MCKINNON-LAND-MORAN, LLC (MLM) has agreed to purchase the BASOFIL® heat- and flame-resistant fiber business from BASF, including the intellectual property, inventories, and machinery/equipment related to the Basofil fiber manufacturing operation in Enka, North Carolina. MLM produces patented flame-resistant Alessandra yarns for use in its mattress ticking products; selected Alessandro yarn products will include Basofil.
LION APPAREL, INC. has purchased STARFIELD SAFETYWEAR, a Canadian protective clothing manufacturer. The company will now do businsess as the Starfield-Lion Company. Steve Alison, vice president of the Lion Apparel Protective Systems Group, will also serve as president of Starfield-Lion.
ZELLWEGER ANALYTICS, a division of Zellweger Luwa, has acquired LUMIDOR SAFETY PRODUCTS from Invivo Corporation. Zellweger, which specializes in gas detection systems, expects the acquisition to complement its line of gas detection systems and strengthen its American distribution network. Lumidor has been active in the gas detection industry for more than 30 years, with strong market positions in the mid-Atlantic states, the Midwest, and Southern California.
The NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION (NFPA) has recently launched a Web site (www.firepreventionweek.org) for National Fire Prevention Week (October 6-12, 2002) to familiarize firefighters across North America with this year’s theme, “Team Up for Fire Safety.” Educational materials and information are available online in advance to assist firefighters with their planning efforts in the communities they protect. The site includes the latest fire statistics, advice on how to look for home hazards and eliminate them, how to install and test smoke alarms, and how to conduct a fire drill at home. Community members and educators may also find the Web site materials helpful for tips on fire safety and how to create a home fire escape plan. This year’s campaign promotes three simple ideas: install/test smoke alarms, practice home escape plans, and hunt for home hazards.
The NFPA awarded the Harry C. Bigglestone Award to the authors of the paper “Measurement of Smoke Characteristics in HVAC Ducts,” which appeared in the fourth quarter 2001 issue of NFPA’s Fire Technology. The authors are James Milke, Steven D. Wolin, Noah L. Ryder, Frederic Leprince, Frederick W. Mowrer, and Jose Torero. The award honors excellence in communication of fire protection concepts.
The NFPA promoted Albert B. Sears Jr. to vice president for meeting services. He will have primary responsibility for NFPA meetings, expositions, and travel services, domestic and international. Sears founded the organization’s annual fire safety exposition.
The NFPA promoted Arthur E. Cote, P.E., to executive vice president. Cote was senior vice president of operations and chief engineer. He will advise the NFPA’s president on all aspects of the association’s activities and continue to oversee its engineering, codes and standards, public fire protection, fire analysis and research, public education, and regional operations. He will also assume responsibility for international programs.
The NFPA promoted Maureen Brodoff to vice president and general counsel. She will be responsible for overall legal affairs of the association and will participate in management activities and continue to serve as counsel to the NFPA’s Standards Council, the body overseeing NFPA’s codes- and standards-making process.
RAE SYSTEMS INC., a gas detection and smart sensing network solution provider for security, environmental, and safety monitoring, received the final print of patent U.S/ 6,333,632, titled “Alternating Current Discharge Ionization Detector, ” the company’s seventh gas detection patent. The CDRAE, the first RAE Systems product to use this patented technology, is a portable gas monitor for detecting a broad range of volatile organic compounds (VOC) with ionization potentials up to 11.7 electron volts. All VOCs are flammable and many are toxic.
The inventors, Wenjun Yang, Ph.D., senior chemist, and Peter Hsi, Ph.D., vice president and chief technology officer, created this sensor to provide a safer alternative to flame ionization detectors (FID), which use perilous hydrogen as a working gas.
DCC (DIALOGIC COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) awarded its 2001 Fire Technology Grant award to Utah’s Valley Emergency Communications Center (VECC), the nation’s largest safety network, handling more than 1,700 calls for fire and police service every 24 hours. The center recently completed in-stalling The Communicator! and GeoNotify. VECC has 72 member agencies in its notification system, including 10 Salt Lake Valley fire departments and eight police departments. It has 100 employees with a $10 million annual budget. VECC was a U.S. Department of Commerce demonstration site for the use of cellular digital packet data (CDPD), a method of transmitting images such as maps from and among emergency vehicles.
DCC annually selects a fire department to receive The Communicator notification system and related geographic notification modules at no charge to the local agency. The system can be used as a disaster and emergency warning system; to improve communications with response personnel; and to notify, calm, and reassure the public. The high-speed notification system alerts individuals, groups, or teams by phone, pager, fax, and e-mail; delivers incident-specific information and potentially life-saving instruction; confirms message receipt; and prints, faxes, and e-mails comprehensive reports detailing callout results.
Proposals are currently being accepted for the 2002 grant awards. The Technology Grant Program is open to all city and county fire agencies operating in the United States, regardless of size or budget. Although for-profit organizations are not eligible to apply, DCC encourages applicants to partner with outside groups. For more information, contact Mary Schnack, (800) 529-7599, or mary@prworks.ms.
Commercial and industrial property insurer FM GLOBAL has begun construction of a new $70 million-plus world-class scientific research and product-testing complex to meet its customers’ increasingly sophisticated property protection needs, expand its capabilities, increase its understanding of a wide variety of property hazards, and advance the ever-evolving science of property protection. The FM Global Technology Center is expected to be operational by late 2003. It will enable FM Global to expand its research focus beyond traditional areas to include natural hazards, electrical and mechanical integrity, modeling and probabilities, and emerging technologies.
The cornerstone of the project will be a research and materials testing laboratory approximately two acres in size, twice as large as the existing fire test center, and will include many improvements. With 60-foot-high movable ceilings, it will be large enough to replicate a fire in some of the world’s largest warehouses and measure the impact of flame spread and fire growth. Additionally, the facility will house intermediate- and small-scale laboratories for research and testing of the latest fire protection technology and for simulating unique industry facilities that require customized property loss prevention solutions.
The Technology Center also will include a natural hazards laboratory that will be able to duplicate practically any weather or climate condition affecting a building, including wind-blown debris, wind-driven rain of hurricane strength, and weather extremes (freezing and thawing) to determine long-term performance of building materials. A new facility will test explosionproof and flameproof electrical equipment for use in hazardous locations.
Results of a new survey of public safety professionals show that nearly 80 percent of those responding to the APCO (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) Public Safety Communications Priorities Survey believe coordination among public safety agencies is key to resolving interoperability. Development of new technologies (28%) and additional spectrum (17%) were also considered important factors in solving the interoperability issues plaguing first responders. According to the survey, although public safety communicators agree with the overall findings, 58% of the respondents indicated that funding is the most important issue facing their community, while 26% specified wireless E-911 as the most pressing issue. Not surprisingly, security and redundancy were also deemed critical as public safety communities develop appropriate homeland security responses. 75% of respondents believe network security and reliability are critical to homeland security. Respondents attributed “carrier delay” as the primary reason for E-911 deployment setbacks.
