Fire Sprinklers Supplement: Firefighters & Fire Sprinklers—Partners in Progress
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Thanks to organizations like UL and NIST, we are better grasping how the modern fire environment is changing. The modern contents in homes, apartments, high-rises and high-risk occupancies has changed enough that fire sprinklers are essential to increase escape times for occupants and buy time to allow the fire department to make a rescue. Fortunately, fire protection systems continue to evolve, and as codes and standards improve, so does the fire protection systems in the building.
The NFSA is committed to assisting and supporting our members—and, yes, that includes members of the fire service—in improving fire and life safety at the local, state and national level. With your involvement, we can improve fire and life safety in a proactive, not reactive, manner.
Let us work together to prevent another One Meridian Plaza, where 10 fire sprinklers and more than 300 firefighters finally stopped a tragedy from being worse. Let us work together to ensure that we don’t have another Station Nightclub fire, where 100 people died and more than 200 were injured. Let’s get active to ensure that new one- and two-family dwellings and manufactured homes have fire sprinklers, smoke alarms and adequate fire department resources responding.
Where do we start? With advocacy and action.
With this in mind, in the following pages, we’ll review how you can make a difference by working with advocates to share important stories, by being actively involved in the codes and standards development process, and by joining the organizations that are working every day to make a difference in this important fight.
— Shane Ray, President, National Fire Sprinkler Association
Shane Ray
SHANE RAY has been a volunteer firefighter since 1984 and a career firefighter since 1994. He has also served as a mayor for six years and the Tennessee Fire Chief’s Legislative Chairman for 12 years. Ray’s love for politics started as fire chief of the Pleasant View Volunteer Fire Department in Tennessee, where he served 13 years. He then served under Governor Nikki Haley in South Carolina as superintendent and state fire marshal. He currently serves as the president of the National Fire Sprinkler Association and is a lifetime member of the Pleasant View Volunteer Fire Department. Throughout his career, he has been committed to public service with a “Do It Different” mentality and that all stakeholders are important.
