article thumbnail

Hot Work: More than Welding, Cutting, and Burning

National Fire Protection Association

Hot work continues to be one of the most significant industrial hazards facing the world. Alarming data Between 2017 and 2021, fire departments in the United States responded to an estimated average of 3,396 structure fires involving hot work each year, according to the latest data from NFPA. What is hot work?

article thumbnail

September is National Preparedness Month: Is Your Community Ready to Respond to a Severe Weather Event or Emergency?

National Fire Protection Association

Ready, a national public service campaign, has earmarked September as National Preparedness Month and urges those of us tasked with protecting people and property from fire, electrical, and related hazards, to work together, help educate, and empower the public to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate emergencies before they become tragedies.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Reflections on the Turkish-Syrian Earthquakes of 6th February 2023: Building Collapse and its Consequences

Emergency Planning

How much simpler to attribute it all to anonymous forces within the ground! It was notable that, in many buildings that pancaked in Turkey and Syria, the collapses left almost no voids at all, thanks to the complete fragmentation of the entire structure. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 15: 931-945. Ecemis, S.Z.

article thumbnail

The 2019 Global Assessment Report (GAR)

Emergency Planning

I have argued elsewhere (Alexander 2017) that the number of times the word 'should' is used in an official document is an inverse indicator of its utility. It could be argued that political decision making is the greatest barrier of all to successful disaster risk reduction. The GAR notes that "we all live in communities".

article thumbnail

An Electrical Inspector’s Role in Reducing Electric Shock Drowning

National Fire Protection Association

has been said that ESD is the catch-all phrase that encompasses all in-water shock casualties and fatalities. Requiring all luminaires and retrofit kits to be listed and identified for use in their intended environment. Coincidentally, this requirement matches main breaker settings in boats manufactured after July 31, 2017.

article thumbnail

A level of Safety – NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem

National Fire Protection Association

For those of you who are not familiar with the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem™, it is “a framework that identifies the components that must work together to minimize risk and help prevent loss, injuries and death from fire, electrical and other hazards.” Each component is depicted as a cog, each of which connect to form a circle.

article thumbnail

Managing Emergencies: The Challenges of the Future

Emergency Planning

What does all this mean for Britain? In some instances, notably the Manchester Arena bombing and the Grenfell Tower fire (both in 2017), the shortcomings have been nothing less than scandalous (Kerslake 2018, Moore-Bick 2019). Above all, this is a matter of local pride, not merely expediency.