Fire Protection Research Foundation

New reports available on Risk-Based Decision Support in Managing Unwanted Alarms

From 1980 to 2009, the number of fire department emergency responses more than doubled, from 10.8 million to 26.5 million, primarily driven by the more than tripling of medical aid calls, from 5.0 million in 1980 to 17.1 million in 2009. Fire department budgets have not kept pace with this rising volume of workload, and particularly in recent years, there has been increased concern about the cost of unnecessary responses. From 1980 to 2009, the number of emergency responses to fires fell by more than half, from 3.0 million to 1.3 million, and the number of emergency responses for fires or mutual aid fell by about one-fifth, but emergency responses to “false” alarms more than doubled, from 0.9 million to 2.2 million. The unwanted alarm issue changed over the past third of a century from a problem of malicious false alarms to an issue of non-fire activations of automatic detection and alarm systems.

From the point of view of the fire department, a response to a condition that does not need fire department action in order to avoid loss is both a waste of resources and a needless risk of injury during the response. Response to unwanted alarms is an issue that is receiving increasing attention at the community level. 

This project was initiated by the Fire Protection Research Foundation to develop and implement a tool that can be used at the community level to assess risk, sand cost/benefit of strategies to reduce these risks, including appropriate emergency response protocols, enforcement of inspection and maintenance requirements, community education, etc. The goal of this project was to develop a practical, model-based tool that can be used by local fire departments with local data (to the extent possible) when deciding among courses of action to deal with unwanted alarms. The tool uses a generic model, combined with local data when available and national data when necessary, to estimate costs, fire losses and other impacts of strategies. 

Three reports were produced for this project. The first is a literature review, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, the second, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, is a report that describes the tool and the underlying model that estimates costs, losses and other impacts for alternative strategies. It includes national data needed for calculating fire losses under alternate strategies. A third report, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, details a local data form that was also developed to collect data for use in the tool.

If you are interested in exploring the application of this methodology in your community, please contact the Foundation for more information. 

Call for papers issued for SUPDET 2013

A Call for Papers has been issued for the Fire Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2013), scheduled for February 26 – March 1, 2013 in Orlando, Florida. SUPDET 2013 will address the latest developments in research, technology, and applications for the fire protection community.

Interested presenters are asked to submit a one page abstract by e-mail no later than October 19, 2012 to epeterson@nfpa.org.

 

Global Research Update: High Challenge Storage Protection presentations posted

Presentations given at a one day seminar, "Global Research Update: High Challenge Storage Protection", are now available on the Research Foundation website.

The seminar took place June 27 at the Marriott Rive Gauche in Paris, France, drawing 110 attendees from 17 nations. The Research Foundation and NFPA's international operations department conducted the event, which featured 10 presentations by industry and research experts. 

July 24 workshop to focus on inspection, testing, and maintenance frequency

The Foundation has initiated a project on applying risk and reliability approaches to inspection, testing and maintenance (ITM) frequencies for fire protection systems and is seeking NFPA Technical Committee input at a half-day workshop scheduled for July 24 in Quincy, MA. The project grew out of a need for a more data based approach to ITM frequencies as NFPA develops new documents such as NFPA 4 Integrated Testing of Fire Protection Systems. The goal is to develop a generic template/methodology to determine ITM frequency for a given fire protection system or equipment based on reliability concepts.

The workshop on July 24 will include presentation and discussion of a literature review and white paper that describes existing reliability principles, data and models one would use to develop a reliability-based approach to ITM.  Based on input from the workshop, the template/methodology will be developed and refined.

Please contact the Foundation at 617.984.7281 if you are interested in participating.

SUPDET 2012 to be held March 5-8, 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona

The 16th annual Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Symposium (SUPDET 2012) is set for March 5-8, 2012 at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix.  Register now

SUPDET 2012 features 30 presentations and a special workshop on Emergency Communications Strategies.  Keep your knowledge at the leading edge through presentations featuring the latest developments and current research in key areas including:

• New detection technology
• Approaches and human response to emergency/mass communication
• New developments in water-based suppression systems
• Environmental regulations and new fire suppression agents
• Applications/Case studies
• Featured session on high challenge commodity protection  – new research on lithium ion batteries, aerosols and other hazards

A special half-day workshop on Emergency Communications Strategies will be available for all SUPDET 2012 attendees on March 7.

Earn additional CEUs, network with other professionals in your field, and learn about new technologies and advancements from experts in fire detection, suppression, and signaling issues.  Register now.

Research Foundation launching project to develop performance requirements for light sources used in emergency notification appliances

A project is being launched by the Research Foundation to develop performance requirements for light sources used in emergency notification appliances for inclusion in NFPA 72, as LEDs and other innovative energy saving lighting technologies (e.g. fluorescents) are rapidly entering the marketplace and present themselves for application to emergency notification appliances.  For more information, see the full project description and Request for Proposals for Project Contractor.

New Foundation Project - Performance Objectives for Light Sources Used in Emergency Notification Appliances

LEDs and other innovative energy saving lighting technologies (e.g. fluorescents) are rapidly entering the marketplace and present themselves for application to emergency notification appliances.  The existing requirements for the performance and application of visible notification appliances are based on relatively short duration, high peak intensity flashing lights – strobe lights.  The Foundation is initiating a project to develop performance requirements for new light sources used in emergency notification appliances for inclusion in NFPA 72.  If you are interested in participation, please contact kalmand@nfpa.org.