19 Jun

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) kicked off its annual Conference & Expo this week in San Antonio, TX. This year’s event was opened by NFPA President Jim Pauley, and Chairman of the Board, Keith Williams, with a General Session, focused on “Making the World Safer.”

The main message of this session was that everyone is concerned about safety, and while that’s great, problems occur when people make decisions in a vacuum, not realizing the consequences of their actions and how they may affect others.

To assist with this disconnect, the NFPA recently introduced the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem. This ecosystem is a framework identifying the components that must work together to minimize risk and help prevent loss, injuries, and death from fire, electrical, and other hazards.

There are eight key areas in the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem. The system joins all areas and encourages each entity to work together. When all parties work together for a common good, the Ecosystem protects everyone. If any component is operating independently, or missing, the Ecosystem can collapse, often resulting in tragedy. We can almost always trace the cause of life safety incidents and tragedies back to the breakdown of one or more components in the Ecosystem.

The key components of the Ecosystem include:
• Government Responsibility
• Development and Use of Current Codes
• Reference Standards
• Investment in Safety
• Skilled Workforce
• Code Compliance
• Preparedness and Emergency Response
• Informed Public

TERPconsulting can help you do your part to maintain the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem by developing a fire protection report or assisting with code compliance on your next project. To learn more about the NFPA, and the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem, click here for complete details.

Source: NFPA.com