NFPA recognized for hot work training
NFPA’s online hot work safety training program has received a gold award for excellence in learning from the Brandon Hall Group, an international research and analysis firm.
The hot work program was spurred by a tragic March 2014 fire in Boston, which ignited as a result of welding operations and claimed the lives of two firefighters. Following the blaze, NFPA partnered with the city of Boston to create an online training program to teach safe welding and other hot work practices. In 2017, the city made the training a requirement for anyone engaged in such practices, and Massachusetts did the same this year.
“Our collaboration with the city of Boston on hot work training has been an outstanding example of how leaders can, and should, come together to ensure that there is a fire and life safety ecosystem in place to protect people and property from harm,” said Chuck Stravin, vice president of Business Development & Operations at NFPA. “We are thrilled that our innovative training has been recognized, but more importantly, we are proud of the role we are playing in keeping workers and residents safe.”
To learn more about the program or to participate in the training, please visit the website.
Summer wildfires prompt new legislation in California
On September 21, California Governor Jerry Brown signed 29 measures into law addressing the state’s growing wildfire problem. The legislative action came after California saw yet another summer of high wildfire activity, including the largest wildland blaze recorded in the state—the Mendocino Complex fire, which torched nearly half a million acres as it burned from late July through mid-September.
The new laws address a host of issues including forest management, mutual aid for fire departments, and emergency alerts, according to an article published in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. One of the new laws allocates $1 billion in funding over the next five years for vegetation management, or the use of techniques like controlled burning to reduce fuel loads in forested areas, a more than fourfold increase in the funding that was provided for such practices over the past five years. “It’s an amazing investment the state is making in a proactive approach to controlling large, damaging fires,” one CAL FIRE chief told the newspaper.
Michele Steinberg, director of NFPA’s Wildfire Division, commended the state legislature for its actions. “They saw that these things needed to be done and they took action,” she said. “Investing in vegetation management will help, but wildfire prevention will remain a huge challenge, since you can’t legislate community engagement. But this at least shows California legislators are getting serious about wildfire.”
Learn more about NFPA’s efforts to prevent wildfires online.
After-action report on Mandalay Bay shooting urges steps similar to NFPA 3000
In August, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released its after-action report on the October 1, 2017, mass shooting that occurred outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, which left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
An article published on EMS1.com, an emergency medical services news website, in October drew parallels between the recommendations presented in the FEMA report and those outlined in NFPA 3000™ (PS), Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) Program. The standard’s release in May was covered by NFPA Journal in its May/June 2018 cover story, “Writing History,” available online.
“Many of the areas discussed in the FEMA report, [and] echoed in NFPA 3000, emphasize preparedness across the fire, EMS, and law enforcement disciplines in the areas of community, planning, resource management, competencies, and recovery,” the EMS1 article reads. The FEMA report directly references several key components outlined in NFPA 3000, such as the importance of establishing unified command and educating the general public in bleeding control, according to the article.
For more information on the new standard, visit the NFPA 3000 document information webpage.
ANSI awards NFPA Journal for exceptional journalism
NFPA Journal has been named this year’s winner of the President’s Award for Journalism, given by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The annual award honors journalists “whose work helps to illuminate the role that standardization and conformity assessment activities play in the global marketplace,” according to ANSI.
The award was presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on October 17, during World Standards Week.
“NFPA’s work as a codes and standards developer and as an advocate for public safety offers the magazine a wealth of fascinating stories,” said Scott Sutherland, executive editor of NFPA Journal. “We’re grateful to ANSI for recognizing our efforts to tell those stories to NFPA members, and to all readers of the magazine around the world.”
Read all of the magazine’s award-winning content online.
ANGELO VERZONI is staff writer for NFPA Journal. Top Photograph: Getty Images