Every day, members of the fire service are called upon to protect civilians. They carry with them valuable training, lessons learned from a profession steeped in history, and specialized, life-saving tools. Highlights from the 130 education sessions being presented at NFPA's 2009 Conference & Expo this June in Chicago offer a glimpse into topical issues facing the fire service today; historically, what topical issues were in their day; and how they sometimes go hand in hand.
Chicago as we know it today is a city whose rebirth was rooted in fire. Guides of the popular architectural boat tour in Chicago often point to the city's skyline and explain how much of the layout that exists literally rose from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This fire, which ranks third on NFPA's list of largest fire losses in U.S. history, may have been the first fire that Chicago was known for, but was not the last. Over the years there were several other noteworthy blazes that followed; the conference session "How the Great Chicago Fires Impacted Code Development" will provide a historical review of several significant Chicago fires and how they influenced code development. The discussion will include the Iroquois Theater fire of 1910, which killed 602 and is the deadliest public assembly fire in U.S. history.
Thousands of fire safety officials and professionals will be drawn to McCormick Place for this year's NFPA Conference, many of whom will be familiar with the venue for another reason - the lessons learned from the total loss fire that destroyed the original facility in 1967. According to the May 1967 issue of NFPA Journal, "the $400,000,000 structure was thought by many to be absolutely fireproof. No building is 'fireproof.'" Members of the fire protection community will have an acute appreciation for the contributions this incident has made to fire protection today. Attendees of the session "McCormick Place Fire Protection - Then and Now" will be invited to tour the current fire protection in the facility after hearing about the investigation of the 1967 fire, including its impact on loss prevention code changes.
September 11, 2001 is a day U.S. history that will never be forgotten and will always have special meaning, especially to those associated with the fire service. In the featured presentation of the conference, Dr. Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Report on the collapse of World Trade Center Tower 7, will provide details from the three-year fire safety investigation. The session will touch on the current state of high-rise safety and the risks associated with it in a post 9/11 world. This topic is yet another that provides examples of how we use real-life scenarios to learn from the past and prepare for the future.
In addition to being known as the site of several historical fires, the Chicago area also boasts more than its share of organizations playing a role in the future of fire protection. Two pre-conference behind-the-scenes tours at this year's event will highlight progressive work being done at cutting-edge facilities, Underwriters Laboratories' and the Department of Energy Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
At Underwriters Laboratories' state-of-the-art fire safety engineering testing laboratory, tour participants will be at the largest facility of its kind in the world to witness a large-scale fire test involving a sprinkler system and warehouse rack configuration. This experience will offer an up-close look at how things like building materials and fire alarm and sprinkler systems are tested and certified to applicable safety standards.
A tour of the Department of Energy Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will feature the work done by engineers responsible for designing fire protection systems for some of the most unique scientific facilities in the world. Some of their projects include facilities that deal with particle beam experiments and underground accelerators. Detector buildings and the main control room will be viewed as well as the remote operations center for the Large Hadron Collider (particle accelerator) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
This quick overview of a handful of the 130 sessions being offered at NFPA's 2009 conference provides an interesting snapshot of the wide range of issues that have the potential to impact the work of fire service each day. It also serves as a reminder of how incidents occurring today will be the historical points of reference that will guide fire protection in the future.
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CHRISTIAN DUBAY, P.E. is Vice President and Chief Engineer at NFPA and oversees the Codes and Standards Technical Operations of the Association. He is responsible for the overall administration of NFPA's codes and standards, which develops the 300-plus fire safety codes and standards that comprise the National Fire Codes and serves as chief technical spokesperson for the Association. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
