A return to the NFPA
Posted on : Friday, 17 June 2022
The National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) annual
conference was held from 6 - 8 June, in Boston, celebrating its
125th anniversary.
This year, changes to US immigration rules meant that - for the
first time in three years - Australians could attend in person, so
FPA Australia CEO John Kilgour and National Manager, Technical and
Advocacy Leigh Gesthuizen booked some tickets and escaped the
Melbourne winter.
A variety of expert presenters spoke to many and varied topics,
ranging from lessons from the Arizona Lithium-ion storage fire to
regulatory restrictions to the use of hydrofluorocarbon agents to
public education on fire safety, even to the use of virtual reality
to communicate the benefits of residential sprinklers.
Over 5,000 people attended the sessions and the tradeshow,
making it the largest fire protection event on the planet, and the
breadth of innovations and technologies on display was
impressive.
As might be expected, many organisations take the opportunity of
such an event to tack their own meetings on the end, and John and
Leigh attended the International Fire Sprinkler Coalition Board
meeting on the 9th, where Leigh updated the Coalition on
the work of the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition Australia.
From FPA Australia's perspective, it was invaluable to attend
such an event on the heels of our own conference, and John and
Leigh have brought back lots of notes on what we can learn, and
what might be relevant for the industry and the
Association.
There might be a couple of future articles in the pipeline.