NFPA in Vegas

Event Review

Event ReviewJim Pauley, president and CEO of the NFPA, opened the annual conference and expo by cataloguing some of the major tragic events that have taken place in the last year around the world, from Grenfell Tower in the UK and wildfires in Portugal, to the Las Vegas shootings that took place just across the street from where he was speaking. “It all begs the question, how can all this be possible in this day and age? And what should we be doing?”

Statistically, there may be fewer fires but, he pointed out, statistically if there was a fire people would be more likely to die from it than 20 years ago. “We have the tools to prevent these fires today – sprinklers, detectors, fire codes, enforcement – but they are met with resistance. They are underused, ignored, not updated. And this is happening at a time when there are new challenges growing all around us. Each of these examples, when taken

together represents a catastrophic failure of what I call the fire and safety ecosystem.”

The fire industry has forgotten that safety is a system, not a single piece of equipment, declared Pauley. “We tell people to follow the building life safety code, but we don’t spend time talking to them about the importance of reference standards that also play a critical role. We want to ensure that the building is built to the code, but we don’t ensure the fire safety whilst it is under construction. We teach people about the requirements of the electrical code, but we forget to teach them about the limitations of the product they have selected because of its design or listing.”

The NFPA’s goal is therefore to tackle the breakdown of the fire safety ecosystem, which includes eight critical elements to protect people and property. These are government responsibility; development and use of

current codes; reference standards; investment in safety; skilled workforce; preparedness and emergency response; and an informed public. “Time after time we’ve seen calamities where we can trace the cause to the breakdown of one or more of the elements of the safety ecosystem.”

He outlined a number of NFPA initiatives in each of the eight elements. These include the launch of the NFPA Fire Life Safety Policy Institute to provide policy makers with guidance; the development of the Code Finder, a visual map of key codes and standards in use in North America and beyond; the NFPA 3000 active shooter standard, which provides a holistic approach for communities to better prepare, respond and recover from mass casualty events; and the construction of the 9,000m 2 NFPA Heroes Experience, the first public fire and life safety education attraction of its kind in the world, which is planned for Pelham, Alabama.

Jim Pauley, president and CEO of the NFPA

Read our e-magazine at www.hemmingfire.com third quarter 2018 < INDUSTRIAL FIRE JOURNAL < 53

Department of Fire Services said that the key for responders is to contact these facilities as soon as possible to prepare a fire plan. The facilities are typically highly secure, heavily guarded, and with areas sealed with airlocks. “Another thing is the vaults. It surprised me how heavily guarded they are, like Fort Knox,” said Nunnemacher. In addition, radio coverage may also be problematic due to the stainless steel equipment prevalent throughout these facilities.

Marijuana and fire

Fire-related incidents can usually be traced back to the breakdown of one or more elements of the safety ecosystem. (©2018 NFPA)

A session dealing with the challenges of fire-safety code enforcement for marijuana plant cultivation was perhaps the most well-attended session of the conference.

The legalisation of marijuana in many US states has created a whole new set of challenges for the NFPA. (Shutterstock)

The NFPA was first alerted to the issues in 2015 when a fire marshall in Colorado called seeking assistance with a gap analysis; cannabis had been legalised and there were no related fire codes. The presentation by Raymon Bizal of NFPA focused on how the NFPA had brought together extractors, growers, extractor manufacturers, and regulators to close the knowledge gap, which resulted in Chapter 38 in NFPA 1 on marijuana growing, processing, or extraction facilities. Currently the NFPA is working on a new code in this area, NFPA 420.

The NFPA is focusing on licensed facilities as opposed to unlicensed operations, which are mainly in residential property and are "a whole new ballgame". A typical grow room has multiple hazards, ranging from lighting, HVAC, electrics, room subdivision, CO 2 enrichment, and fertilisation systems.

Emergency egress in particular is a major issue. Plants are often placed on racks on wheels so they can be moved according to their growth stage. In some cases there could be 16 different environments, each with different lighting, which means room configuration is constantly changing.

The extraction process also brings significant challenges for fire code enforcement. It takes place in a closed-room system and uses liquefied petroleum gas to strip off the waxy turbulent. “So, in the extraction room you have fuels, electrical issues, and ventilation issues. You should have a gas detection alarm, you should look at the combustibles, egress, you want sprinklers and third-party engineer review on the extraction,” said Bizal.

However much the NFPA focuses on fire protection around the extraction process, the fact is that it is a moveable feast, explained Kristin Bigda of the NFPA. “When we wrote the requirements, this was a snapshot of the technology and techniques used at the time. It is changing on a daily basis. The end product they want to produce is changing and there are different extraction methods not addressed.”

The industry is so new that there are no listings for the equipment used in the extraction. Fire inspectors are faced with conducting inspections with no reference documentation for verifying set-ups.

Highlighting some of the emergency response challenges, Jacob Nunnemacher of the Massachusetts

Pre-plans

John Welling of Bristol-Myers Squibb began his presentation on pre-incident planning with a quote by the CEO of Philips following an explosion that killed 23 people at a plant in Pasadena in 1989: “It’s too late to start planning after an explosion. You have to have a plan at the time.”

Welling proceeded to share how Bristol-Myers Squibb carried out preplans and interacted with communities and facilities, including some lessons learned “the hard way”. When a hurricane hit two facilities managed by Welling’s company on an island, they were able to continue operating on emergency power thanks to a US$7-million investment in preparedness. “Where we failed in our plan was with business continuity. There were probably eight or ten fire companies on the island, and we were all using the same hotels as emergency operating centres when the big one hit. When FBI and homeland security took over those hotels, we had no place to go,” he said.

A pre-plan should be functional, easy to understand, manageable, easily changeable, dynamic, and evergreen. Bristol-Myers Squibb involves multiple parties in its development, ranging from all the emergency responders and health and safety staff to contractors, subcontractors and clean-up companies. “We want them to have former knowledge of the site. We give instructions on water supplies, multiple staging areas, and we go into each building where we have hazmat. This facility deals with 40,000 different chemicals. I can’t put them all in – we can list them – but we hit the big ones that are going to cause firefighters’ problems so they can protect themselves as well as the neighbours and the properties.”

The level of information includes structural details, water supplies, fire pumps, water tanks, and different staging areas depending on the type of event. “Anything we can think of that could have an adverse impact on our facilities, responders, ourneighbours or any of our business units… we average 50 pages in our pre-plans depending on the complexity of a building. All laid out so the responder clicks on the box and [the software] takes them to thedetail.”

54 < INDUSTRIAL FIRE JOURNAL < third quarter 2018 Read our e-magazine at www.hemmingfire.com

The comprehensive pre-planning of Bristol-Myers Squibb meant one of its pharma clients did not have to shut down during Hurricane Maria, in spite of widespread devastation across Puerto Rico and Dominica. (Shutterstock)

Welling also described how the company interacted with the community regularly, sharing plans online and also setting up mutual aid agreements across the state of New Jersey. “Lots of times municipalities and industry don’t talk. We have made a point as a company to interact with the communities where we operate.”

This is particularly important in communities where responders are mainly volunteers more used to responding to single-dwelling fires than incidents in warehouses containing thousands of litres of flammable liquids. “The bottom line is we answer to people, neighbours and shareholders, so we spend a lot of time being prepared so the impact of an event is less on our operations, and we can start quickly. During Hurricane Maria we were the only pharma company that didn’t shut down on the island. Plan, plan, train, train, communicate,” concluded Welling.

Around the exhibition floor

Johnson Controls was focusing on two life-safety areas: wide-area mass notification and emergency notification – plus a novel way of using a fire alarm speaker in a non-fire related manner.

Thomas Connell, senior manager, life safety systems, Johnson Controls Global Fire Detection, explained the plans for the company’s Detect 360 family of solutions, which will in essence become the core building blocks of a scalable, multi-purpose system. “From a holistic standpoint we are looking at all the things that may impact your safety, health and productivity in a building. And from that, introduce technologies that can

either detect or monitor ambient surroundings threats and do something to mitigate them, or help get you out of the area.” As part of this initiative Johnson Controls has partnered with a number of companies, each with a particular specialism that ties in to different aspects of the holistic concept.

A new feature planned for the Detect 360 system is the ability to integrate emergency communications in areas designated as shelters, such as landings in stairwells and elevator lobbies. This has been driven mainly by the American Disabilities Act, coupled with NFPA 72 and International Building Code 2016. Previously, these communications were enabled by point-to-point wire communications. “But now the standard requires survivability aspects and system supervision so we know the components are working correctly,” said Connell. “What is unique is that when you press the button not only does it open the comms line, but it also opens a computer screen at the command centre and identifies exactly where a person is. And you can run the software on any computer as long as it’s connected to the internet. An incoming engine company with a Toughbook can talk to trapped people whilst responding, and rapid intervention teams can respond immediately without having to go to the fire panel first,” said Connell.

A partnership with an acoustic technology company has also resulted in a series of highly intelligible, highly powerful fixed or portable speakers. “The old way is to use cluster speakers but the sound bounces around and can be inefficient. In a building like this convention centre, with this new approach we can use fewer speakers and cover the entire area. From a customer perspective, there can be savings in terms of wires and amplifiers,” explained Connell.

Also in development is a feature that threatens to take fire alarm technology to places never before explored. The idea

is to embed a sound-masking generator into the audio panel, which will then feed white noise though fire alarm speakers. One potential application is in hospital wards, where hospitals are obliged to protect patient confidentiality even when rooms are occupied by multiple patients.

The capability to produce white noise would not require any additional equipment, explained Connell, because it would already be present in the audio panel. Should the feature be required by an organisation, it could be activated remotely by Johnson Controls, whose next generation audio panels will have the capability to be connected to the internet.

Over at Honeywell’s stand, the focus was on achieving building connectivity through fire detection and safety solutions. The highlight here was the launch of a new code-compliant bi-directional amplifier that is designed to boost first responders’ radio signals.

The problem is widespread, as shown by a 2017 survey by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, which found that 56% of fire departments had experienced a communications failure within a building during an emergency incident within the last two years.

Consequently, in recent years local jurisdictions have started requiring buildings to have a public safety distributed antenna system either to NFPA 72 or IFC 510 standards. Susan Adam, marketing director, Honeywell Fire Americas, explained that this requirement has resulted in demand for these types of systems to take off. “It is a new space for us, because up till now it has been serviced by radio shops, and they don’t know fire systems,” she explained.

Honeywell’s new BDA solution has been hailed as the first and only all-inclusive, fully-integrated system on the market that not only meets but exceeds NFPA/IFC specifications and UL standards. “The amplifier takes public safety radio from the air, brings it into a building and redistributes it, so that the radio communications of first responders are reliable,” said Adam. Significantly, the system ties in with the fire alarm system, which monitors and supervises the amp to ensure it is still functioning correctly.

The system achieved its UL-listing just days before the Expo event, and Honeywell will next be concentrating on informing the market of the requirements and training its dealers on new skills related to the installation of radio technology.

Jose Maria Sanchez de Muniain

56 < INDUSTRIAL FIRE JOURNAL < third quarter 2018 Read our e-magazine at www.hemmingfire.com