Congrats to NFPA's own Tracy Vecchiarelli, who was named as one of the Emerging Professionals-5 Under 35 by SFPE!  This is the first year that the new honor has been given.  The five recipients are recognized for their efforts in giving back to the fire protection engineering profession and the community. Tracy, who is a principal engineer has managed several complex projects for NFPA. She led a small team to build an interactive design selection tool for combustible exterior wall finishes following the Grenfell fire in 2017. Based on the requirements contained in NFPA 5000 and the International Building Code, this tool is used to assist designers and authorities having jurisdiction in establishing the conditions in which the NFPA 285 test is applicable.   Tracy has understood the importance of supporting professional societies beginning with her time at WPI where she served as an officer for the WPI — SFPE student chapter for three years and where she also served as the president of the WPI ASCE student chapter. Her commitment to SFPE continues with her involvement with the New England Chapter. She has served in various roles for the chapter including as president in 2015/2016. Under her leadership, ongoing chapter activities grew and increased in popularity including the annual golf tournament and the trivia night meeting. She serves on the Membership and Chapter Relations Standing Committee and was a member of the nominating committee for SFPE.    The five recipients will be recognized during the SFPE conference later this year, and will be recognized in the FPE magazine and website.

At NFPA's Conference & Expo in 2018, Jim Pauley introduced attendees to the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem, telling them "we have failed to connect the dots. While everyone is so focused on their particular aspects of incidents, collectively, we have forgotten that safety is a system – not a singular action, piece of equipment, or event.” At this year's event, the focus has moved to urging all to recognize their role in the Ecosystem and to find ways to work together. From NFPA's perspective, the full Fire and Life Safety Ecosystem includes eight elements that play a critical role in protecting people and property. Time after time when we have seen calamities, we can almost always trace the cause of those situations to a breakdown in one or more of the elements of the ecosystem. During opening General Session, Jim Pauley told the crowd that “Safety does not exist in a vacuum.  However, we have been treating it like it does.  The policy maker makes isolated or ill-informed decisions and all of you have to compensate for the consequences.  Valuable research falls on deaf ears because few outside of the research community are paying attention.  The fire departments focus on responding quickly with enough equipment.  The building owners worry about energy efficiency because fires are really rare, right? School officials talk about removing pull stations because they think they are not needed at a time when the threat of active shooters consume their attention.” It's time to change the way we are all thinking.  Safety is a system – an ecosystem.  NFPA's Guy Colonna presented an education session on the topic as well. When he asked attendees why they came to his session, most people said they wanted to learn more about how to apply the Ecosystem principles. Today's audience consisted of at least one person from each cog, but Guy reminds people that even if they don't feel like they fit into a specific area, everyone is included in the ‘informed public' cog, so we are all affected by the Ecosystem.   Guy likes to think of the Ecosystem as a safety management system as it helps show the importance of everyone talking to one another, working together, and striving for the same goals. When looking at the interdependence of two of the components, skilled workforce and investment in safety, we can see how they both demonstrate behavior change to build an enhanced safety culture, how skilled workers are needed for proper application of current code requirements, and that safety investments yield a more committed workforce. Bringing up recent news events, where the government responsibility component failed, Guy solicited some reactions and thoughts from the crowd. He talked about London's Grenfell fire and how changes have been slow in coming since its occurrence two years ago. He also talked about a recent fire in Bangladesh that reminded us to put safety first as it was almost identical to a 2010 event. To conclude, Guy asks attendees, “how can you put the system to work?” He advises that to help answer that question, think about who your allies are in the community, what information you can provide to them, and stresses that this is not something you can do alone. Guy hopes that the ecosystem will eventually become the starting point for every conversation about fire & life safety.

Today, about 60 (from an applicant pool of over 1,100!) fire and life safety educators from rural fire departments across the U.S., are at our Quincy headquarters for a two day symposium diving into their particular needs and challenges. Throughout the two days, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from many NFPA staff members on topics that will hopefully help them back home including NFPA's free public education resources, fire and life safety challenges and solutions, prevention efforts, and how to use data to learn about and develop solutions for the rural fire problem. One of these presentations will also be live streamed at 1:15pm ET today - so tune in to hear about big data tools for small departments by NFPA's Matt Hinds-Aldrich. We hope to learn as much from attendees as they learn from us today as well, so there are many opportunities for brainstorming, sharing, questions and networking, and we are excited to have everyone here. Want to get involved, or learn more? Join our Xchange Rural Firefighters Connection group to stay updated on the symposium's events as well as to network with attendees and others into the future.  

The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially at Thanksgiving. In addition, kids love to be involved in holiday preparations. Safety in the kitchen is important, especially on Thanksgiving Day when there is a lot activity and people at home. Take a look at our Thanksgiving safety tips sheet for a good reminder about how you can stay safe this holiday.