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Get information you can use on the job immediately Sessions are geared toward practical knowledge that makes even complex safety issues easy to understand and apply in the workplace.
Learn directly from the leading authorities Conference speakers include the industry's top experts, providing their expertise and insight.
Gain up-to-date knowledge on current industry topics NFPA helps develop the codes and standards, so you can be sure you’re getting the most current technical information available.
Select sessions for your specific needs. With 12 tracks and more than 130 sessions to choose from, you can schedule your time to maximum advantage.
Dina Borzekowski presents findings of the Johns Hopkins study on educational messaging for young children.
When NFPA received a fire prevention grant from the Department of Homeland Security to examine the impact of positively framed fire and life safety messages on children ages 4 through 9, we looked at the difference between positively and negatively framed messages on children’s attention, comprehension, and behavioral intention. A total of 640 children and their parents participated in the project. The study was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
This morning, the study was presented and attendees were provided with guidance on creating educational materials in accordance with the results. Results are available in a guide for the fire service that was created to help fire prevention educators make good decisions when selecting educational materials.
Gary Basset and Mary Marchone of the USFA & National Fire Academy present on effective tools for evaluating your public safety program
In the education session called, "Do You Have Evaluation Phobia? We Have the Cure", Gary Basset and Mary Marchone discussed practical and productive ways in which program coordinators can best evaluate their public safety programs to meet established goals. The presentation provided basic techniques and tools to evaluate public education programs and inspection services, while providing examples of evaluation measures, instruments, and methods to gauge change during planning and implementation. Short-and long-term effects were also discussed.
The pair presented on the four stages of program evaluation from early formative planning, to outcome evaluation. The framework around program planning and evaluation follows a "S.M.A.R.T" objectives approach (an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Realistic) and when applied in concert with the four stages of development, help to foster the evaluation process as an efficient and productive tool for program planning. The four stages are:
Stage I - Formative evaluation planning
Stage II - Process evaluation and implementation
Stage III - Impact evaluation and immediate effects
Stage IV - Outcome evaluation and long term effects
By breaking the evaluation process into a series of stages, Mr. Basset and Ms. Marchone diffused anxiety surrounding the evaluation process; something that can be a source of stress for many program coordinators who need to guage the efficacy of their outreach efforts.
James Milke discusses the roles sprinklers and smoke alarms play in life safety
Citing chronological progress of the installation requirement for smoke alarms in all one- and two- family dwellings, and referencing the current battle for fire sprinklers, James Milke of the University of Maryland presented the relative role of smoke alarms and sprinklers in providing life safety in residential occupancies.
The first serious consideration for residential smoke alarms came in 1962 when Canada conducted a study that showed a 41% death reduction when smoke alarms were present, compared to an 8% reduction when heat detectors were present. At the time, requiring the installation of smoke alarms was as controversial as requiring seat belts in cars would later become. By 1971, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided 17,000 homes with smoke alarms, where over the course of three years, there were no fire-related deaths reported.
The Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency tasked with investigating industrial accidents, unveiled common yet potentially dangerous natural gas release practices while investing two fairly recent explosions killing 10 workers and injuring more than 100 others. During NFPA’s Featured Presentation, “Lessons Learned Regarding Industrial Gas Safety Practices,” CSB chair Rafael Moure-Eraso discussed the practices responsible for the tragedies and the codes and standards implications that followed.
During the presentation, Mr. Moure-Eraso unveiled the CSB’s new video “Deadly Practices,” which provided an overview of “gas blowing” and “gas purging” procedures that led to the disasters at the ConAgra Slim Jim facility in Garner, NC, in 2009 and Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown, CT, last year.
Watch the "Deadly Practices" video:
“The deadly accidents at Kleen Energy and ConAgra were entirely preventable,” Mr. Moure-Eraso told the audience.
Safer alternatives to natural gas practices were also addressed, including the use of air and nonflammable nitrogen. The CSB recommended the codes-and-standards community to implement safety recommendations centered on these practices. NFPA reacted promptly to the recommendations related to ConAgra, creating and approving tentative interim amendments to NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, which are anticipated for inclusion in the 2012 edition. Earlier this year, NFPA formed a technical committee to develop the new NFPA 56, Provisional Standard for the Commissioning and Maintenance of Fuel Gas Piping Systems, which would address gas blows at Kleen Energy.
“We are very excited about what we’ve heard and discussed with NFPA 56 committee members,” said Mr. Moure-Eraso.
Reports indicate that the solar energy market is as bright as its power source, which is why the fire service is vigorously pinpointing the hazards that may develop from this burgeoning technology. Tactics and strategies in dealing with photovoltaic (PV) panels were the focus of the education session “Firefighter Safety Considerations for Rooftop Photovoltaic System Installations.”
Speaker Tonya Hoover, California’s acting fire marshal, discussed the state’s task group that developed PV installation guidelines in 2008. Hoover says the guidelines could be developed into local ordinances and incorporated into the code-development process, especially since Gov. Edmund Brown has signed a bill requiring a third of the state’s electricity to be derived from renewable sources.
Aimed at getting a handle on firefighter safety considerations nationwide, an upcoming research report will further analyze shock hazards, emergency disconnect, severing conductors, and damaged PV modules and systems, said speaker Bob Backstrom, a fire protection engineer from Underwriters Laboratories. Punctuating the report’s need, fellow speaker Matthew Paiss provided attendees with examples of fires involving PVs, including a 2009 fire in Bakersfield, CA, where firefighters responded to a row of smoldering PV modules pulsating with 500 volts.
Fire Marshal Hoover, incidentally, was featured as one of NFPA’s Faces of Fire, a project that features people telling personal stories to demonstrate the need for home fire sprinklers.
Michael Cassidy presents the evaluation tool used to assess safety education success
Public education is vital to the lives of children and their familes, but it is difficult to know whether children actually understand and absorb the messaging. This morning, Michael Cassidy of the Holliston (MA) Fire Department, Jennifer Mieth from the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, and Cynthis Ouellette from Rhode Island College discussed a variety of ways in which they have been successful in documenting what students have learned from fire safety education programs and how they've gathered that information. The team highlighted user-friendly tools they developed for firefighter/educators to evaluate student learning.
The team presented the findings from a newly developed third-grade evaluation that was used to demonstrate the statewide education success. The tool was used in part to find what third graders know about fire safety and whether educators have done been successfull with their teaching methods.
According to Ms. Mieth, "now we know what kids are learning and what they're not". The data can further be used not only for educational planning, but reporting, goal setting, public education program training, technical assistance, to get funding and to measure changes in behaviors.
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