Smoke Control in High-Rise Buildings - FCIA - Firestop Contractors ...

ICC Chapters win Awards – At the ICC AnnualConference, ICC President Bill Dupler announced fiveChapter Merit Award Winners for 2012:• Colorado Association of Plumbing andMechanical Officials• Kansas City Metro Association of PermitTechnicians• Northwest Building Officials and CodeAdministrators of Illinois• Southern California Fire Prevention OfficersAssociation• Virginia Building and Code OfficialsAssociationFCIA Congratulates these ICC Chapters for theservice they provide promoting fire and life safety inbuildings through many avenues.New ICC Chapters – Six new ICC Chapters havebeen approved since the 2011 Annual Conference inPhoenix:• Illinois Mechanical Inspectors Association• Wisconsin Code Officials Alliance• Cayman Islands Codes Association• C.A.S.E.D.I. from Mexico (an InternationalChapter)• Louisiana Building Code Alliance, LLC• Region II that includes Chapters in the statesof Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon,Washington and Wyoming“Congratulations to all of you and welcome to theICC family of Chapters as the newest Chapters,” ICCPresident Dupler said. “We hope you will play an activerole in ICC and look forward to building a partnershipwith you in the future.”NIBS Symposium – Evaluating Risk & ImprovingBuilding Performance - Attend the Integrated ResilientDesign Symposium and learn how to evaluate buildingsagainst the threat of multiple hazards, using methodsthat quantify risk, resilience and performance to helpensure planning and operations are safe, secure, durable,efficient and sustainable. With the theme Evaluating Risk,Improving Performance, the Integrated Resilient DesignSymposium offers attendees a number of tools to assesspotential risks to buildings from blast, chemical, biologicaland radiological (CBR) threats and natural hazards, whileincorporating high-performance attributes into buildingdesign.Scheduled for Wednesday, January 9 from 8:00 am –11:45 am during Building Innovation 2013, seating forthe Integrated Resilient Design Symposium is extremelylimited. Find out more about this event. Register toattend, at www.nibs.org.Firestopping NAICS Code and Economic Census– The Economic Census is the U.S. Government’s officialfive-year measure of American business and the economy.It is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, and response isrequired by law.Forms go out to more than 4 million businesses,including large, medium and small companiesrepresenting all U.S. locations and industries.Respondents are asked to provide a range of operationaland performance data for their companies.As part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s mission tomeasure America’s economy, the next EconomicCensus will be conducted for the year ending December2012. We need YOU to respond that you are a ‘FirestopContractor using the code NAICS 238310. With thisdeclaration, it proves that firestopping is a trade.FCIA worked with the North American IndustryClassification Code groups in the USA, Canada andMexico to have this NAICS code created for FirestopContractors. Thanks to Bill Hoos and Bob Hasting fortheir diligence working with this group.Holes in Healthcare Facility Barriers, Really? –The Joint Commission’s (JC) George Mills has stated atthe American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE)Conventions the past two years, …• Top 10 2011 JC Violations –Penetrations andDoors• Top 2 JC Violations – Penetrationsand DoorsPenetrations of Fire Barriers arefound to fail, becoming violations in52% of the surveys conducted.Penetrations of Smoke Barriers arefound to fail, becoming violations in47% of the surveys conducted.The question being asked by George Mills of the JCis, “Holes in fire and smoke barrier walls are a problem,still?” Is the real problem after the specialty firestopcontractors leave the new or renovated areas? Is this amanagement problem? Are above ceiling permits neededto do work on building services in healthcare occupanciesto control the work around barriers?How can this be controlled by facility management?FCIA is working on this as a Fire Barrier Initiative. Lookfor solutions to unravel throughout 2013.Fire Department Accredited by IAS – Thevillage of Tinley Park, Ill., Fire Prevention Bureau isthe first local department in the nation to achieve FirePrevention and Life Safety Department Accreditationfrom the International Accreditation Service (IAS).A subsidiary of the International Code Council, IASprovides an independent assessment and verificationthe department operates at the highest legal, ethical andtechnical standards. Tinley Park is a south Chicago suburband one of the fastest growing suburbs in the area. Theaccreditation is based on the IAS Accreditation Criteriafor Fire Prevention Departments/Code EnforcementAgencies (AC426). The accreditation process included anIAS review of the bureau’spolicies and procedures, anonsite pre-evaluation in Apriland a full evaluation of thebureau onsite in July. Visitwww.iasonline.org for moreinfo about accredited buildingand fire departments, specialinspection agencies whoinspect construction workcovered in Chapter 17 of theInternational Building Code,Chapter 17.Joint Commission’sAnne GuglielmoIAS’ Board Chair John Barrios andPresident Chuck Ramani present FireDepartment Accreditation to TinleyPark’s Ken Dunn and Daniel Riordan’IAS Photo24 life safety digest /// Fall 2012