NFPA President James Shannon makes a case for fire prevention in latest issue of NFPA Journal

Fire prevention efforts save lives.

NFPA President James Shannon drives this point home in the May/June issue of NFPA Journal, citing preventative efforts across the U.S. that appear to be diminishing deadly and costly tragedies. Here's a snippet from Shannon's column, which underscores a few examples:

I had a conversation in the grocery store with a fire chief from a city near where I live. He told me about a great campaign that he just launched. His city has a large immigrant community and a tight housing market, and many people have created illegal apartments. Whole families are paying exorbitant rents to live in basements where there are inadequate exits and too few electrical outlets. Cooking is done on hot plates or rigged-up appliances.

The chief told me that his firefighters are knocking on doors all over the city, and when they find these illegal units they make the landlords move the families out and into hotels immediately.

The alternative is that the landlord pays for a fire watch — at a cost of $1,500 a day — until the family is relocated. The firefighters also make sure that there are working smoke alarms in every home they visit. If there are none, they install them, and they replace any batteries that have expired or been removed.

Read the full column in the latest edition of NFPA Journal.

We want to hear from you! What do you think about fire departments going door-to-door to uncover illegal and unsafe living conditions? It's easy to respond: just click on the "comments" link below, enter your name (just your first name is fine) and your e-mail address (this will NOT show in your post), and type your comments in the white box. Then select "post".

-Fred Durso, Jr.

Comments

[Jeffrey Cossu]

the fire departments should start with the multi family market and make sure that the owners of the properties aleast get the annual inspections done instead of planting flowers. I have had property managers say to me that she saved money by not having her annual inspections done. I had to walk out of the office before I said somethng. I know that part of our job is to educate but year after year the multifamily market is not concerned until smething happens. If they are not fighting fires, door to door sounds effective.

[laura edinburgh]

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