The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) applauds the recent decision by Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida to veto HB 653, a bill dealing with requirements for retrofitting high-rise condominium buildings with fire sprinklers and other types of safety systems.

"Governor Scott's veto of HB 653 demonstrates the universal appeal of including fire sprinklers in new and retrofitted residential dwellings," said Frank Mortl III, CAE, President of AFSA. "His decision to improve the safety of occupants in high-rise buildings and ensure the greatest protection to the emergency responders who bravely conduct firefighting and rescue operations serves as an impactful example to all lawmakers faced with similar opportunities to enact positive fire and life safety measures."

In the letter announcing his veto of the bill, Governor Scott said, "This legislation extends the compliance deadline, once again, and allows condominium residents to opt out of both fire sprinklers and an ELSS, which creates an extremely dangerous environment for both residents and first responders responding in the event of an emergency."

High-rise buildings present several unique challenges not found in traditional low-rise buildings: longer egress times and distance, evacuation strategies, fire department accessibility, smoke movement, and fire control. It is estimated that high-rise buildings make up 3 percent of all reported structure fires. According to a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) study, an estimated 14,500 reported high-rise structure fires per year resulted in associated losses of 40 civilian deaths, 520 civilian injuries, and $154 million in direct property damage per year from 2009-2013.

Benefits of having an automatic fire sprinkler system in a building include:

• Sprinkler systems control and/or extinguish a fire any time: day or night.
• Immediate identification and control of a developing fire: Without an automatic sprinkler system, a room with a fire can reach flashover conditions within only a few minutes.
• Reduced heat and smoke damage: Significantly less heat and smoke will be generated when the fire is extinguished at an early stage.
• Reduced water damage: A single sprinkler will only discharge approximately 15 to 25 gallons per minute, while a hose and nozzle used by the fire department will put out up to 250 gallons per minute, approximately 10 to 15 times more water.
• Decreased insurance expenditure: Sprinkler controlled fires are less damaging than fires in non-sprinklered buildings. This results in lower insurance reimbursements. Insurance underwriters typically offer reduced premiums for properties with sprinkler protection. 

The American Fire Sprinkler Association, (AFSA) is a non-profit, international association representing merit shop fire sprinkler contractors, dedicated to the educational advancement of its members and promotion of the use of automatic fire sprinkler systems. More information can be found by visiting firesprinkler.org.

The National Council on Public Safety UAS was organized to advance public safety use of UAS through awareness, education, training, collaboration, best practices, FAA Rule-making, defining public safety requirements and general engagement. Separately, and equally as important, is to stay abreast of threats from nefarious uses of UAS and help facilitate the information and implementation of effective counter measures.  

The National Council on Public Safety UAS is made up of 29 national organizations which are inclusive of all public safety disciplines, tribal, local, state and academia. The National Council also includes Federal agency liaisons and invites all to become involved.

To learn more about public safety unmanned aircraft systems, policies, procedures, best practices from local, state and federal sources, visit the Web site: http://publicsafetyUAS.org

If you have additional public safety UAS Resources to be added or you wish to participate, please email to uaspublicsafety@gmail.com

RELATED

Wildfire Officials Warn Against Using Drones Near Wildfires (Again)

Authoring Your Drone Program: Choose Wisely

Up in the Air

Building a Fire Department UAV Program

Drones and the Fire Service

South Dakota State Fire Meteorologist, Darren Clabo, Ph.D., at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is helping create the Fire Risk Estimation tool (FiRE). The tool gives land managers and firefighting officials a more detailed look at fire potential across the Missouri River basin.

Smokey Bear signs that indicate overall fire danger are common along roadways in the western United States. The FiRE tool uses satellite and metrological data to create a much more detailed understanding of fire danger. The tool can give firefighters a critical edge. Fire managers say the “initial attack” phase during the first few hours of any of any wildfire is the most important time to gain control. When officials know the areas where fire danger is increasing ahead of time they can position resources and better prepare to quickly respond to any small fires before they grow into large incidences.  

“We can narrow this onto a 10-kiliometer grid scale, says Clabo. Previous tools only assessed fire danger on a wider scale, such as across national forest districts or across a county. “If the western two thirds of Pennington County, South Dakota, is wet because they’ve gotten a series of thunderstorms, but some of the eastern areas are dry, we will know where a fire is more likely to start and spread.” Clabo adds.

Clabo says the FiRE tool combines satellite data and meteorological data for an output not available in current fire danger assessments. The tool analyzes drought conditions, high-resolution fuel conditions, and precipitation conditions to produce a fire danger assessment map that land managers and firefighters can monitor daily.

“One of the current problems across the Great Plains is we don’t have very many weather stations. So, those estimated conditions can be inaccurate, and we might not know where the most critical fire weather conditions exist,” says Clabo.

The FiRE tool is being developed thanks to funding from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and NASA DEVELOP with collaboration from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Experts from these organizations are contributing to this research alongside Clabo at SD Mines.  The FiRE tool is set to be ready for use by fire managers in the late summer or fall of 2017.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, C & S Supply, Inc. is giving away free, brand new, firefighting equipment to needy volunteer fire departments. This program, called Helping Hands, gives the winning department $900 of credit to purchase firefighting equipment from the C & S Supply Web site. The best part; the winner selects the equipment they need.

The Pateros (WA) Volunteer Fire Department received the most “Likes” on the C & S Supply Helping Hands Facebook page and won June’s giveaway. Their need came after they experienced several catastrophic wildland fires (one of which burned through the city of Pateros). According to Keith Zweigle, Chief of the Pateros VFD, “Recovery from these Complex fires and the burden of additional call volume has strained our budget to where we are seeking alternate sources of funding and assistance.” After winning June’s giveaway they chose the Blue Devil 12250 nozzle because it is NFPA 1964 compliant.

“The funds we had been saving to buy a 2.5-inch nozzle would be used to purchase a supply line to meet NFPA compliance on our structure truck,” Zweigle added.

Helping Hands, running through December 31, 2017, starts when a volunteer fire department in need shares their story on the C & S Supply Facebook page. The department with the most “Likes” wins that month’s giveaway. The winning department gets to “go shopping” on the C & S Supply Web site, selecting items that meet their individual need.

“With a $900 budget to work with a department can really help themselves out,” according to Chris Wills, Sales and Marketing Director for C & S Supply and a former volunteer firefighter. “Rather then just sending them a nozzle, we wanted to make sure they received exactly the right product to fit their specific need. Whether its our new High Viz® line of wildland products, our Class “A” foam guns which are really popular or any other product that we sell, the winner gets to chose what works best for them.”

C & S Supply’s founder, Sherman (Sherm) Stark was a volunteer firefighter and committed to helping other volunteers. Helping Hands fulfills on Sherm’s promise to support the volunteers in all of our communities.

If you know of a volunteer fire department that is in need, follow the Pateros Volunteer Fire Depart-ment’s example and nominate them for the Helping Hands program.

For more information go to: http://cssupplyinc.com/helping-hands/

Call 970-663-4966