Columns

NFPA's advocacy reflected in Fire Prevention Week
NFPA Journal®, September/October 2004
by James M. Shannon, President

But the lives aren't saved by NFPA, they are saved because people will have decided, with the help of NFPA, to assume responsibility for their own safety. NFPA's effectiveness is, to a large extent, the result of its constant advocacy of this principle of personal responsibility.

It is not just in our public education programs that this philosophy becomes evident. Across the board, NFPA tries to remind individuals and organizations that voluntary actions are often the most important element in providing the necessary level of safety. It is not enough for individuals and businesses to say "I did what I was required to do." All of us should be asking ourselves what sorts of actions would a prudent person take to prepare for a particular threat. Once we have educated ourselves about the danger and how to reduce or eliminate it, the primary responsibility to act rests with each of us.

Here's an example. For the past three years there has been constant discussion and a barrage of information about the probability of another terrorist attack. Despite all of the warnings, almost half of the companies in a survey by the Conference Board, which was commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, had not increased their security budgets at all after September 11, 2001. Almost 40 percent of the executives surveyed, according to the New York Times, thought security expenses should be minimized.

The potential costs in personal security and to the economy in this failure to prepare are obvious. Those business leaders who ignore the evidence and refuse to act are making a choice to put their employees, their businesses and their shareholders at risk. The Department of Homeland Security has urged that companies use NFPA 1600 as the National Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity Standard, but after all is said and done, even in this area of grave national concern, the choice is up to individuals to act.

The same can be said of what NFPA advocates to make the world safer. Sprinklers are required in many occupancies, but sprinklers would save more lives if more people chose to install them where they are not required by law. Fireworks are legal in many jurisdictions but anyone who uses them is making the decision to put their safety and their family's safety at risk. The personal decision to smoke dramatically increases the likelihood that a person's loved ones will die in a fire.

Through its forceful advocacy in these and so many other areas, NFPA is giving us the tools that each of us needs to make our own world safer.

That brings us back to the importance of Fire Prevention Week. The activities that we sponsor during Fire Prevention Week are so meaningful because they are so practical. The safety messages that we send out every year, like this year's call to test smoke alarms, don't require government action or changes in the law. All they require is for individuals to assume personal responsibility for their own safety. Responsible action taken by individuals and organizations to meet real threats has always been the best way to advance the cause of safety. Encouraging everyone to assume personal responsibility on matters of safety has been the bedrock of NFPA's philosophy throughout our whole history.

James M. Shannon, President and CEO
NFPA