Fire Sprinkler Design and Building Code: What You Need to Know
The most effective fire prevention technique is the one…
Sprinkler Systems – An Introduction to Fire Safety’s Most Effective Ally
If you hold a cigarette lighter underneath a sprinkler, every sprinkler in the building will suddenly activate and spew water, right? Wrong. The heat from the lighter will cause only one sprinkler to operate, the one that feels…
Combustible Dust Explosion at China Factory Kills 75
On August 2nd, reportedly, 75 people were killed and nearly 200 others injured in a combustible dust explosion at a General Motors automotive parts supply factory in eastern China. Preliminary investigations cite that metal…
Forklift Fire Safety & Accident Prevention – Part 1
By Jack Rubinger, Graphic Products From time to time, we like to share perspectives from members in our connected communities. We’d like to thank Jack Rubinger, an expert in industrial safety, for providing this two-part guest…
Fire Safety Design Considerations of Road Tunnels
We recently published a guest post about emergency evacuations from our colleagues at Graphic Packaging that mentioned the Mont Blanc tragic tunnel fire. Shortly after we published the blog, I had the opportunity to attend an…
What’s Next? Aftermath of Combustible Dust Explosion at Burns Lake Mill
Since the two British Columbia sawmill explosions in early 2012, attention to the problem of combustible dust has skyrocketed. It’s tragically too late for the four workers killed and more than 40 injured in these blasts, but…
Combustible Dust Explosion at Babine Forest Products: Exploring the Root Causes
When combustible dust ignited to cause a deadly explosion at the Babine Forest Products mill, a housekeeping issue quickly became a matter of life and death. Two workers were killed and 20 were injured that day in January 2012,…
Burns Lake Mill Combustible Dust Explosion: What Happened?
Combustible dust explosion risk is one of the most challenging issues fire safety professionals face today. On January 20, 2012 in Burns Lake, British Columbia, we were reminded why. Shortly after 8pm, there was a combustible…
Possible Combustible Dust Explosion Leaves Many Questions Unanswered
An investigation is still open, leaving many questions unanswered, in a manufacturing plant explosion and facility collapse that killed two people and injured 10 others. The incident occurred on January 20, 2014 at the…
May is Building Safety Month!
May is Building Safety Month! Founded by the International Code Council in 1980, Building Safety Month is a public awareness campaign that reinforces the need for adoption of modern, model building codes, a strong and efficient…
NFPA 56: Chemical Industry will Benefit from Communication and Education
From time to time, we like to share perspectives of members in our connected communities. We’d like to thank both Jack Rubinger and John Puskar, two experts in industrial safety, for providing today’s guest post: The NFPA…
Inside the Eglin Air Force Base Foam Accident
By Jeff Harrington, CEO and Founder of Harrington Group, Inc. High expansion foam (HEF) is used as an efficient and highly effective fire suppression technique, particularly within locations that pose a high risk for fuel…
Ready for Anything: Mitigating Risk in Green Buildings
With the trend toward sustainability practices in construction, safety has become a lot more complicated. There are countless factors involved, and a successful project is one that strikes the right balance while mitigating…
The Human Element: Keeping Firefighters Safe in Green Structures
So far in this series, we’ve discussed the specific risks green building elements pose in terms of igniting or facilitating a fire. And while sprinkler systems, insulation, and thermal barriers are all vital parts of the…
Lights, Camera, Activate! The Truth about How Most Sprinklers Activate
So many movies and TV shows are guilty of highlighting myths that pertain to fire protection systems. I saw one of the most common myths when I recently watched the movie “White House Down” with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx.…