We recently talked with Terry Flanagan, NIFAST’s Director of Education and Certification. With more than 32 years of experience in the fire protection and safety field, Flanagan boasts a lengthy list of credentials and certifications that are too numerous to mention in their entirety. Nevertheless, you should know that Flanagan is a graduate of the Air Force Technical Training Instructor Course; he served as a U.S. Air Force firefighter for more than 22 years; and throughout his career, he has hosted a large number of fire safety training sessions, classes and demonstrations. He is also responsible for the development of the first wartime firefighter training course.

Knowing all this, it’s not surprising to learn that Flanagan now spends a great deal of his time conducting fire safety training for businesses. We asked him what topics he’s most concerned about at this time. Here’s what he shared with us.

• Businesses need to conduct annual fire safety training, and all fire safety plans in the workplace must be OSHA compliant.

• Because over 50 percent of all fires occur in one- and two-family dwellings, families need to devise an escape plan—at least verbally. NIFAST’s Home Occupancy course teaches people how to prevent and survive a fire.

• Students who live in off-campus housing are more vulnerable to fire hazards. That’s why Terry strongly urges parents to enroll their college student in NIFAST’s college fire safety program. It is designed to educate students about fire prevention both on and off campus. Most college students are new to working in the kitchen, which increases their risk of being involved in a kitchen fire. At the same time, they lack basic fire awareness, including how to prevent fires, devise an escape plan, and make sure that smoke detectors are in good working condition.

Learn more about Terry Flanagan and NIFAST’s fire education classes at www.NIFAST.org.Similar Posts:

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This post was provided courtesy of our partner in a fire-safe campus environment, Live Safe.

Live Safe Foundation is an Ohio based non-profit organization (501c3), and leading grassroots movement, devoted to making and fire and life safety education, awareness initiatives and life saving tools available on a broad basis to communities, campuses, and institutions in an effort to reduce national fire fatalities and fire losses. Live Safe aims to help finance fire safety education where means are otherwise unavailable. Live Safe is developing and sponsoring programs to help groups find the resources needed to advance individual and community fire safety.

Every year college and university students experience a growing number of fire-related emergencies. There are several causes for these fires, however most are due to a general lack of knowledge about fire safety and prevention.

Very shortly, many college students will be on their way to college. Some will be living on campus or in off-campus housing.  So, here are some safety tips that students should be aware of.  All students should review these tips and parents, please share these tips with your child before he or she heads off to college this year.

The following are a few quick tips that parents and students need to consider:

• Have an escape plan. Learn where all the exits are to make a faster escape in a fire emergency. On campus, there should be a plan in place already. If you don’t know what it is, the Public Safety Office should be able to tell you. If this information is not readily available or you are living off campus, take a few minutes to walk around and do your own pre-plan.
• Know how to make a notification of a fire emergency . Find out where alarm pull boxes are and what number to call to report a fire.
• If the alarm sounds, leave immediately and close the door behind you. Remember to take your keys should you have to re-enter the room if your escape route is blocked with fire or smoke.
• Don’t hang anything from sprinkler heads. This could disable or block the flow of water, which is necessary to help contain or extinguish flames.
• Make sure there are working smoke detectors outside and inside your sleeping quarters. Test monthly. Never disable a smoke detector or the fire alarm. These are installed to give warning to you and your neighbors so you can quickly exit should smoke or fire be detected.
• Only use fire extinguisher for emergencies. They are there for you to use should you have to put out a small, contained fire. Don’t waste this equipment on a midnight water fight! For an extra level of safety, keep an ABC extinguisher in your room and learn how to use it. They are labeled with simple instructions.

Know How To Escape:

• If you have to escape through smoke, get low and get to the nearest exit. The cleanest air is close to the ground.
• Before opening a door, feel the door with the back of your hand. If it’s hot, don’t open it. Find a second way out.
• If you are trapped in your room, seal your door with towels, rags, or clothing so that smoke cannot enter from the hall.
• Get out and stay out. No textbook, homework assignment, laptop, cell phone or wallet is worth going back for. You were lucky to get out safely once. You might not be as lucky a second time.

Article provided by, Wendy Liu. Wendy is a mother, and also the Public Information Officer for the Sayville Fire Department who also enjoys spending time volunteering within the community.

Want more fire safety education for your student(s)?

NIFAST’s FLASHPOINT program is now available to train students across the country on how to live fire safe. The FLASHPOINT program can be purchased for single use by parents or by universities to teach students fire safe living both on and off campus.The FLASHPOINT program teaches students in-depth fire and burn safety through an easy-to-use, self-paced online presentation, coupled with feedback oriented testing and certification.

For more information on the NIFAST Flashpoint Program, visit NIFAST.org.Similar Posts:

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It’s a well-known fact that consumers aren’t always willing to pay for the safety they need, and that’s one of the roadblocks you may face as you attempt to promote your business. However, many home inspectors have been successful at asking their city council members to pass laws that require yearly property inspections. They want to make property owners accountable for the safety and upkeep of their rental units. This is especially the case in college towns where rental units are more prevalent, but it really applies to any community.

Inspectors who have been successful at pursuing this avenue are reaping the financial rewards. They send the message to their council members that safety inspections are important and that they should be required annually. The end result is a win-win for everyone—better business for you and safer communities for people to live.

Make it happen. Contact your city council member today.

image: Los Angeles TimesSimilar Posts:

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Catholic University (Washington DC) to use the NIFAST Flashpoint Program

We would like to welcome The Catholic University of America in Washington DC to our Flashpoint programming. Under the direction of Mr. Tony Exline, the CUA has purchased our Flashpoint program for implementation in the Fall of 2010 for 1100 on-campus students, and over 1,000 off-campus students. NIFAST is excited to make these students fire safe for the new school year.

Picture yourself in the heart of the nation’s capital at a unique university filled with possibilities. The Catholic University of America is a great place to be if you’re seeking to engage in an active, rewarding and fun experience that complements your academic endeavors.

With more than 80 student organizations at Catholic University, it’s difficult to imagine not being able to find something exciting to do. At CUA, there’s a student organization for you. From student program board to the College Democrats and Republicans, there are many topics and areas of interest to choose from. However, if that’s not the involvement you’re looking for, there are also campus-produced musicals and performances, community service projects, and opportunities for individual leadership development. You can even become involved in helping plan and manage events on campus, or provide support for events behind the scenes.

If you still are longing for more, downtown Washington, D.C., is only a few short Metro stops away. And there are many university-sponsored events to get you into the life of the city.

Welcome CUA, and congratulations on adding fire safety to your list of university credentials for 2010.

Thank you,

Steve Smith – President of NIFAST

NIFAST is a national company comprised of certified fire safety professionals, founded and operated by fire safety industry leaders.

UPDATE: Schedule a demo of the NIFAST FLASHPOINT program. To learn more about the NIFAST FLASHPOINT program.Similar Posts:

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When the United States Fire Administration (USFA) recently revealed its topical fire report series on one- and two-family residential building fires, the statistics were alarming. For starters, an estimated 253,500 of these fires are reported each year, resulting in 2,150 deaths, 8,775 injuries and $5.3 billion in property loss. These fires don’t always make the headlines simply because they occur over a long period of time and throughout a widespread geographical area. But their overall devastation is enormous. In most years, the resulting loss of life surpasses that of U.S. natural disasters and terrorist actions combined.

The USFA report indicated that the number-one cause of fire is still cooking-related, and 91 percent of these are small, confined fires. Interestingly, 46 percent of the non-confined fires extend beyond the room of origin, with electrical malfunctions being the leading cause of these larger fires.

These statistics clearly identify the need for home fire safety inspections and family fire safety awareness. Fortunately, our listed NIFAST certified home fire safety inspectors are trained and ready to determine if your house is fire safe. As a family, you can also increase your fire safety profile by taking the NIFAST online residential course.

Terry Flanagan – NIFAST – Director of Education, Training and CertificationSimilar Posts:

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The Christine Wilson Foundation was established to remember Christine Wilson, for the warm and caring young lady that she was and to do something positive in her name. Christine died, along with 4 other students in the tragic fire at OSU on April 13, 2003. The Foundation funds two annual scholarships to a Columbus area Catholic high school (Bishop Watterson), along with other charitable hospital organizations.

The FINAL Christine Wilson 5KRun/Walk will be held this Saturday, July 31st at 10:00 am. The event will start by the Dublin soccer fields on Avery Road in Columbus. You can sign up online through the Christine Wilson Foundation or at Premier Races or the day of the race beginning at 8:15 am. Entry fee is $33 for adults, and $18 for children 18 and younger. Many age group awards will be given following the run and all participants will receive a special commemorative T shirt. While this is the final run, a Christmas season concert will continue to benefit the Child & Family Advocacy Center at Children’s Hospital.

NIFAST applauds the efforts of the Wilson family and members of the foundation who have worked tirelessly in Christine’s name.

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NIFAST will be represented as an exhibitor at the upcoming Campus Safety Health and Environmental Management Association conference on July 17-21^st in Baltimore, Maryland.  Our team plans to present and highlight the Flashpoint college test and course.

A little about CSHEMA…

The Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association, CSHEMA, provides information sharing opportunities, continuing education, and professional fellowship to people with environmental health and safety responsibilities in the education and research communities. CSHEMA leads by listening to its members, organizing their efforts, developing leadership that responds to the needs of the education and research communities, and striving for excellence in everything it does. 

Nifast decided to attend CSHEMA as an exhibitor this year due to the quality of presenters, and the opportunity to further illustrate the improvement and headway that Flashpoint is making in the market. Our team also hopes to enhance our technical skills and breadth of professional knowledge relevant to campus environments, health and safety, and emergency preparedness issues. Fire safety is at the forefront of these issues!

We are looking forward to sessions that will cover a wide range of topics, are highly interactive, and will provide us with valuable “take-home” materials that will further help to validate our programming.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page as we prepare and attend the conference.

Thank you,

Steve Smith – President of NIFAST

NIFAST is a national company comprised of certified fire safety professionals, founded and operated by fire safety industry leaders.Similar Posts:

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Establishing a prioritized schedule for fire inspections on your campus allows for the best use of resources. The following originally appeared in Planning 4 Education

 All campus fire safety professionals I talk with wish they had more time and more staff so they could get everything done they need to do or think they need to do. Fire safety inspections of campus buildings frequently come up in these discussions as something that fire prevention staff would like to do more efficiently. The discussion almost always involves looking at ways to get to look at every space on campus every year.

I ask the question,“Why do you want to go into every space every year?” Why not go into the most hazardous or most critical spaces on a yearly (or more frequent) basis, and go into spaces that, while needed, would not create a threat to mission continuity if they had a fire? In other words, do less in some spaces and more in others. In most cases, there is already a minimum amount of effort going into the idea of doing less in some spaces, but there was no formal thought process to defend doing less in some spaces and more in others.

Share the Responsibility

In order to reduce the frequency of inspections, health and safety staff and fire prevention staff should sit down with facilities staff and look at each other’s activities within each building. They should look to see if there are opportunities for cross-training staff on basic fire safety reviews. Could the basics be incorporated into the daily activities of other staff without increasing workload?

For example, could electricians look for improper use of extension cords while they are in office areas? Could custodial supervisors look at corridors and exit signs while they are in a building reviewing the work of custodians? Sharing these minor inspection tasks could free up fire inspectors to look at potentially higher hazard areas on campus.

Prioritizing Spaces

Assuming you can arrange to have others pick up basic life-safety inspections, fire prevention staff will need to understand where they will spend their time. One method to help prioritize where fire staff will spend their time requires ranking the relative hazard of each space on campus. To do this, consider using the International Code Council Existing Building Code tables in Chapter 9. There are hazard tables for egress and height and area that are based on the ICC Building Code Occupancy Classifications.

RELATIVE HAZARD OCCUPANCY CLASSIFICATION

1. Highest H Ex. Chemistry Labs

2. I-2, I-3, I-4 Ex. Healthcare

3. A,E,I-1,M, R-1,R-2,R-4 Ex. Large classrooms and residences

4. B, F-1,R-3,S-1 Ex. Offices, light fabrication

5. Lowest F-2,S-2,U Ex. Storage buildings

You must also look at your loss histories in each of the occupancy groups. If you don’t have accurate data for your campus, you can turn to the National Fire Protection Association data for fires by occupancy groups. What you are likely to find is that you are just like the surrounding community as far as fire losses by category. With this data, you can then decide where to focus your fire inspections.

Moving staff resources away from yearly inspections of storage buildings might be a good way to free up their time to focus on high-risk laboratory locations. While your staff may be able to review 10 storage buildings in one day, what is the value of that compared to not conducting one inspection in a lab? If all 10 buildings used for storage were to be lost in fires, would that place as many lives at risk compared to one laboratory fire?

Taking a look at residence halls is certainly a better use of time than looking at most office spaces on campus. Consider where you have had fires on campus. Most campuses would probably fit the trend that there are far more fires in housing than in offices. Offices are also relatively easy to replace, while housing and large classrooms are not. It is easier to double up staff in offices or rent trailers for offices after a fire than it is to find classrooms for 300 students. Focusing inspectors’ time on mission-critical classroom spaces is certainly more important than small office buildings.

Timing is Everything

Also consider timing of inspections in each occupancy. Students are more likely to start a fire or be killed in a fire during the months of August and April. These months mark the beginning and end of most college and university school years. If your campus has different start and end months adjust inspections to coincide with your dates. Shifting your staff to conduct inspections in residential buildings during these two months will reduce the risk of fires and injuries.

These inspections should focus on student living areas. Bedrooms, apartments, kitchens, and common spaces should be the focus of the inspections during August and April (or your school’s starting and ending months). Building systems such as fire alarms and sprinklers, HVAC systems, and other mechanical spaces can be inspected while students are gone during the summer or holidays. The months of December, June, and July are the least likely times for campus residences to have fires. There will be less disruption to students if these areas and systems are inspected during non-academic periods, and your inspection team should be able to inspect and correct faster than if notifications and postings of system testing are made when students are present.

Doing less in some spaces requires planning and effort up front. You must know where and why you are going to reduce frequencies of inspections. You must also decide how long you will push back the frequency. Placing high-risk locations on a six-month schedule and placing low-risk locations on an 18-month schedule may work. To find the balance, look at your staffing size and the amount of effort it takes to conduct fire safety inspections in each occupancy category. Only then will you be able to find a schedule that fits your campus.

Mike Halligan is the associate director of Environmental Health and Safety at the University of Utah and is responsible for Fire Prevention and Special Events Life safety. He frequently speaks about performance-based code solutions for campus building projects and is recognized as an expert on residence hall fire safety programs. He can be reached at 801/585-9327 or at mike.halligan@ehs.utah.edu.

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NIFAST wants to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July. Please leave the fireworks to the professionals.

According to the NFPA:

Please visit us on facebook for the most recent fire safety updates.

Image and facts provided by NFPA.orgSimilar Posts:

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After an inspection, here are a few great tips you can provide to your homeowners. 

To protect yourself from CO poisoning:

• Know the symptoms—Shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, light-headedness or headaches. High levels of CO can be fatal, causing death within minutes.

• Install a CO alarm on every level of your home in a central location and outside each sleeping area.

• Purchase an alarm that has the label of a recognized testing lab and mount according to manufacturer’s instructions.

• Test CO alarms at least once a month and replace accordingly.

• If the alarm sounds, open a window or door, move outside to fresh air and call emergency personnel.

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/CarbonMonoxideFactSheet.pdf

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