How to Negotiate with Insurers on Fire Hazards
An insurance company’s success is partially due to their ability to reduce its exposure to risk. Fire hazards are one of the risks that a building owner would want insured. To provide a building owner with insurance in cases of…
Fire Protection Engineering Standards for Welding and Hot Work Hazards
Hot appliances and open flames are a proven source of danger for maintenance and repair crews. Between 1990 and 2010, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) identified over 60 fatalities resulting from…
Structure Fire Hazard in the Home: Children Playing with Fire
“Little rascal” isn’t quite accurate. Most people do not realize that children can pose a significant fire hazard in the home. According to a report by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an average of 56,300 fires…
Fire Hazards in Nightclubs: What Architects Can Learn from Brazil and Rhode Island
Earlier this year, a nightclub in Brazil caught fire and caused over 240 fatalities. Most of the victims were college students who had come for a Federal University of Santa Maria event. The party featured a band and…
Texas Community Devastated by Fertilizer Plant Explosion
Harrington Group is sending our thoughts and prayers out to the small town of West, Texas today in the midst of a devastating tragedy. Last night, a fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploded. Initial estimates say that between…
Think Personal Safety Before Firing up that Torch
Last month, a worker at a Wisconsin golf course was critically injured when a 55-gallon drum that he was working on exploded. Authorities say that a UPS driver found the 35-year old victim semi-conscious on the floor in a pool…
Decrypting Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Fire Protection Analysis
Earlier this year, Phil Friday worked with Thunderhead Engineering’s Bryan Klein to pioneer a new IT strategy for running FDS and Smoke View in the Cloud. Thunderhead Engineering developed PyroSim, a graphical user interface…
Commercial Fire Protection Engineering with PyroSim
When planning a unique structure, building designers may find their plans depart from certain building and fire code regulations. A small complication or oversight in code compliance can throw everything off schedule and…
Enhancing FDS Analysis
New computing architectures allow sophisticated, powerful fire modeling simulations that are crucial for the future of fire safety. However, the computing resources that are needed to use these tools has historically been…
What’s Going on at SUPDET 2013 this year?
The 17th annual Suppression, Detection, and Signaling Research and Applications (SUPDET) symposium has been happening all week in Orlando. This year’s program has been addressing the latest on topics including: Detection…
10th Anniversary of Station Nightclub Fire
February 20th, 2013 marks the 10-year anniversary of the tragic Station Nightclub fire that killed 100 people and injured 200. The fire is one of the most deadly nightclub fires in the history of the United States.…
Collaborating with Fire Protection Contractors via the iPad
When we inspect a new construction site for fire alarms and sprinklers, we are a tool in the fire protection contractor’s arsenal. Our comments help insure the fire alarm and sprinkler contractors produce a fire safe, code…
Using iPad’s Bluebeam App for Fire Protection Inspections
The iPad can be an incredibly useful tool for fire inspections and fire testing, but it requires some customization first. Through experimentation, collaboration, and experience with the iPad, we have unlocked more of the…
Touting the iPad for Fire Alarm and Fire Suppression Testing and Inspections – Part 2
We rolled out iPads to key staff-members in 2012, and Jim Tuten received one of them. Jim opted to use the mobile device for his on-premise fire alarm and fire suppression inspections. The mobile device saves time and…