RESCUE AIR SYSTEMS, INC. appointed four inaugural members to its board of advisors. Jack J. Murphy is a fire protection consultant in New York City and a past president of the New York City Fire Safety Directors for High-Rise Business Buildings. Dave Parsons is a 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles (CA) Fire Department and a consultant to the liquefied natural gas industry since 2003. Mike Seashols is currently the chairman and CEO of AVOLENT, an application software provider for interactive, self-service electronic billing and payment. Ronny J. Coleman is a 45-year fire service veteran and is currently the business development manager for The Emergency Services Consulting, Inc. Group. www.rescue-air.com.
FIRE-DEX has acquired CHIEFTAIN SAFETY MANUFACTURING, a provider of firefighter protective gear. The combined entity will be based at Fire-Dex’s current headquarters in Medina, Ohio, and will have approximately 200 employees between Medina and Chieftain’s production facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The merger will increase Fire-Dex’s work force by 10 percent in Medina in the near term as a result of transferring several managers and some production from Mexico to Medina. Fire-Dex intends to run Fire-Dex and Chieftain as separate operations and separate brands. www.firedex.com.
A new report on the cost of installing residential fire sprinklers, Home Fire Sprinkler Cost Assessment, was released by Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of the NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION (NFPA). Case studies that examined installation costs and insurance premium discounts associated with the home fire sprinkler system installation were conducted for 10 communities, nine distributed throughout the United States and one in Canada, based on diversity of sprinkler ordinance longevity, geographic location, housing style, and sprinkler system variables, such as piping material type and the water supply source. View the full report at www.nfpa.org/foundation.
PIERCE MANUFACTURING INC.has received the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) President’s Recognition Award. Each year, the president of the IAFCan association serving 12,000 fire chiefs and emergency officers around the worldhonors a number of individuals and companies from the fire service industry who have contributed in a significant way during the president’s term. Pierce is the first fire apparatus manufacturer to introduce frontal airbags, the Side-Roll Protection system, and to achieve both independent Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL) certification to NFPA 1901 and UL Canada (ULC) certification. www.iafc.org. www.piercemfg.com.
PELICAN PRODUCTS has been identified as one of America’s fastest-growing companies on Inc. magazine’s Inc. 5,000 list. The annually-published list highlights U.S.-based, privately held, and independent companies with more than $2 million in revenues that have increased revenues significantly during the most recent three-year period. Companies on the 2007 Inc. 5,000 list produced $190 billion in aggregate revenueabout 1.5 percent of the national gross domestic product, and employed more than 900,000 people. www.pelican.com.
FM APPROVALS makes available online its entire Approval Guide at www.approvalguide.com, tailored for architects, consulting engineers, facility managers, contractors, product buyers, and authorities having jurisdiction. At no cost, the comprehensive and fully searchable Web-based database provides a resource center containing the most up-to-date information on more than 50,000 FM-approved fire protection products, building materials, electrical equipment, and services that conform to the highest property protection standards. www.fmapprovals.com.
The ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC-SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS OFFICIALS (APCO) INTERNATIONAL announced that the New Jersey Office of Emergency Telecommunications Services has approved the APCO Institute’s Public Safety Telecommunicator I (PST1) online course for training its telecommunications professionals. The PST1 course combines the knowledge- and skill-building information needed for a basic telecommunicator with up-to-date information on the technology and issues surrounding today’s public safety communications center. PST1 meets and exceeds the APCO Project 33 Revised Minimum Training Standards for Public Safety Telecommunicators (2004). www.apcoinstitute.org.
The CENTER FOR LIFE SAFETY EDUCATION (CLSE) awarded its annual $7,000 Philip L. DeCamara, Jr. Memorial Scholarships to two University of Maryland fire protection engineering students. First place honors and a $4,000 scholarship were awarded to senior Allison Carey, a fire protection engineering major from Burtonsville, Maryland. Carey is a member of the Society of Women in Engineering and the Salamander Honor Society. Second place winner Kelly Opertwill receive a $3,000 scholarship. Opert is a fire protection engineering major and a member the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, College Park Scholars, and the RISE Program. www.clse.org.
The UNITED STATES FIRE ADMINISTRATION (USFA) has completed a project with the SOCIETY OF FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERS (SFPE)‘s Educational & Scientific Foundation to study the latest municipal water supply systems trends and technologies to enhance effective fire protection. This study was conducted with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate. The team examined issues of interoperability and critical infrastructure protection and backup and redundant water supply systems for fire protection. The two resulting reports, Volume 1: Water Supply Systems Concepts and Volume 2: Water Supply System Evaluation Methods, are available for free download from the USFA Web site: www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/research/dsn/dsn_waterstudy.shtm.
