I recently came back from the first meeting of the development team for the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC) (they need a new, shorter name...). The International Code Council is developing the first-ever national model code for green building. For those of you that might not be familiar with the green building environment, let me fill you in and then talk briefly about how it relates to fire safety.
Right now, there are no national green building codes. There is the LEED system which is a rating system, not a building code. What is the difference? A building code is something that is mandatory and can be adopted by a community and enforced. The LEED rating system is a voluntary system that a building owner can use to determine how "green" his or her building is. It is a marketing tool and the owner has the choice of doing it or not.
So, how does a green building code relate to fire safety?
- Sprinklers put out a fire quickly, reducing the emission of toxic gasses and significantly reducing the amount of water needed to put out a fire (think sprinkler head discharge versus two hand lines)
- Fire retardants in furnishings are believed to emit carcinogens. Are we solving one problem (fires) but creating a much larger one (cancer)? More states are banning the use of carcinogenic fire retardants (Maine and Washington) and companies are also eliminating them (Dell, HP, Ikea)
- Testing fire pumps on a regular basis uses electricity or diesel and emits pollutants into the atmosphere. It is obviously necessary to test them but we need to be doing it in an environmentally friendly way. That is why it is important to be a part of this process.
- Fires contribute to the carbon footprint, fire engines contribute to the carbon footprint, fire stations contribute to the carbon footprint. We need to work on reducing the carbon footprint.
I have developed a matrix looking at the correlation between the new to-be-developed green construction code and fire safety issues. This is being done as a wiki and will allow for people to contribute to it collaboratively with their thoughts and ideas...so please do! This matrix and a bunch of other information can be accessed through a new web site called www.green-fire.org.
Ed Comeau
Ed Comeau is the owner of writer-tech.com, a technical writing firm that publishes Campus Firewatch, a monthly electronic newsletter that focuses on issues relating to campus fire safety. He is the founder and past-director of the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a non-profit education and advocacy organization focusing on the complex issues of campus fire safety. Mr. Comeau has been instrumental in developing educational material targeting students as well as raising national awareness of the importance of fire safety among parents, administrators, legislators and students. His writing has appeared in a number of international publications and he is the author of the campus fire safety chapter in the current edition of the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook.
Before forming writer-tech.com, Mr. Comeau was the chief fire investigator for the National Fire Protection Association's Fire Investigations department. He was responsible for the management of the department and conducted investigations of a number of major incidents, including: the Oklahoma City bombing; the Treasury Building fire in Washington, D.C.; the Rockefeller Center fire in New York City; the Kobe, Japan earthquake; the airport terminal fire in Dusseldorf, Germany; the English Channel Tunnel fire; and the Gothenburg, Sweden disco fire.
Before joining NFPA, Mr. Comeau was a fire protection engineer for the Phoenix Fire Department. While in this capacity he was responsible for organizing the department's Urban Search and Rescue program and developed training material for the department's technical rescue program in the areas of structural collapse, trench rescue and confined space operations. Prior to joining the Phoenix Fire Department he was a call fire fighter for the Amherst, MA, Fire Department.
Mr. Comeau holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
He hosts the Campus Firewatch Radio and Fire Marshal's Corner podcasts on Firehouse.com.
