2 FPEs Give San Jose Engineering Capability in Fire Protection Decisions
San Jose Fire Department Photo
Among the thousands of specialized branches of science and engineering, only one is dedicated solely to the same goals pursued by the fire service—protection from fire of community life and property. That field of technology is fire protection engineering. It is a new, and growing, field. What does the trained fire protection engineer (FPE) offer today’s fire department?
To answer that question, let’s examine the activities of two civilian FPEs employed in quite different capacities by the same city—San Jose, Calif., population 560,000. San Jose is not unique in the nation, or in the West, as an FPE employer, but it can be taken as a typical example.
First a word about the profession itself. Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland offer complete FPE degree programs. Before 1970, fewer than 25 graduates entered the profession annually. There were only 2000 practicing FPEs in 1973. During the next few years, there will be a need for an estimated 10,000 additional graduates—a need unlikely to be filled—because of the growing awareness of industry that fire protection systems have become too complex for the untrained.
Broad area of work
The FPE may become involved in an extremely broad range of problems. He may work in building design, risk analysis, sprinkler system design, municipal protection studies (such as for the ISO) or, as in one recent example, in the entire spectrum of industrial plant layout, operation and worker training to find the underlying causes for the $200 million fire in a nuclear power plant, and recommend how to avoid a repetition of the disaster.
In San Jose, each of the two FPEs on the fire department’s staff deals with matters so unrelated to the other’s work that they describe their jobs as perfect illustration of how wide a range the profession embraces. Each reports directly to an administrative chief officer. One of them, P. G. (Gerry) Haag, works under Assistant Chief A1 Montez, who heads the fire prevention bureau. His job is to lend technical expertise to the bureau’s building plan review, inspection program, fire protection system checks—every sort of review and control the bureau exercises over the fire hazard to individual properties in the city.
The other FPE, W. S. (Walt) Fujczak, reports to Deputy Chief M. Earl Thompson, head of the department’s research and development division. Here, the FPE applies engineering principles and practices to the overall fire suppression problem. When, despite the best efforts of the bureau and the fire prevention code, fires do result, it is Fujczak’s concern that the department have the manpower, quarters, response patterns and relations with adjoining jurisdictions to deal with those fires in the most practical, cost-effective manner.
Professionalism
What do these men bring to their tasks that isn’t offered by the experienced fire officers already in the department?
Montez said of Gerry Haag, “He brings professionalism to the bureau. To him, the bureau’s work is an ongoing career rather than a temporary stopping place.
“Turnover rate as high as 40 percent a year is a problem for us. Inspectors are promoted in, then promoted out. Some even ask for demotion so they can return to line fire Fighting where they are off two days out of three instead of working a full 40-hour five-day week as we do. Only a few ever choose to stay.
“The job is a strain, anyway. You get used to the public image of a fire fighter as a community helper, as a good guy. But here you encounter a constantly angry public because you must constantly tell people to do things that cost them money. And we charge them a fee for telling them that! Regardless of how tactful you are, the reaction is often unpleasant.”
Professionalism also means this, according to Haag: “As a registered professional engineer in the State of California, I can deal with architects and consultants on equal terms. We talk the same language. They don’t try to snow me.”
Qualifies as witness
Should the bureau become involved in a difficult court case, Haag is qualified to appear as an expert witness.
“Another thing he lends to the bureau which we didn’t have before,” adds Montez, “is ability. He knows how to check plans. Professional training is needed for this today. Even though all our bureau people have at least an AA degree, that’s not enough.”
Technically, Haag heads what is called the plan review and engineering section. One fire captain and one inspector report to him. Haag’s principal duties include:
- Architectural plan review on new or remodeled construction.
- Design review of fire suppression and alarm systems, including field testing.
- Consultation and assistance to inspectors on special problems.
- Flammable liquid tank installation inspection.
Engineering training needed
Today, 90 percent of all sprinkler systems submitted for review are calculated systems; that is, calculations of the fire flow rates under various operating conditions are submitted with the plans. Haag checks all these calculations, using computer programs developed as needed.
“This can only be done by a trained engineer,” he pointed out.
Another one of his duties is the training of the bureau’s 17 inspectors. Once a week he lectures to them for an hour on a different topic, generally based on the “Fire Protection Handbook.” Recent lectures covered compressed gases and cryogenics, sprinkler systems, and lift truck fire hazards.
“This training comes slowly,” said Haag. “The turnover rate is a factor here. But the men are becoming better able to recognize certain problems in the field. The inspector should have a basic, sound knowledge to work with, not just the letter of a code.”
Haag is available to the general public, as well as to architects and designers, to answer questions on their fire protection concerns, although his time doesn’t permit extensive consultation. His experience prior to joining the San Jose Fire Department in 1975 included five years as a loss control consultant plus work in the insurance adjustment field. While a consultant to the City of San Jose in 1972, he drafted a lengthy fire flow ordinance to require adequate water availability for construction sites, based on local conditions.
Sees more FPEs in future
He foresees the eventual possibility that building department heads, even fire marshals, will have to be registered FPEs. Meanwhile, concerning his own work, Haag stresses that “service to the public and a truly professional attitude are of greatest importance. In interpreting codes and standards, his basis for judgment is “a reasonable degree of safety to the public, to fire fighters and to property.”
Haag’s big project currently is a total rewrite of San Jose’s fire prevention code.
“This is needed,” he explained, “because so many amendments have been made over the years. We need a fresh, up-to-date start.”
In drafting sections of the new code, Haag has met with staff and line chiefs to get their reactions. What does he expect from the city council when the finished legislation comes to them for adoption?
“They respect me as a professional engineer. For the most part, members of city councils understand the need for a framework within which it is possible to make inspections and hold down the likelihood of high-loss fires. And we try to stay within recognized national standards.”
Worked for ISO
Walt Fujczak comes from an entirely different background. A 1960 mechanical engineering graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he was originally employed for five years in steam power plant design. From 1966 until coming to his present post in 1974, he was involved in municipal fire protection studies with ISO and its predecessors. During those 10 years, he evaluated fire service in 54 communities throughout 10 western states.
Fujczak’s principal concerns in research and development have been:
- Gathering data on past performance, then predicting proper future trends, in the allocation of manpower and resources to fire suppression.
- Effects of fire department operations on insurance grading (though this takes different forms since ISO’s switch from the old grading levels for the larger cities).
- Equitable aid agreements for sharing equipment and manpower between San Jose and adjacent jurisdictions.
One major task Fujczak has undertaken under the first of those concerns is a study of fire station location and manning (involving task force concepts which have not yet been adopted).
Results of study
“Our station locator program went beyond what such procedures as the PTI system have done. But essentially we found that some areas of the city were getting excess coverage. Renewal of large downtown areas, clearing away old buildings, has made it possible to justify closing one fire station nearby, which will probably take place soon.
“Also, the studies showed it was logical to reduce the manpower at some stations, increasing it at others. We could have ‘nucleus’ operations supported by ‘satellites’ elsewhere. In San Jose, the fire problem—unlike many other cities its size—is overwhelmingly residential. Most fires are put out with less than a 500-gallon tank of water. We don’t need standard groups of heavily manned companies everywhere.”
As one of America’s fastest-growing cities, San Jose has many miles of rambling, in-and-out boundaries with other cities and with the County Central Fire District, which covers unincorporated territory. Two kinds of agreements gradually evolved for joint response, or automatic aid, and mutual aid by request in those boundary areas between San Jose and three other jurisdictions.
However, many inequities have arisen with changes in surrounding communities. One of Fujczak’s tasks has been to analyze joint response history, then reorganize the aid agreements to be more equitable to the city.
Aid pacts overhauled
“We had to overhaul things,” he pointed out, “because all the aid San Jose got under the agreements was either unneeded or came in on minor alarms, whereas we in turn tended to provide the bulk of the full first-alarm assignment to larger blazes in the other communities. They responded to us two or three times as often as we did to them, but we gave two or three times as many man-hours as they did.”
The new agreements provided that as of July 1, 1977 the revised levels of automatic aid will involve no financial charges. But should the suburb call for further help, San Jose will charge $977 per man/equipment hour. One small near city in particular could have to pay as much as $40,000 annually because of its lack of a ladder company, which must frequently be requested from San Jose. Once a small rural town, it now contains several high-rises plus large shopping centers.
Ultimately, cost-effective fire protection may dictate consolidation of neighboring fire services into a single agency. This, too, is an area in which Fujczak has made historical studies, recommended action, then worked out the details of proposed mergers. In one such consolidation, expected to get final governmental approval, San Jose is to absorb three of the Central District’s stations which are almost surrounded by city territory.
To prepare master plan
Fujczak also expects to start preparing a master plan for San Jose’s future fire protection. In his view, “a dynamic city, growing like this one, needs somebody with a broad sense of what’s happening in fire protection. A systematized master plan, combining all the aspects of municipal fire protection, is better than attacking the various problems piecemeal.” His view is backed up by the recently issued NFPCA guidebook on urban master planning.
Again, there arose the question why a civilian FPE is better able to get results in these matters than can veteran fire officers.
The nature of the professional engineering training is only part of it, according to Fujczak, who added, “Many of the recommendations I’ve made were made years ago by outside consultants. Perhaps my credibility is greater because I’m not an outsider. I’m a professional who works for the city.”
Thompson, the deputy Fujczak reports to, agreed that “the FPE certification, the degree plus professional registration,” are what makes Fujczak’s answers to San Jose’s problems more acceptable to the political leaders who must find ways to pay for those solutions and sell them to the public.
Impact on insurance
Finally, despite ISO’s removal of formal insurance classes for cities of San Jose’s size, the impact of the city’s actions on insurance costs is still an important consideration. With his eight years of ISO experience, Fujczak is better able to judge that impact than anyone else in the city’s employ.
Entirely aside from their own abilities, both of San Jose’s fire protection engineers represent important financial savings to the city. Chief John Gerhard, who hired the two engineers before he retired a few months ago, pointed out that staffing cost is lower for civilian engineers than for uniformed officers doing the same work, even if such officers with the proper training were available. A fire captain, for example, can retire after 40 years at three quarters pay—meaning a potentially greater expense to the city than the corresponding retirement benefits for a civilian. The situation is similar in most large cities, not only in the West but elsewhere.
There are still those fire departments in which the administration is convinced that civilians and fire officers cannot work together in positions of comparable authority. But professional engineering expertise, increasingly needed to develop cost-effective means of coping with the higher technology of modern fire protection, is surely going to dictate otherwise—as it has in San Jose.
