NFPA Journal

COLLECTED AND WRITTEN BY JESSE ROMAN

NFPA SEEKS INPUT
ON POTENTIAL CANNABIS STANDARD
With 35 states now permitting cannabis in some form, including 14 that have moved to fully legalize the plant and its related products for adult use, the NFPA Standards Council is asking the public to weigh in on the merits of developing a new standard to help local officials regulate the industry. A call went out in January asking interested stakeholders to provide comment on whether such a standard is needed and what information it could include. Comments are being accepted through March 31 at nfpa.org/cannabisfiresafety.

While it’s too early to know if the project will go forward, the council said in its request that such a document could include minimum safety requirements for cannabis facilities related to growing, processing, extracting, and testing. It could also set training and skill requirements for workers in these facilities, as well as for professionals responsible for inspecting, testing, and maintaining the equipment. Information on marijuana growing, processing, and extraction facilities was added to the 2018 edition of NFPA 1, Fire Code.

NFPA Journal has closely tracked the burgeoning cannabis industry and has published several articles, podcasts, and videos detailing the related safety hazards as well as efforts in Colorado and elsewhere to develop regulations and procedures. Those materials and others can be found at nfpa.org/cannabis.

NFPA TO EXPAND TRAINING AND
PREPAREDNESS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The issue isn’t whether electric vehicle (EV) use will grow in the US—it’s how much and how fast it will grow, and whether the safety community will be ready for it.

That’s the assessment of many experts, who believe there could be more than 18 million EVs in the US by 2030—a staggering jump from the estimated one million on the road now. Along with those predictions have come concerns over whether the safety community is prepared for the boom.

In October, NFPA announced a three-year project in partnership with the US Department of Energy to bolster training and help communities prepare for the safe adoption of widespread EV use. As part of the project, NFPA will expand its already extensive online training modules for EV safety to include programs targeted at charging station installers, code officials, utilities, manufacturers/dealerships, fleet owners, garages/maintenance facilities, insurance companies, and vehicle owners. Updates will also be made to NFPA’s existing alternative-fuel vehicle safety training programs for law enforcement and tow and salvage operators. This is in addition to the free online training NFPA has provided for first responders on alternative-fuel vehicles for nearly a decade.

As part of the new training effort, NFPA will also assist DOE in conducting 30 community preparedness assessment workshops across the US, events that will be designed to help local officials implement safe practices and partnerships in anticipation of widespread EV adoption. The project is expected to be completed by October 2023.

2021 NFPA CONFERENCE TO BE
REPLACED WITH VIRTUAL ANNIVERSARY SERIES
With the continued uncertainty of live events stretching well into this year, and to ensure participant safety, NFPA has announced that the 2021 NFPA Conference & Expo® will not happen as planned. Instead, the event has been replaced with the 125th Anniversary Conference Series, a year-long, targeted, virtual experience. The 2022 NFPA Conference & Expo will return as an in-person event in Boston.

The 125th Anniversary Conference Series will recognize the milestone anniversary of NFPA’s founding in 1896. The series will feature virtual education sessions starting this spring and extending into 2022, culminating with the 2022 NFPA conference. The virtual conference series will include targeted content for individual focus areas, as well as networking opportunities, product demonstrations, and more.

“NFPA is about safety, but we are also about leveraging technology to significantly advance the way safety information is delivered and used to reduce loss across the globe,” said Jim Pauley, NFPA’s president and CEO. “The 125th Anniversary Conference Series will innovatively showcase both these aspects.

The NFPA annual business meeting will take place virtually during the week of June 21, 2021. The annual technical session will take place electronically at a date to be announced. Additional details on the technical session can be found at nfpa.org/2021techsession.

FEMA UNVEILS NEW TOOL
TO ASSESS DISASTER RISK
What makes the disaster risk in one location greater than another? Is it about geography, or weather? What about income levels, the language they speak, or the churches they attend?

After six years of development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA, has unveiled a comprehensive new online mapping tool to help communities analyze their risks in a more holistic way. Rather than only looking at the likelihood of a disaster occurring and the losses it would generate, the new tool, called the National Risk Index, also assesses 78 socioeconomic factors, including the poverty rate, church membership, and racial composition.

“The tool determines risk by reviewing a community’s expected annual loss, based on hazard frequency, exposure, and historic loss rate; social vulnerability by measuring the susceptibility of impacted social groups; and community resilience, which measures the ability of a community to recover from the impacts of natural hazards,” the agency said in a press release.

The information in the tool, which is free to use, can assist communities with a number of important tasks such as updating emergency management plans, enhancing hazard mitigation plans, allocating resources, and more. It includes data from multiple state, local, and federal agencies, as well as academia, nonprofits, and other private organizations.


CONGRESS MULLS
RESPONDER NATIONAL HOLIDAY
Another holiday, anyone? In November, Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D–Ill.) and Ralph Norman (R–S.C.) introduced legislation that would create a “National First Responders Day” to be celebrated each year on October 28.

The idea for the 11th legal public holiday is to honor firefighters, police, emergency medics, and others who selflessly put their lives on the line to help others. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made the importance of the contributions our first responders make in every community across the United States clearer than ever,” said Rush. “While we can never fully repay first responders for the critical work that they do each day, a federal holiday in their honor is one small way that we can demonstrate our gratitude.”

The legislation still has a long way to go before it is enshrined in law. As of press time, it is still under consideration by the US House Oversight and Reform Committee, where it will need to be voted on before it can be debated in the House, followed by the Senate, and ultimately signed into law by President Biden.

DIVE BOAT CAPTAIN
CHARGED IN FIRE DEATHS
A grand jury has charged the captain of a dive boat with 34 counts of manslaughter following a 2019 fire that killed 34 people off the coast of California in one of the worst maritime disasters in US history.

Due to Captain Jerry Boylan’s failure to follow “well-established safety rules, a pleasant holiday dive trip turned into a hellish nightmare as passengers and one crew member found themselves trapped in a fiery bunkroom with no means of escape,” US Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement last December when the charges were filed.

The fire, which was detailed in the NFPA report “Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fires and Explosions in the US in 2019” last September, occurred on the 75-foot (22.9 meter) wood and fiberglass commercial diving vessel, Conception. At around 2:30 a.m., a crew member saw a glow coming from the boat’s middle deck, above where 33 passengers and crew, ranging in age from 17 to 60, slept. None of them survived the fire. The boat quickly sank, with only Boylan and four other crew members surviving.

A 13-month investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board did not conclusively determine the fire’s cause, but did fault the boat’s owners for not keeping a night watchman as required, for delaying a safety briefing for passengers, and for inadequately training the crew. The five-person NTSB board ruled unanimously in October that this lack of oversight led to the fire and subsequent deaths.

“I hate the term ‘accident’ in this case because, in my opinion, it is not an accident if you fail to operate your company safely,” NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy said, according to The Associated Press.