Initial Report of the Partnership for Safer Buildings
At the July 2002 annual meeting of the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM), the NASFM Catastrophic Fire Safety Task Force, chaired by New York State Fire Administrator James Burns, launched the Partnership for Safer Buildings (the Partnership) to review and make recommendations pertaining to the adequacy of the fire safety provisions of the new model building codes. NASFM was fortunate to attract experts from Factory Mutual Research, Underwriters Laboratories, the American
Chemistry Council, the California Fire Chiefs Association, the architect/developer community, our membership and the NASFM Science Advisory Committee to work on this initiative.
From the start, the Partnership planned to issue at least two reports. NASFM 's Board of Directors recently approved its first report, which outlines the most obvious weaknesses in the model building codes.
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Given our nation's heightened state of alert, we must do all that we can to ensure that our buildings are safe. The Partnership's work will not end with this report. It is now moving forward with a more systematic review of the model building codes, more site inspections and more contacts with groups that are interested in this issue. NASFM continues to support this work and, where necessary, will call for emergency amendments by the model building code organizations.
NASFM would like to thank James Burns, the members of the Catastrophic Fire Safety Task Force and the members of the Partnership for Safer Buildings for contributing their time and energy to this important effort.
