>> Florida’s ALDRIDGE-BENGE FIREFIGHTER SAFETY ACT was unanimously passed as law by the Florida House and Senate on December 13, 2009. The act requires the owners of commercial, industrial, and multiunit residential buildings (three or more units) in Florida to mark their property with an emblem to warn firefighters of lightweight floor and roof truss construction, which are prone to early collapse under fire conditions. The act was named in the memory of two Orange County, Florida, firefighters who died in a gift shop collapse, which featured such components.
>> Knoxville, Tennessee, awarded FERRARA FIRE APPARATUS, INC. a contract to build three new Igniter custom pumpers. Knoxville has operated Ferrara trucks since 2003. Protecting approximately 100 square miles, Knoxville serves 175,000 residents and numerous businesses, including the University of Tennessee. In the last quarter of 2009, Ferrara received new apparatus orders from several large metropolitan departments, including New York, Houston, Indianapolis, and Columbus. With this latest order, the City of Knoxville will have a dozen Ferrara trucks in their fleet. www.ferrarafire.com. (800) 443-9006.
>> SPORTSART FITNESS is sponsoring a grant application assistance program for fire departments interested in purchasing fitness equipment. Department representatives must fill out and submit a form. A grant specialist will then research grants that fit the department’s needs and contact the department, usually within 48 hours. SportsArt Fitness is the first treadmill manufacturer to include updated Firefighter’s Wellness Fitness Initiative protocols in their commercial treadmill programming package. www.sportsartamerica.com. (800) 709-1400, ext.106.
>> The HOME SAFETY COUNCIL (HSC) recognized the State of Pennsylvania for adopting the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC), which includes a requirement to install fire sprinkler systems in all new one- and two-family homes and townhouses. The sprinkler requirement will take effect on January 1, 2011. HSC focuses on preventing accidental injury at home, which causes more than 20,000 deaths in the United States each year. Fire is the third-leading cause of these preventable tragedies. According to HSC, home fire safety includes prevention, detection, and early warning with smoke alarms, escape planning and practice, and fire control. www.HomeSafetyCouncil.org.
>> The NATIONAL FIRE SPRINKLER ASSOCIATION (NFSA) awards committee named Ausmus Marburger of Fire Protection Industries in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, as the 2010 recipient of the Golden Sprinkler Award, the association’s highest honor. Marburger was chairman of NFSA’s Board of Directors from 2002 to 2006, during which time he made many contributions to the fire sprinkler industry, including playing an integral role in the formation of the Common Voices Coalition, a group of fire survivors turned fire sprinkler advocates. He now serves as NFSA’s Pacific Northwest regional manager, where he continues on a mission of public safety through advancement of the fire sprinkler concept. www.nfsa.org.
>> The INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS (IAFF) recognized Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) for introducing a bill to ban decabromine, a dangerous flame retardant. Pingree’s bill—H.R 4394, the Decabromine Elimination and Control Act of 2009—coincides with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement on a scheduled withdrawal of decabromine from the domestic marketplace. The IAFF began negotiating with the chemical industry in 2009 to ban the production, sale, and use of decabromine. Those discussions culminated with the introduction of Rep. Pingree’s bill, the EPA’s announcement, and the chemical industry’s promise to withdraw the product voluntarily within three years. www.iaff.org.
>> SILENT KNIGHT and SPECTRUM SYSTEMS have collaborated to donate an IntelliKnight 5700 fire alarm to the Riverside Regional Pet Center in Mankato, Minnesota. The animal sanctuary is a 6,266 square-foot facility designed to be a sustainable, environmentally-friendly shelter for approximately 80 animals. The new shelter comprises a variety of rooms, including a garage, surgical/exam room, office space, and separate kennel areas. To provide the center with an alarm system capable of pinpointing the origin of emergencies, Spectrum Systems chose the Silent Knight’s IntelliKnight 5700, which offers an enhanced drift compensation feature to control detector sensitivities and reduce false alarms. www.silentknight.com. (800) 328-0103. www.spectrumsystems.info.
>> The AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS (ASCE) has adopted a new manual that outlines policies and procedures for conducting engineering assessments in the wake of natural and human-caused disasters. The Post-Disaster Assessment Manual was developed by ASCE’s Task Committee on Engineering Review Procedures (TCERP) in response to a recommendation from an independent task force that compiles ASCE’s procedures for such assessments into a single, readily accessible source. ASCE has participated in more than a dozen assessments in the last decade, including studies of the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001 and assessments following Hurricanes Katrina and Ike. Download a copy of the manual at: www.asce.org/inside/TCERP_Manual_Final.pdf.
