and beam foundation. Dormer windows were in the front and
rear of the structure. The house was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
At 1:24 p.m., the first engine company
arrived at the scene with the captain and three
firefighters. The fire chief, who had arrived
shortly before them, ordered the crew to
advance a 13/4-inchattack line through the front
door. The captain became the nozzle man and,
with two of the firefighters, pulled 200 feet (61
meters) of hose and advanced it into the house.
The third firefighter was the pump operator
and charged the hose line. The captain and two
firefighters were in full protective clothing with
self-contained breathing apparatus.
As the captain applied water to the fire, the
two firefighters went back to the front door to
advance the hose line further into the house. At
1:30 p.m., as they supplied hose ro the captain,
they felt the hose line drop. The two firefighters reported the situation to the fire chief, who
ordered the assistant chief to form a rescue
team and search for the captain. Because of
increased heat and fire, it took four attempts
before the captain was removed at 1:45 p.m.
It's believed that the captain was caught in
a thermal heat column and the cause of death
was smoke inhalation with bums to more than
80 percent of his body.
The cause of the fire was listed as undetermined with the most likely cause being
lightning from a storm that passed through
shortly before the fire was detected. The structure was a total loss.
Firefighter suffered a heart attack at fire
On February 6, 2000, a 42-year-old firefighter

suffered a heart attack at a single-family
dwelling fire.
A resident discovered the fire before smoke
detectors sounded and reported it at 7:02 p.m.
The fire department arrived three minutes
later with a truck company, an engine company, and an equipment bus that transported
personnel and equipment. A total of 23 firefighters arrived at the two-story, wood-frame
building with a one-story addition.
The initial attack crew found the fire confined to the wall cavity next to the chimney
with light smoke coming from the eaves.As the
fire was being extinguished inside, the firefighter, with the aid of
two other firefighters,
raised a 14-foot (4meter) ground ladder to
the roo Dressed in full
protective clothing and
using a self-contained
breathing apparatus, he
climbed the ladder and
removed a 2-foot (0.6meter) section of soffit
adjacent to the chimney
with a Halligan tool. He
and another firefighter
then climbed to the roof
to perform further ventilation. Once on the roof,
he removed his facepiece, due to the dear
A 42-year old firefighter collapsed and died as a result of a heart conditions.
attack shortly after advancing a charged hose into this burning
At 7:35 p.m., with
house. The fire also killed two teenagers.
no further ventilation
76
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
necessary, the firefighters descended from the

roof. The firefighter then went to the south
side of the house to join the back-up team
and collapsed as he approached them. Firefighters and an on-scene ambulance crew
provided emergency medical care. Further
medical care was provided at the hospital to
no avail. The firefighter was pronounced dead
at 8:05 p.m. with cause of death listed as
occlusive coronary artery disease due to arteriosclerotic vascular disease.
Fire officials determined the cause of the
fire to be heat from the fireplace, which was
installed too close to combustibles. Damage
was estimated at $15,000.
Two firefighters die in restaurant fire
At 4:30 a.m. on February 2, 2000, central dispatch received a telephone alarm reporting a
fire in a fast food restaurant.
A first-alarm assignment was dispatched at
4:33 a.m. A medic unit was the first on scene
at 4:38 a.m. and an engine company arrived
one minute later. The response was delayed as
a result of foggy weather conditions. Both
companies saw fire coming from the restaurant's roof during size-up of the building and
fire conditions.
The one-story, 4,300 square-foot (399
square-meter) structure, was of ordinary construction. The roof was made of light wood
trusses covered with sh-inch plywood sheathing and fiberglass asphalt built-up roofing.
The span of most of the trusses was 47.5 feet
(14 meters) and there were no load bearing
interior walls. Three 10-ton units and two 5ton units along with four exhaust units were
mounted on the roof.
Two ftrefighters from the first engine company dressed in full protective clothing,
including self-contained breathing apparatus,
advanced a 13/,-inch hose line into the building. It's believed they gained entrance after
breaking the bottom glass panel of a side door.
The firefighters dragged the hose line over the
counter and into the kitchen. The firefighters
were unaware that the fire had been burning
for 25 minutes before they arrived.
After donning his serf-contained breathing
apparatus, an officer entered the building to
join his crew. Inside, he saw thick, black
smoke banked down to the floor with no visible fire or heat. Mter joining his crew, he was
told they were having difficulty advancing the
PHOTOGRAPH:AP/WIDEWORLD
Fatality Incidents
hose. He left the building and with the help of
another engine company that was advancing a
hose line from his apparatus, fed additional
hose to his crew. By this time, three hose lines
had been advanced into the building, making
it difficult to follow the correct hose back to
He was attended to immediately by other

firefighters at the site and transported to a hospital. The cause of his death 25 days later was
reported as complications of thermal bums.
his crew.
On April 7, 2000, a salvage crew started

removing two elevated, metal storage tanks in
a storage yard that also contained several
abandoned vehicles and other items. The
tanks each had a reported capacity of 12,000
gallons (45,425 liters) and were elevated on
metal supports. The crew, using an acetylene
torch, cut the metal supports on the first tank
and were cutting a hole in the tank as it rested
on the ground.
The fire began when smoldering grass
ignited liquid that leaked from the tank. The
owner of an automobile service station next
door saw the fire and called the fire department at 10:56 a.m. Arriving three minutes
later, firefighters quickly extinguished the
grass fire that extended to a nearby pile of
scrap wood. Fire crews then cooled down the
tank. The torch operator requested permission
to finish cutting a hole next to the drain, so a
chain could be looped through the two holes
to drag the tank onto a truck.
As the hole was being cut, a loud hissing
sound came from the tank before it exploded.
The explosion caused the 900-pound (408kilogram) end of the tank to separate at its seam
and be jettisoned 114 feet (34 meters) where it
came to rest folded in half after hitting a buildhag. A 25-year-old firefighter standing nearby
was struck by the tank and killed instantly.The
torch operator also died in the explosion.A second firefighter and another member of the
salvage crew sustained blunt force trauma
injuries and thermal bums, respectively.
Samples taken from the tank tested positive
for gasoline and heavy petroleum distillate.
After following the wrong hose, the officer left the building a second time and
reported conditions to the acting incident
commander at 4:44 a.m. The officer reentered the building a third time and again
followed the wrong hose. At 4:46 a.m., the
fire chief arrived and assumed command. At
4:52 a.m., the fire chief ordered the evacuation of the building. During this time the
roof collapsed over the kitchen. Learning
two firefighters were missing, the fire chief
formed a rescue team to enter the building
and save them. The first victim, found in the
kitchen, was taken to a hospital where he
was pronounced dead. The second victim
was found sometime later next to a rear exit.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The fire was intentionally set to cover a
burglary.
Fireflghter dies during prescribed burning
On March 13, 2000, an experienced state forest firefighter was participating in a prescribed
bum in a 35-acre (14-hectare) block of pine
forest with low vegetation in a state forest.
The area was bounded on three sides by a
bulldozer-cleared fire line and on the fourth
side by a creek.
The firefighter was operating a department-owned, four-wheel, all-terrain-vehicle
(ATV) that had a shop-built drip-torch
bracket mounted on the rack behind the driver. As the firefighter drove the ATV, igniting
vegetation with the mounted drip torch, he
headed down the side of a ravine, crossed the
flat portion and was heading up the opposite
side when the ATV overturned backward,
trapping him. The ATV had hit a bump hidden by vegetation, causing the vehicle to
overturn. As the firefighter struggled to get
the ATV off him, he accidentally kicked off
the half-turned cap for the vehicle's fuel tank.
The gasoline flowed out, soaking his protective trousers from the waist down. The open
flame of the drip torch ignited the gasoline,
resulting in second- and third-degree bums to
the firefighter.
Explosion at storage yard kills firefighter
Fire chief killed during annual hose test
At 8:00 p.m., on March 28, 2000, a fire

chief was helping with an annual hose test.
The chief was standing at the pump panel
when a 21/2-inch hose separated from the
coupling that was connected to a discharge
outlet. A high-pressure water stream struck
the chief, which knocked him backward,
and he hit his head on another apparatus.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started
immediately and he was transported to the
hospital, where he was pronounced dead

due to head injuries.
Firefighter drowns during rescue attempt
On August 17, 2000, a major thunderstorm

dumped more than 21/2 inches of rain within
two hours, causing flood conditions. Emergency agencies sent personnel to assist
civilians trapped by the water and to direct
traffic away from the flooded areas.
At 5:00 p.m., a security guard saw a woman
abandon her automobile due to high water
and try to walk to the building he was in to use
a telephone. She stumbled into a ditch and
went under water. The current was pulling her
toward a whirlpool, but she was able to grab a
pipe and hold on while keeping her head
above water.
The guard called to two firefighters who
were checking vehicles. Dressed in full protective clothing, the firefighters responded and
entered the water. The first firefighter stumbled and was helped by the second firefighter.
As they continued, the first firefighter started
having difficulty moving as his clothing
became soaked. He turned around and saw
that the second firefighter was no longer there
but his helmet was floating on the water. He
yelled for help and was assisted by dvilians.
He removed his coat and a makeshift lifeline
was tied around his waist. He reentered the
water and rescued the trapped woman.
The other firefighter's body had been
pulled into a culvert by the current and traversed a drainage system made of different
sized pipes. It's reported that his body was
recovered several hours later nearly two-and-a
half blocks away
Two wildland firefighters electrocuted
while fighting forest fire
On August 23, 2000, on the fifth day of a forest fire, a six-person squad joined a 21-person
team and was flown by helicopter from base
camp to the fire ground. Both units were
trained in wildland firefighting procedures
and had been on the fire scene for a couple of
days. Upon arriving at the fire scene, the sixperson squad was assembled, given their
assignments, and a weather briefing. They also
discussed the procedures to take in the event
of lightning activity. They then went to their
assigned work area.
Thirty minutes later, a storm with lightJULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
77
Fatality Incidents
ning, heavy rain, and large hail moved in. The
squad stopped what they were doing and
sought shdter. The storm, with numerous
lightning strikes, lasted about a half hour. One
firefighter was covered by a tarp and resting
against his daypack, which was leaning against
a tree, when it was struck by lightning. He was
killed, as was a second firefighter who was
lying down on the ground under a tarp
approximately 14 feet (4 meters) away. The
second firefighter had forgotten his coat and
his clothing was soaking wet. A third firefghter, who was lying down sharing the tarp
with the second firefighter, was temporarily
paralyzed. Since he was wearing his coat, his
clothes weren't as wet.
The three remaining firefighters in the crew
were below a rock outcropping 30 feet (9
meters) down the slope from the two nearest
firefighters who'd taken shelter under the tarp.
All three were dazed and injured to various
degrees. One of the less injured firefighters
requested help by radio and a helicopter was
sent to remove them. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started immediately on the first
two firefighters and continued until they
reached the hospital where they were
pronounced dead.
Fire chief killed in apparatus crash
At 3:30 p.m., on January 17, 2000, the fire
department received a mutual-aid call for a
single-family dwelling fire.
As the fire chief was responding with a
water tanker, he was involved in a single vehicle traffic crash. The tanker had a gross vehicle
weigh rating of 18,000 pounds (8,164 kilograms) and was equipped with a water tank
that held 640 gallons (2,426 liters) of water
that weighed 5,326 pounds (2,415 kilograms)
when flail.The vehicle wasn't equipped with a
seat belt for the driver's seat.
The vehicle was traveling on a two-lane
asphalt road at an estimated speed of 58 miles
per hour (93 kph). It was going down a grade
and entering a curve when it skidded out of
control on the rain-slick road as it approached
a road intersecting from the fight. It's believed
the tanker's brakes locked up, causing the
vehicle to rotate clockwise and partially leave
the road, knocking down a road sign. As the
tanker continued, it crossed a cement island at
the entrance to the intersecting road, knocking down a second road sign, hitting a
78
NFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
guardrail broadside, and then going airborne

over the guardrail. The vehicle rolled one half
to three-quarters of a turn before landing on
the ground on its top left side. The vehicle
continued to roll one complete revolution
before coming to a stop.
The 47-year-old chief died in the crash
from massive neck and upper chest trauma.
Speed was dted as the contributing factor in
this crash.
$mokejumper dies during a training
exercise
On April 29, 2000, a 29-year-old wildland

firefighter was participating in a mandatory
jump refresher training exercise. Each season
smokejumpers in this department are required
to participate in physical conditioning, safety
gaining, parachute handling, and other practice jumps before being considered ready to
parachute into a fire zone.
The frefighter jumped from the aircraft as
it flew at 3,000 feet (914 meters). The parachute malfunctioned when the reserve
parachute's pilot-chute and suspension lines
entangled with the main parachute's pilotchute. This entanglement prevented either
parachute from deploying. Fkst aid was provided at the scene by smokejumpers until
emergency medical services arrived. The firefighter was transported to a nearby hospital
where he was pronounced dead.
collapse
On September 24, 2000, a child playing with
flares ignited a fire in the attic of a three-story,
wood-frame, single-family dwelling. At 10:10
a.m., a resident called the fire department and
initial reports indicated that a child was
trapped inside.
On arrival, the chief saw smoke coming
from the eaves and was told that all occupants
were accounted for. An engine company crew
tried to advance an attack hose line into the
house but was unsuccessful due thick smoke
and heat. Two firefighters, wearing full protective clothing except for self-contained
breathing apparatus, were sent to the roof to
ventilate. As one of the firefighters helped the
other make a cut in the roof directly above the
fire, it collapsed under him. The firefighter fell
into the fully involved attic area. The other
firefighter reached into the attic and was able
to grab hold of the trapped firefighter's hand
Firefighter dies as a result of
but was unable to pull him free due to superheated gases and flames engulfmg them.
After the fire was knocked down, the body
of the firefighter was recovered. Cause of
death was listed as smoke inhalation.
Trapped fireflghter dies
On March 31, 2000, at 10:00 p.m., a neighbor called the fire department to report a
blaze at a two-story, wood-frame, single-family house. The building consisted of four
levels in a split-level style design. Two teenage occupants left the scene before firefighters
arrived.
The first engine company arrived seven
minutes later with a captain, lieutenant,
and two firefighters. The captain, assuming
the incident commander role, performed a
quick size-up and reported smoke and
flames coming from a garage window. The
lieutenant operated the pump and the two
firefighters advanced a 1-inch hose line to
the garage door. The incident commander
kicked in a corner of the door and the firefighters directed the stream into the garage.
When the incident commander believed
the fire had been knocked down, he sent
the two firefighters into the building with a
1-inch hose line to search for anyone that
may have been inside and to open windows
for ventilation.
The two firefighters were on the uppermost level when the lieutenant of the
second engine company joined them in the
search. A short time later, they saw a glow
accompanied with heat coming fi'om the
stairway at the end of the hall. They
directed the hose toward the glow but were
unable to knock down the heat. After moving down the hallway away from the heat,
the lieutenant decided to follow the hose
out of the building. One firefighter was in
front of him and he thought the second
was right behind him. After he helped the
first firefighter down the stairs and left the
building, it was learned that the second
firefighter hadn't exited.
Two firefighters from the fire department ambulance crew that were on the
scene formed a rescue team.They were able
to gain entrance to the uppermost level by
ladder. They found the firefighter's body
approximately three feet (1 meter) away
from a window in the master bedroom. He
Fatality
NIOSH C a r d i o v a s c u l a r P r o i e e t
bout 100 U.S. firefighters die on average annually while on duty. Cardiovascular
disease (CVD) is the number one cause of these fatalities, typically taking 45 lives
per year.The problem of CVD among firefighters is an occupational health problem,
as well as a public health problem. To address this issue, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), has conducted fatality investigations of flrefighters
killed on-duty due to CVD since 1998.
The investigation includes an assessment of the physiological and psychological
demands of the job, workplace organizational factors, such as screening tests, and individual risk factors for coronary artery disease. Each investigation results in a succinct report
distributed to the affected fire department, as well as the country's fire service. Circumstances of each fatality are entered into a database for analysis. These investigations and
subsequent analysis of the database will provide insights for prevention and intervention
activities.
Three investigators form two-member teams. Each team conducts and writes reports on
12 fatality investigations per year. In 1998, they completed 10 investigations, in 1999, 21,
and last year, 23.
In addition, each member is responsible for publishing peer-reviewed journal articles,
and giving presentations of the program at national meetings. The investigations are Tom
Hales, M.D., MPH, coordinator; Tom Baldwin, C.S.P., firefighter and safety specialist; and
Kdsten Sexson, M.S., MPH, epidemiologist.
-Dr. ThomasHales, NIOSH,Stephen N. Foley,NFPA
Incidents
tentionally steered the tractor-plow in the

direction of the fire. He saw fire coming
towards him and realized his escape route had
been cut off. He cut a safe zone in the short
period of time he had before the fire reached
him. He got offthe tractor-plow and lay down
in the middle of the safe zone, trying to cover
his body with dirt. The firefighter wasn't wearing any protective clothing other than a helmet.
The firefighter sustained second- and thirddegree bums to his arms, back, neck, and face.
After the fire had burned over him, he got
up and put out a fire that was burning the
tractor-plow. He notified the chief that he had
been burned and waited 10 to I5 minutes
until the tractor-plow cooled off before driving back to where he started. Fkefighters
immediately treated him for his burns and the
police chief drove him to the hospital.
Two weeks later, after receiving skin grafts
for his bums and being treated in a bum center for blood clots, he died suddenly from
massive bilateral pneumonia.
Firefighter killed by fall
had removed his SCBA face-piece and

placed his hood over his nose and mouth.
The air supply in his air cylinder was
depleted. He was immediately transported
to a hospital where he was pronounced
dead. Three other firefighters sustained
first- to third-degree burns on their hands.
Investigators determined that the fire
began in the garage from a drop-light
placed too close to a cardboard box that was
being used as a sleeping area for a newly
acquired dog.
Fire lieutenant hit and killed at motor
vehicle crash
On December 23, 2000, at 2:30 a.m., a ladder company was preparing to return to
quarters after working at a two-motor
vehicle crash on a highway. As the lieutenant
was walking around the apparatus, a drunk
driver drove over emergency flares in an
attempt to beat a semi-trailer truck into the
left lane. The driver drove at a high rate of
speed down the right lane and crossed
between two police vehicles blocking traffic
in the center lane. The automobile struck the
semi-trailer truck and spun around crashing
into the ladder truck. The lieutenant was
pinned between the two vehicles and
suffered serious leg injuries. He was air lifted

to a hospital where he died later that da~
Firefighter burned making fire cut during
wildland fire
On August 20, 2000, at 2:15 p.m., the sheriff's

office relayed an alarm for a wildland fire.
Wildland fire crews arrived about one hour
later. During the initial size-up it was determined that the cause of the fire was an
uncontrolled debris fire, which extended to a
pine woodland plantation. A series of arson
fires had also been set along a nearby road that
formed one of the fire's boundaries.
One firefighter was a tractor-plow operator
who was teamed up with a private forester
employed by the same company that owned the
plantation. They were directed to cut a firebreak on the right flank to contain the fire. As
the tractor-plow operator cut the break, the private forester lit backfires until the fires became
too hot and he stopped. A short time later the
tractor-plow disrupted a bee's nest. The private
forester, being allergic to bee stings, tried several times to go around the swarming bees but
was unable to. He finally retreated to the area
where they had started the break.
Due to poor risibility from smoke and the
undergrowth, the tractor-plow operator unin-
On January 16, 2000, at 2:30 p.m., two firefghters and a civilian were replacing an
electric garage door opener in the fire station.
They placed a 14-foot (4-meter) fire department extension ladder that wasn't extended
against the side of a rescue truck. The unextended ladder measured 9 feet 2 inches (2.8
meters) and the distance from the top of the
rescue truck to the cement floor was approximately 9 feet 4 inches (2.9 meters). The two
firefighters climbed the ladder, disassembled
and removed the old door opener, and passed
it down to the dvilian while standing on the
roof of the rescue truck.
The two firefighters were told that they had
to wait while the new door opener was prepared for installation. They decided to get
down until they were ready to install the new
door opener. As the first firefighter descended
the ladder, it slid to the right. The firefighter
went to the right with his feet in the air, fell,
and struck the cement floor head first. The
firefighter remaining on the roof of the rescue
truck jumped down and helped the fallen firefghter. The civilian called 911, and within
minutes paramedics were on the scene. The
patient was transported by helicopter to the
hospital and died 24 hours later due to the
blunt force trauma to his head. #
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
79
i n,.il'
market
Community
Fire Equipment
7 Prices Switch Rd.
Vernon, NY 07462
(800) 610-5600
www.communityfire.
find contact information for some of the leading manufacturers of protective clothing.
Aerospace Design and

Development, Inc.
P.O.Box 672
Niwot, CO
8054-0672
(303) 530-2888
Want more information?

The NFPAJournal 2001 Buyers' Guide lists protective
clothing for handling hazardous materials under the
category "Clothing, protective."To receive your copy of
the Buyers' Guide, call (800) 344-3535 or write to the
NFPA Fulfillment Center, 11 Tracy Drive, Avon, MA
02322.
Breg
International
RO. Box 595
Fredericksburg, VA 224040595
(540) 373-3482
www.bregintl.com
Codes and standards in this area

NFPA 1991, Vapor-Protective Ensembles for Hazardous Materials Emergencies, and NFPA1992, Liquid
Splash-Protective Ensembles and Clothing for Hazardous Materials Emergencies, apply to handling
hazardous materials. Prepared by the Technical Committee on Hazardous Protective Clothing and
Equipment, the standards became effective on February 11, 2000. The U.S. Department of Transportation
requested that NFPA develop the standards after the
National Transportation Safety Board issued a report
on a hazardous materials accident in Benicia, California, that recommended developing national protective
clothing standards.
Six other technical committees write codes and standards on other types of fire and emergency services
protective clothing and equipment. These cover structural, proximity, and wildland firefighting; special
operations; and respiratory protection and personal
alarm equipment.
CGF Helmets, Inc.

523 Benfield Rd.
Severna Park, MD 21146
(410) 647-8833
www.members.
aol.com/cgfhelmets
Want more information?

To learn more about NFPA'scode and standards development, visit www.nfpa.org.To obtain a current edition
of NFPA 1991 or NFPA 1992, contact the NFPAFulfillment Center by mail at 11 Tracy Drive, Avon, MA
02332; by telephone at (800) 344-2555 or (508)
895-8300; or order online at www.nfpa.org.
Chem-Tex
Corporation
550 W. Ingham Ave.
Trenton, NJ 76063
(609) 392-6770
Dupont Tyvek
RO. Box 80705
Wilmington, DE
19880-0705
(800) 44-]YVEK
www.dupont.com/tyvek/
protective-apparel
Coast to Coast
Safety, Inc.
2130 S. Wilmington Ave.,
Number 206
Long Beach, CA 90810
(800) 554-5658
www.c2csafety.com
Eastern Color and

Chemical Company
35 Livingston St.
Providence, RI 02904
(401) 331-9000
If you're interested in protective clothing for handling

hazardous materials,this listing is for you. Here,you'll
com
80
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
Charkate/
Worksafe
130 W. lOth St.
Huntington, NY 11746
(800) 929-9000
Chemfab
Corporation
701 Daniel Webster Highway
RO. Box 1137
Merrimack, Nil 03054
(603) 424-9000
www.chemfab.com
Decotec
9461 Silver King Ct.
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 691-4200
Direct Safety Company
2005 W. 14th St. Number
132
Tempe, AZ 85281
(800) 528-7405
Draeger Safety
101 Technology Dr.
RO. Box 120
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-0120
www.draeger.net
DuPont
Protective Apparel
Chestnut Run Plaza
Wilmington, DE
19805-0705
(800) 44-TYVEK
www.dupont.com/
tyvek/protective-apparel
,.
inth , market
Edwards and
Cromwell
Manufacturing, Inc.
11519 InvestorAve.
Building B
Baton Rouge, LA 70809
(225) 292-3377
www.edwardsandcromwell
.com
Fyrepel Products
202 Pride Lane SW
Decatur, AL 35603
(631) 981-9700
www.lakeland.com
Flame Seal
Products, Inc.
4025 Will0wbend
Suite 310
Houston,TX 77025
(713) 668-4291
www.flameseal.com
Forestry
Suppliers, Inc.
205 West Rankin Street
P.O.Box 8397
Jackson, MS 39284-8397
www.forestry-suppliers.com
Gentex Corp.
P.O.Box 315
Carbondale, PA 18407
(570) 282-8514
WL Gore and
Associates, inc.
297 Blue Ball Rd.
Elkton, MD 21921
(410) 392-3700
Hazmat Dqe
5713 West 85th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46278
(317) 872-0577
www.hazmatdqe.com
Hazmat Medical
1036 South Cedar Rd.
New Lenox, IL 60451

(800) HMA-4002
www.hazmatmedical.com
Nespack, Inc.
P.O.Box 70
New Boston, NH 03070
ILC Dover, Inc.

One M00nwalker Rd.
Frederica, DE 19946
(800) 631-9567
www.idcd0ver.com
New Pig Corp.

One PorkAve.
Tipon, PA 16684-0304
(814) 684-0101
Interspiro, Inc.
31 Business Park Dr.
Branford, CT 06405
(203) 481-3899
Suite 150
Largo, MD 20774
(301) 925-1234
www.safewareinc.com
Newtex
Industries, Inc.
8050 Victor-Mendon Rd.
Victor, NY 14564
(800) 836-1001
www.newtex.com
Kappler Protective
Apparel and Fabrics
115 Grimes Dr.
P.O.Drawer 409
Guntersville, AL 35976
(800) 348-7078
www.kappler.com
North Safety
Products
2000 Plainfield Pike
Cranston, RI 02921
(401) 943-4400
www.northsafety.com
Lab Safety
Supply, Inc.
401 South Wright Rd.
Janesville, Wl 53546
(800) 323-0783
RMC Medical
3019 Darnell Rd.
Philadelphia, PA 19154
(800) 332-0672
www.rmcmedical.com
Life Safety Systems

343 Soquel Ave.
Suite 317
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
(831) 728-9090
The Reeves
Group, in(.
1704 West Seventh St.
Frederick, MD 21701
(800) 328-5563
Riddle Technologies
1011 Huron Ave.
Lubbock, TX 79416
(806) 792-8945
Mar Mac
Manufacturing
Company, Inc.
P.O.Box 278
McBee, SC 29101
(800) 845-6562
www.marmac.com
Mine Safety
Appliances
P.O.Box 426
Pittsburgh, PA 15320
(877) MSA-FIRE
www.msanet.com
le~:
Servus Firefighter
Footwear
One Innovation Court
P.O.Box 13616
Dayton, OH 45413-0616
(937) 264-2662
www.servasfire.com
Sparkling
Earth Products
20817 North 21st St.
Suite 14
Phoenix, AZ 85027
(800) 871-1710
Spectrum Quality
Products, Inc.
14422 S. San Pedro St.
Gardena, CA 90248
(800) 772-8786
www.spectrumchemical.com
Safety Equipment
Institute
1307 Dolley Madison Blvd.,
Suite 3A
McLean, VA 22101
(703) 442-5732
Standard Safety
Equipment Company
1407 Ridgeview Drive
McHenry, IL 60050
(888) 345-4773
Tetratec PTFE
Technologies
A Donaldson Company
1741 LorettaAve.
Feastervilie, PA 19047
(215) 355-7111
www.tetratex.com
Total Fire Group
One Innovation Court
P.O.Box 13616
Dayton, OH 45413-06016
(800) 688-6148
Safeware Fire
and Rescue
49475 Lottsford Rd.
CONTINUEDONPAGE 83
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
81
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What happens in the hot zone, warm

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Trelleborg
Viking
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170 West Rd., Suite One
Portsmouth, NH 0 3 8 0 1
(603) 4 3 6 - 1 2 3 6
The hot, or restricted, zone immediately surrounds an incident and extends far enough to
prevent adverse effects to personnel outside the
zone. This is where control efforts occur. In the
warm zone, personnel and equipment decontamination and hot zone support take place.
The command post and other support functions are set up in the cold zone, otherwise
known as the clean zone.
W h a t are NFPA
documents?
472's
companion
NFPA 471, RecommendedPracticefor Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents, and

NFPA 473, Competenciesfor EMS Personnel
Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents,

are closely related to NFPA 472. NFPA 471
specifies response operating guidelines and
outlines the minimum requirements needed to
respond to hazardous materials incidents.
NFPA 473 specifies the minimum competency requirements for EMS personnel, as well
as all the components of the emergency
medical services system.
Vidaro Corporation
333 Martinel Dr.
P.O. Box 550
Kent, OH 4 4 2 4 0 - 0 5 5 0
(330) 6 7 3 - 7 4 1 3
i111111
.........
MEMBER
Westford
Chemical
Corporation
98 Concord Rd.
P.O. Box 798
Westford, MA 0 1 8 8 6
(800) 2 2 5 - 3 9 0 9
OUTDOORWALL MOUNTAIR CONDITIONERS

FOR HAZARDOUSLOCATIONS.
CLASS 1, GROUP'SBC & D, DIVISION 2
ThirdPartyListedto US& CanadaStandards.
Cooling0nly.
Coolingwith ElectricHeat.
HeatPomps.
SizesIrorn12,000to 67,000BTLI/HCooling.
CoatedCoilsto RetardCorrosionandmanyother
standardoptiions.
Werner Works,
Inc.
Pro-Tuff Professional
Products
P.O. Box 9 7 4
Roseburg, OR 9 7 4 7 0
(800) 5 4 7 - 0 9 7 6 ~
m s t t l c k s i n d u s t r i e s , inc.
5904 jessamine, a9
houston, texas 77081
tel: 713-667-2443
1-800-383-8151
email:info@matticks.com--www.matticks.com
.c o n V a u it,- Safety
.
~~
(8oo) 2 2 2 - 7 0 9 9
FAX: ( 2 0 9 ) 6 3 2 - 4 7 1 1
ast@convault.coi
i
vWe
va oaM~
~1=
www.convault.com
II
When the CenVault AST was 0dginally dasigned
the safest AST that was practical. Many Fire Ofl
were incorporated into CenVenlt's dasign. Now
our track record shows the wisdom of following I
design along with the CenVault demand for qual
incredlMe record. ConVault AST's are installed m u~,=,~,uuu s~es dmunu me wunu
without a single system falluref Over seven hundred are at fire stations.
slung. We appreciate the chance to wed(

togethar as we enter the new century.
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
83
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October 17-19, 2001
Minneapolis, M N
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safety equipment. TaskMaster:
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Eliminates hand-written log sheets
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what'shot
T H E LATEST IN FIRE PROTECTION PR O D U C TS
2~
Computer Software
Fire Zone 5.0 is the only software specifically designed to
create pre-incident plans, post-incident critiques, and fire
investigation diagrams. The updated program is easier to use.
Fire Zone 5.0 features an innovative learning center, where
the user can view tutorials, special reports, and expert demonstrations within the program. Fire Zone 5.0 is compatible
with AutoCAD 2000, supporting .dwg and .dxf formats that
can be printed or plotted.
Circle ReaderService Card No. 100
qh@~
"=--"
Drawn with The Fire Zone
Foam Controller
Nordic's Mark IV computerized foam controller uses around the pump technology,
combined with magnetic flow meters, to measure foam and solution flows. A
computer monitors the flow and adjusts it using a motorized, custom metering
valve. The computer performs calculations and adjustments more than 50 times a
second, resulting in accurate ratio control, even during significant flow changes.
Nordic can customize the displays and menus on the Mark IV to meet individual
needs. The computer also logs critical data and an optional thermal printer can be
supplied for printouts.
Circle ReaderService Card No. 101
Halon Replacement
The 3M Performance Materials Division announces the development
of NovecrM 1230, a new fire extinguishing material, billed as the first
viable long-term replacement for Halon. It's designed to balance the
need for extinguishing performance, human safety, and low environmental impact. Its unique chemical structure is low in acute toxicity,
providing a significant margin of safety at relatively high extinguishing
concentrations, making it ideal for use in occupied spaces. Novec T M
1230 has a zero ozone-depletion potential, a five-day atmospheric lifetime, and a global warming potential of one.
Circle ReaderService CardNo. 102
JULY/AUGUST 2001
NFPA JOURNAL
85
what'$hot
Hre Alarm Systems
Notifier, the world's largest manufacturer of
commercial fire alarm systems, has launched
the Onyx Series of fire detection products.
The new line includes fire alarm control panels and peripherals, such as detectors, power
supplies, and audio transponders. The Onyx
Series includes the 640 Fire Alarm Control
Panel, ACPS Addressable Power Supply,
XIPQ multi-channel audio transponder, RFX
wireless detection systems, and the Acclimate rM Plus detector, as well as the View
detector and the Harsh detector.
Circle Reader Service Card No. 103
Spray Nozzles
Spraying Systems Company has released the
UL-certified 7N FogJet spray nozzle assembl,,: The 7N features seven atomizing spray
caps that produce a shower-like full cone
spray pattern of very. fine drops. The nozzle
assembly is available in brass, type 303
stainless steel, or type 316 stainless steel.
Other materials are available on request.

Soflw=e Support
Tiscor offers a wireless work order module for
its equipment inspection software applications. This module allows users to perform
unscheduled work in the field and wirelessly
transmit the information to the office using a
Palm PilotTM.
Clean Agent
Halotron TM I, a clean fire extinguishing
agent that replaces Halon 1211, is available for extinguishers, aircraft rescue and
firefighting vehicles, and limited flooding
applications. It's UL-approved with
ULC-listed portables and wheeled units
from Amerex, Badger, Buckeye, and
Kidde, and its EPA SNAP-listed for commercial/industrial and military use.
Internet:
t
86
NFPA JOURNAL
questionsforYOU ,
JULY/AUGUST
2001
Safety Control Valves

Watts Regulator Company introduces its
new G4000 M1 Predator series of flanged
ball valves with 125-psi steam rating. The
valves feature reliable quarter-turn technology., Teflon seats that provide positive
leak-proof shutoff, stainless steel ball and
stem, and full-port valve performance.
The series has the same face-to-face
dimensions as an ASNI B16.10 flanged
gate.
http://www.ipma-hr.org
,o,+,.+o,
ipm+1
what'shot
Relief Valves
Wilkins Operation of Zum Industries, a

leader in backflow prevention and pressure
relief valves, has released a new version of its
electronic software caralogue. The FastApplication Tools Catalogue was created for
engineers, contractors, and specifiers of backflow, pressure reducers, and fire valves. In an
easy-to-use format, it helps the user select
appropriate water control products for custom
specifications. A point, click, and print application eliminates the hassle of leafing through
literature binders.
Security Systems
Securitron Magnalock Corporation's 2001

product catalogue and retail price list are now
available. The 52-page color catalogue provides detailed in*brmation on electronic door
control systems and components, including
the Magnalock electronic door control system and Unlatch , the motorized electronic
strike-and-touch sense exit devices, as well as

UL-listed exit delay systems.
"- \X~g.'/ C" " , . ~ E
"
i~
S m o k e Detector
Safety Technology International, Inc.

announces its smoke detector damage stopper. It's UL-approved for use with Notifier
FSP-751 smoke detectors. The polycarbonate cover was previously UL-tested and
UL-approved for listing with Sentrol
611UD, 612UD, 721UD, and 731UD with
no sensitivi.ty adjustment. The smoke detector cover is FM-tested and -approved.
Heat Sensor Cables
Kid& Fire Protection has released two new heat

sensor cables to enhance alarm line digit',L1range.
The cables are suitable for internal and external
use. Key features include easy installation and
detection times of less than five seconds, making
the cables ideal for use with floating roof storage
tanks, vehicle and locomotive engine bays, rack
storage, turbines, and warehouses.
Halon Replacement
Hall Fire Protection has developed Halon

replacement Acre-K, a potassium aerosol-based
extinguishant, that can be five times as effective
as Halon 1301. Unlike inert gas systems, the
agent produced reacts chemic'allywith the seat of
the fire and doesn't rely on reducing o~'gen
levels below the percentage required to support
combustion. Aero-K targets fire risk at the
source with the capability of toral flooding
as required.
TWENTY FIRST CENTURY INTERNATIONAL FIRE EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES CORPORATION

3249 W. Story Road Irving, Texas 75038 * TEL'(972) 252-6201 FAX, (972) 594-7826 www.21centuryfire.com
C i r c l e No. 029 o n R e a d e r S e r v i c e C a r d
JUL~ AUGUS i 21)l) L
NFPA JOURNAL
87
what'$
ot
Portable Gas Detectors

With a technologically advanced design, the
G20 and G40 portable gas detectors from
General Monitors set a new industry level for
personal safety monitoring. A compact
design featuring fi.tLt-sized electrochemical
cells for optimal personal safeg; the robust
G-series simultaneously monitors up to four
toxfc gases, including oxygen deficiency and
combustible gas. Enclosed in rugged housing, the G-series is resistant to impact and
chemical exposure. Designed to meet IP65
standards, both units are approved for damp
and dusty environments.
techniques and is feature-rich, cost-effective,

and backed with the reliability built into Fike
control panels.
features a patent-pending upright deflector

design that effectively expands the maximum
coverage area.
ili
Big Box Sprinklers

Gem Sprinkler Company's new K-25 EC
upright big box sprinklers are the perfect
solution to area-density fire protection needs.
Designed to meet the needs of retailing,
extra-hazard, and high-piled storage occupancies, the K-25 Big Box has been tested
under obstructed construction conditions and
Control Panels
Fike Corporation announces the Shark analog/addressable fire control panel. The Shark
brings Fike's reputation and experience of
building high-quality suppression panels to
the fire alarm market. The Shark system uses
the latest technology and manufacturing
Alarm Systems
GAI-Tronics Corporation introduces a
new microprocessor-based system for public address and general alarm for offshore
t
'7
:.#-.
88
IVFPAJOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST
2001
what'$hot
operations. The Elemec Plus system
meets the routine and emergency communication and safety needs of the offshore
and gas production markets. The Elemec
Plus system can withstand adverse environmental conditions and is built for
continuous operation.
Fire Suppression Systems
FiretraceTM International introduces an
automatic fire detection and suppression
system that detects fires inside an enclosed
environment and dispenses the appropriate
fire suppression agent. Firetrace automatic
suppression systems feature a flexible, proprietary, polymer tubing that ruptures
when exposed to high temperatures, forming a nozzle that instantly dispenses
a suppression agent. These systems can be
custom-configured and installed anywhere. Requiring no electricity or external
power, Firetrace automatic fire suppression
systems are self-contained and available

with various suppression systems.
Corrosion Detection
With its FPS Kit, Mtran Corporation
makes it easy for building and facilities
managers, fire protection system engineers, and water quality consultants to
detect and characterize corrosion in fire
protection systems. Corrosion is the leading cause of failure in activated fire
sprinkler systems. The FPS Kit is a prepaid sample mailer that can be used to ship
material and water samples to Altran's
laboratory for analysis.
Product Catalogue
Chemguard, Inc. has a new catalogue
filled with information on foam products
and systems and dry chemical products.
Analyzers
Control Instruments' 670 Series process analyzers are available for lower-flammablelimit
monitoring. The FM-approved analyzers are
high-temperature, high-speed, direct-mount
systems that have been tested for combustible
gas and vapor detection. The analyzers can
measure difficult samples and report directly
to a plant's data acquisition system. Their
unique design enables them to sample atmospheres containing little or no oxygen,making
them the choice for inert process monitoring.
Circle ReaderServiceCard No. 120
MACURCO GAS
DETECTORS
GD-2A
*12-24 VAC or VDC Heating
Gas Detector for use with Fire
Control Panels.
*UL listed to UL 2075
(25% o f LEL)
*SPDT Alarm and NC

Trouble Relays
THEY'LL TAKE YOU ACROSS HELL'S

HALF ACRE AND BACK AGAIN WITH
lqN
KII'.iNI N I ~ qlTRRI~INII"II~R
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MANUFACTURED IN THE USA

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fax: (303)761-6640
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Circle No. 036 o n R e a d e r S e r v i c e C a r d
It's Not Easy

to Satisfy the
Fire Marshal
We Do It with
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FIRESTEEL
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The Fuel Protection
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Double-walled steel generator
sub-base fuel tank vaulted with
l i g h t w e i g h t concrete
L i s t e d UL P r o t e c t e d S e c o n d a r y
C o n t a i n m e n t G e n e r a t o r Base Tank,
complies with NFPA 30, 37, & 110
Ballistics tested & vehicle impact
resistant
S u p p o r t s generators w e i g h i n g up
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Sizes f r o m 300 to 13,500 gallons
Engineered for Seismic Zone 4
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%
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fax: 904-634-(X)63
WWW.~.com
date'
NFPA Sprinkler Seminar
July 23 Worcester, Massachusetts

July 24 Providence, Rhode Island
July 26 Wobum, Massachusetts
Attend for a comprehensive review of the
basics, the latest technologies, and the code
requirements of NFPA 25, Inspection, Test-
understanding of the 2000 edition. O.ualify

for .7 CEUs for each day you attend.
NFPA National Fire Alarm Code Seminar
instruction, .7 CEUs are awarded.
August 6-10 San Francisco, California

August 22-24 McLean, Virginia
This seminar covers the key aspects of the
installation, use, and maintenance of fire
'alarm systems. Qualify for .7 CEUs for
each day you attend.
NFPA Sprinkler Systems Seminar
For registration,further information, or a complete
ing, and Maintenance of Water-Based

Extinguishing Systems. For each day of
August 6-8 San Francisco, California

Keep up with the latest sprinkler technology
and get a handle on NFPA 13, Insta//ation q"
Sprin/&r Systems Qua~fy for .7 CEUs tbr
each day you attend.
.... '
Vessel Inspectors is holding its ll-day

course "Introduction to Boiler Inspection."
For more information, go to the board's
web site, www.nationalboard.org and click
on "Training Seminar Schedule."
Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics
Industry Training Course
July 10-12 Cary, North Carolina

A training course will be offered at the
Association's headquarters. Topics include
web forming technologies, environmental
issues, nonwoven markets, and future
directions. For more information, go to
www.inda.org.
list of NFPA'scontinuing education seminars and

workshops, contact
NFPA
ContinuingEducationDepartment
International Municipal Signal Association

106th Annual Conference and School
P.O.Box 9101
Quincy,MA 02269-9101
Telephone(800) 344-3555
July 20-27 St. Paul, Minnesota

The hMSA is holding certification courses for
municipal fire alarm, interior fire alarm, and
public s'afew dispatcher. For more information,
contact Marilyn Lawrence at (800) 723-4672.
NFPA 2 0 0 1 Life Safety Code Seminar
August 6-10, San Francisco, California

Attend a 5-, 3-, or 2-day seminar on NFPA
101, Life Safety Codeand get a better
The National Board of Boiler

and Pressure Vessel inspectors Training
July 9-20 Columbus, Ohio

The National Board of Boiler and Pressure
CONTINUED ON N ~ T PAGE
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JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPAJOURNAL
91
If you'd like us to Include your event in "Data Book,"please submit full details at
least four months before the event to NFPAJournal, One Batterymarch Park,
Quincy,MA 02269-9101, or fax the information to (617) 984-7090.
,late
Explosives and Blasting
Regulatory Conference
July 22-25 Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
www.americanforests.org. Registration
deadline is July 15.
The three-day conference, sponsored by the

International Sodety of Explosives Engineers, includes workshops and exhibits.
Conference information can be obtained by
calling (440) 349-4004.
International Association
of Electrical Inspectors
Oklahoma Rre and Life Safety

Education Conference 2001
August 1-3 Tulsa, Oklahoma

This three-day conference includes workshops
and exhibits. Conference information can be
obtained by calling Pamelia Glennon at Fire
and Service Training/OSU at (800) 304-5727.
September9-12 Portland, Oregon

The 2001 NW section meeting for the
International Association of Electrical
Inspectors provides an opportunity for
inspectors to learn about the changes to
NFPA 70, National Electrical Code. For
more information, contact M and M
Productions, Inc. at (503) 335-3336.
Principles of Rre Protection
Engineering Course
September10-13 Baltimore, Maryland

American Forests 2001
National Urban Forest Conference
September5-8 Washington, D.C.

The conference theme is investing in
natural capital and highlights include
economic and environmental benefits of
urban trees. For more information, go to
The Principles of Fire Protection Engineering course is open to individuals interested

in gaining or refreshing their basic-tointermediate knowledge of the principles
of frre protection engineering. Topics include
combustion and ignition phenomenon,
fire endurance evaluation, construction
and structural features, materials applications, and fire protection design. For
information or to sponsor a course, please
contact: Julie Maskas, Society of Fire
Protection Engineers at (301) 718-2910
or E-mail education@sfpe.org, or Steven
F. Sawyer, Executive Secretary IFMA,
(617) 984-7424 or E-mail ssawyer@
nfpa.org.member. August 1 is the deadline
for advanced registrations.
Virginia Association of Hazardous
Materials Response Specialists/
Virginia Department of Emergency
Management Haz-Mat Conference
September27-29 Virginia Beach,

Virginia
The conference features more than
72 workshops in handling hazardous
materials. There'Ll also be demonstrations
and displays of current technologies.
For more information, contact Mary
Powell at Conventions Plus, Inc. at
(757)-474-3096.~
Environmentally Friendly
Water Equivalency Testing of
Fixed Foam Systems
ILBP Types
Bladder Tank Types
614 8 5 3 - 5 4 0 0
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SPECIALISTS INC.
2800 Banwick Road
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"Patent Penaing
Call for Presentations

NFPAWorld Fire Safety Congress& Exposition
MinneapolisConventionCenter
May 19-23, 2002
NFPA
We are now accepting proposals for educational presentations at NFPA'sWorld Fire Safety Congress & Exposition.We invite
you to share your experience and expertise with your peers in the field of fire and life safety as a presenter in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, May 19-23, 2002. Please complete the form below in full and return, via mail or fax, to NFPAby September 28, 2001.
All presentation proposals will be reviewed by the Sessions Committee and selections will be made based on quality, relevance,
focus, practical application, timeliness and on the presenter's experience and credentials.
Presentation SubmissionForm
Title of presentation:
Description of presentation (50 words or less):
Presentation Length: [] 1 hour (minimum) [] 1-1/2 hours E3 Other
To be considered,a resume and short descriptionof the speaker's credentials must be attached.
Learning Objectives:
Return form to:

NFPA
Attn: Linda Bailey
One Batterymarch Park
Quincy, MA 02269
Fax: (617) 984-7030
Emaih Ibailey@nfpa.org
Important: A handout will be required 3 weeks in advance of the Congress.NFPAdoes not pay for travel expenses,
but speakers will receive complimentary Congress registration.
If you plan on someone presenting this topic with you, please list their name, affiliation and phone number:
.
Submitted by:
Name:
Title:
Company:
Address:
Deadline for
submission is
September28, 2001
City:
State:__
Phone:
Fax:
E-Maih
Zip:
INTERNATIONAL
Country:
Fire Protection Engineer

The City of Madison, Wisconsin, Fire
Department is accepting applications for
the position of Fire Protection Engineer.
The Fire Protection Engineer independently manages the Fire Protection
Engineering Unit of the Fire Prevention
Division under the general guidance of
the Fire Marshal. This responsible, professional, and supervisory position
requires work in developing and implementing fire protection engineering
programs and services. Work primarily
involves directing the department's plan
review, new construction inspection, and
high-hazard occupancy inspection programs, including staff supervision and
program management; and providing
technical expertise and consultation on a
wide variety of fire protection engineering
issues. The position requires consider-
L~J
Convenient, online
reporting o f enrollment
and certification results
Higher learning retention
with increased employee
satisfaction
94
NFPA JOURNAL
able judgement and discretion. Acceptable qualifications include two years of

experience in professional fire protection
engineering work or a closely related
field and a bachelor's degree in fire protection engineering or technology. Other
demonstrated combinations of training
and/or experience, that result in the
possession of the knowledge, skills, and
abilities necessary to perform the duties
of this position, will be considered.
Salary range: $52,956-$63,704.
Applications and additional information
can
be
obtained
at
www.ci.madison.wi, us/hr/jobopen or
contact the City Human Resources
Dept., 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.,
Madison, WI 53709; (608) 266-6500;
Fax (608) 267-1115. Applications will
be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on August
31, 2001.
Safety
Training
NFPA' Partner
Fire Protection Engineers

National fire protection consulting firm
with career growth opportunities has an
immediate need for entry level and senior
level fire protection engineers, designers,
and code consultants. Opportunities available in the Charlotte, Chicago, San
Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Dallas,
Las Vegas, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and
Miami areas. Competitive salary and benefits package. EOE/M/F. Send resume to G.
Johnson, Schirmer Engineering Corporation, 707 Lake Cook Road, Deerfield, IL
60015-4997, fax: (847) 272-2365,
gjohnson@schirmereng.com.
NFPA'
INTERNATIONAL
Need skilled people? Seeking a position?

Log on to the Career Center at...
TargetSafety
JULY/AUGUST
2001
~n~n~.
nfpa.or~
Employer assistance617-984-7323
ad,.,; n d e x
f
FIRE PROTECTION '~

INSPECTOR/ENGINEER [~
City of Sunnyvale
$57,108-$83,298
plus PERS
The City of Sunnyvale currently has o n e - openingin the PublicSafetyDepartment.Thisis |

a flexibly-staffedcivilianpositionworkingunder
the direction of the Fire Marshal and also taking
direction from the Community Development
Departmentintheperformanceof f/eldinspec~ons
andreviewofplansandspecificationsof buildings,
fire protection equipment and industrial
processes to ensure compliance with the
requirementsof federal, state, and municipal
fire protectioncodesand ordinances.
Requires (for Inspector) Associate degree or, P
~,}~ equivalent, and/or2 yearsexperiencerelated~

KI/to fire inspection,plus working knowledgeof !
~,VI fire protection systems. For Engineer, BA in
Engineeringfield,plus 3 yearsworkingat level

&~ of Fire Protection Inspector or equivalent./~
\ ~ ICBO Plans Examiner Certification and~
~,| Professional Engineering license is highly
desirable"
FullycompletedCityof Sunnyvaleapplication
and supplementalquestionnairemustbe
receivedby the HumanResourcesDept.by
5:00 pro,July20, 2001.
~ c, UtaJ.
Contact City of Sunnyvale , ~ ~ Q ~

r
Dept. of Human Resources G o
"~
456 West Olive Ave.
~
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
call 408-737-4970
or visit
~,il
www.ci.sunnyvale..ca.us ~ l g
CLASSIFIED RATES
NONCOMMISSIONABLE
Copy only (per column inch) ........ $250
Display (2 i/4 x 4 7/8) ............... $1,190
Closing date for the copy is the 25th of
the second month preceding issue date.
To place your classified ad, contact Advertising, NFPA, One Batterymarch Park,
Quincy, MA 02269; telephone (617) 9847323; fax (617) 984-7090; E-mail
dfergason@nfpa.org.
ADT (RSC 001) www.adt.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1
Altronix (RSC 039) www.altronix.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18-19
Convault Inc. (RSC 003) www.convault.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
Decoshield Systems (RSC 004) www.decoshield.com . . . . . . . . 92
Draka USA (RSC 005) www.drakausa.com/lifeline . . . . . . . . . .
47
DuPont Fire Extinguishants (RSC 006) www.dupont.com/fire . . . . 5
DuPont Nomex (RSC 007) www.dupont.com/nomex . . . . . . . . .
29
DuPontTeflon (RSC 008) www.tefion.com/cablingmaterials . . . 3 9
Edwards Systems Technology (RSC 009) www.est.net . . . . . . . . .
7
Fike Corp. (RSC 034) www.fike.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Fire Control Instruments (RSC 035)
www.firecontrolinstru ments.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
Fire Protection Specialists (RSC 010) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
92
Firetrace USA (RSC 037) www.firetrace.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
62
FOGTEC (RSC 011) www.fogtec.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30
Halotron (RSC 013) www.halotron-inc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
Home Safeguard Industries (RSC 002) www.homesafeguard.com..17
IPMA (RSC 014) www.ipma-hr.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
86
Kidde Fire Systems (RSC 015) www.kiddets.com . . . . . . . . . . .
BC
Knox Co. (RSC 016) www.knoxbox.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
91
Macurco (RSC 036) www.detectgas.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
89
Matticks (RSC 017) www.matticks.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
Naturalite Skylight Systems (RSC 038) www.naturalite.com . . . 8 8
NGC Testing Services (RSC 018) www.ngctestingservices.com . .91
NFPA www.nfpa.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84,90,93,94
Notifier (RSC 019) www.notifier.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
Phoenix Products (RSC 020) www.phoenixprods.com . . . . . . . . 90
Protectowire Co., The (RSC 021) www.protectowire.com . . . . . . 12
Pyrotenax (RSC 022)www.bicc-pyrotenax.com . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IBC
Radionics (RSC 023) www.radionicsinc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
41
Safety Storage (RSC 040) www.safetystorage.com . . . . . . . . . .
37
Safety Technology (RSC 024) www.sti-usa.com . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
Siemens Cerberus (RSC 025) www.cerbpyro.com . . . . . . . . . . .
27
SimplexGrinnell (RSC 026) www.simplexgrinnell.com/ad . . . . . 8-9
System Sensor (RSC 027) www.systemsensor.com . . . . . . . . .
35
Target Safety www.targetsafetyNFPA.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
94
Tiscor (RSC 028) www.tiscor.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
Twenty First Century (RSC 029) www.21centuryfire.com . . . . . . 87
Underwriters Laboratories (RSC 030) www.ul.com . . . . . . . . . .
33
Viking Corp. (RSC 031) www.vikingcorp.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IFC
Vision Systems-VESDATM (RSC 032) www.vesda.com . . . . . . . . 50
West Coast Shoe Co. (RSC 033) www.westcoastshoe.com . . . . 89
Wheelock (RSC 041) www.wheelockinc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
www.nfpa.org
JULY/AUGUST2001
NFPA JOURNAL
95
Iookin
NICHOLSONg
NFPA remembers...
JOHN
"--.,2
_ _~
| .10
nag am
man nnii
?. . . . . . .
-_7"
nnml toni
mini ,,m
mN
n June 26, 1996, what began as a minor fire on the roof of

the five-story U.S. Treasury Building in Washington,
I).C., burned undetected in a void between the roof and
the fifth-floor ceiling until Treasury workers smelled
smoke. Bv the time the fire was extinguished, 8,300 square feet (771
square meters) of the roof had burned. Fortunately, losses to the
building, which was closed fbr ~bur days, were limited to water and
smoke damage, according to the NFPA fh-einvestigation report.
The roof of the 150-year-old building was undergoing reconstruction when the fire began. Workers were replacing rotted wood and steel
trusses with new steel, insulation, and a new membrane. On the
morning of June 26, they discovered that the drains couldn't be moved
unless they were cut out with cutting torches. Unwilling to do so
without the input of an engineer, the contractors decided to close the
roof down until the engineer came in the next day to review the
problem and recommend a solution.
Around two in the afternoon, a supervisor f'or a contractor began to
enclose the work area around the drains. He placed plywood, foam
insulation, and an elastic membrane over the area, then took a torch to
the two drains to seal the roofing material to the flashing along the
parapet wall. He finished the job by 3:20, and by 4:30, work for the day
was done, and everyone left the roof.
Shortly .afterward, workers on the top floor began to smell smoke,
and security was notified. By 4:45, members of the Secret Service on
the roof of the adjacent White House reported seeing white smoke
coming from the building. Uniformed agents responded with fire
96
NFPA JOURNAL
JULY/AUGUST 2 0 0 1
extinguishers and were able to keep the fire under control on the roof,
but couldn't stop the flames from reaching the void, and the fire spread.
Responding firefighters were immediately forced into a defensive
operation, advancing hose lines from a standpipe and trying to reach
the flames through scuttles in the ceiling. Investigators credited the old
concrete roof with preventing the fire from spreading into
occupied zones, but it couldn't keep smoke from spreading throughout
the building.
Federal officials and NFPA investigators were grateful that the fire
was confined to the roof. If it had spread, the damage and potential loss
of life would've been far greater. More than 1,200 people are in and out
of the Treasury building on any given day, and, at the time of the fire,
the Greek Revival-style structure had no life safety features.
For instance, none of the eight stairwells was equipped with rated
fire separation assemblies. The travel distance to the exits was too long.
Books and bookcases lined the walls of the fifth-floor corridor.
Gasoline-powered generators were refueled inside the building. And
workers using torches on the roof followed improper safety procedures.
What's worse, the building was completely unsprinldered.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities, although one firefighter was
injured when he ti~llthrough the roof, and several Secret Service agents
were treated for smoke inhalation.
Coincidentally, the original Treasury building was destroyed by
fire in 1814 when British soldiers set it ablaze during the War of
1812. The structure was rebuilt, only to be destroyed by fire again
in 1833. #
PHOTOGRAPH: AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
!
I:.:
~r
f
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Circle No. 015 on Reader Service Ca

2001 Vol95 No4

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_~

~ ~NFPA's Building Code r e f e r e n c e s

You'll find last month's term paper in

Backed by UL and c-UL listings, the

Worldwide Fire Protection

How's t h a t for setting off an alarm?

"e ~o .e' ~e .e %o ' . %o %

4 8 Security Premises Standard

After several false starts, NFPA has a renewed interest in

The growth of businesses' computers sharing space in remote

54 Globalization: Reshapingthe Fire and

RUSSELL P. FLEMING, P.E.

As fire and life safety businesses expand globally, NFPA

RUSSELL SANDERS & BEN KLAENE

58 Tools of the Trade: The New NFPA921

Now more user-friendly with several new chapters, NFPA

3 4 Inside the Beltway

63 Weapons of Mass Destruction

HALLIE EPHRON TOUGER

NFPA plays a key role protecting first responders in

WAYNE MOORE, P.E., FSFPE

66 Firefighter Fatalities in 2000

RITA FAHY, PH.D AND PAUL R. LEBLANC

Last year, 102 firefighters were killed in the line of duty.

6 First Response 16 In a Flash!

FM-200 and FE-227 Systems for areas that'may be occupied':, ot wherdsensitf~/~'eldctYTcai

No one can afford unexpected down time due to fire.

,rvtce Card .......

exclusive report on fireIn this issue you'll find NFPP2s

about this annual report.

is expanding globally, check out page 54.

cations, NFPA Journal en Espahol and Journal ern

Kath een M. Robinson

Advertising Sales Offices

thousands of attendees from the Carribean Basin and

Central and Latin America.

can E-mail us at NFPA~ournal@NFPA'rg"

Blake & Michelle Holton

NFT,,a nonprofit voluntary membemhip organ~tion founded in 1896, is a

Southern California &

Senior Advertising Support

interested in promoting the science of fire protection and

to speed on code and standards updates.

Advertising Sales Assistant

NFPA Journal--This is the exclusive,flail-colormagazineeveryone

Maureen Kean. (617) 984.7520

wants, but only membersget. The ofticialmagazineof NFPA, the

NFPA OOdute--YourNFPA membershipis packedwith privileges,

HandyBuyers'Guide---Savetime shoppingaround.The NFPAJournal

NFPAreservesthe right to acceptor rejectany

Copyright 2001 E. I. do Pon| de N. . . . . . . .

Circle No. 006 on Reader Service Card

Reaching Our International Members

very day, fire safety professionals from around the world

Corinne Brodenck, 1st Vice Chair

Jan Gratton, Secretary

Herman lie Bnce, Past Chair

Robin Paulsgrave, Chief,

Dan Bailey, Staff Officer, USOA Forest Service,

Martin J Maddaloml General President.

~tf ; L.,, ..~

conventional system. There's no big installation charge, either.

A world leader in life safety technology.