BFPE at 50 Years; An Interview with Pam Boyer |
Judge Denies Appeal; Trial Against Premium Fire Protection Owner to Proceed
Report: Carrier Set to Sell Chubb Fire and Safety for $2B
Lawyers for Town of Peshtigo Call Tyco $17.5M Offer “Fair”
Generator Fire Causes Data Center Outage (Utah)
Engine Room Fire Diverts Ship – Suppression System Douse
Huge Industrial Fire Breaks Out at Hand Sanitizer Factory
Engine Fire Causes Boeing 737 to Make Emergency Landing
Chemours Set to Reduce HFC Emissions
Collins Aerospace to Expand Decorah Plant for Aviation Detection and Suppression
What Happens When an Aircraft Engine Fails
New FAA Directive: All US Boeing 787s Need to be Checked
4 Hrs. 30,000 Gallons of Water. Tesla Continues to Burn
Most Popular Stories from March 2021
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Pye Barker Acquires United Fire Protection (Florida)
Pye Barker Acquires Gerry’s Fire and Safety (St. Paul, MN)
Pye Barker Expands in Dallas
Key Capital Partners Acquires Minority Stake in Total Integrated Solutions (UK)
Perimeter Solutions Acquires Phos-Chek (Australia)
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Taking Stock of the Effect the OVHCloud Fire Could Have on Data Centers
Data Center Fire Leads to Questions of Vulnerability
Reducing Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Waste Facilities
“Very Rapid” Removal of Gases Vital to Explosion Prevention in Li-Ion Fires
Fire Protection of Dry Dock Storage Facilities
NIST Tool to Help Military Test Halon Alternatives
NIST: Simulating Hidden Fires in Commercial Aviation
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Constant Contact has recently changed their platform to no longer allow the headlines in the left sidebar to be linked to the actual stories. So we apologize but you can no longer click on a story headline in the sidebar to jump right to that story. |
1. What is your role at your company?
President and CEO
2. Tell us about your family.
I have one daughter, Shelley, and one granddaughter, Pamela, and cherished extended family. My granddaughter will be 18 in July and she is my heart.
3. What was your dream job growing up?
I originally wanted to be an elementary school teacher, which was my major in college. However, at the time, I worked for U.S. Steel and I could not afford to teach as the pay was much less and I was on my own.
4. What was your first job?
I worked after school and on the weekend at a record store. Back then, people came in to listen to records in soundproof booths before they purchased them. During that time, I met current popular recording stars who came into the record store to promote their records. It was fun and exciting for a teenager.
5. How did you get into the fire protection industry?
Please describe your first job within the industry.
Jim Boyer founded BFPE in 1970. I met Jim and we married in 1972. After my daughter Shelley was in school, I started to work for BFPE. My first job at BFPE was the service manager for the pre-engineered service department. To understand what my job entailed, I rode on service trucks for hands on training and Jim taught me everything else I needed to know.
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Judge Denies Appeal; Trial Against Premium Fire Protection Owner to Proceed |
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Front entrance to the Calgary Courts Center. (Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia) |
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3/29/21
By Kevin Martin
Calgary Herald
Two dozen safety code charges against the owner of an Okotoks-based fire protection company can proceed, a Calgary judge has ruled.
In a written decision posted online, provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham declined to quash the 24 Safety Codes Act charges Kurt Bertrand faces.
Lawyer Brent Cooper had argued the allegations of breaches of the Alberta Fire Code didn’t amount to offenses that exist in law.
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Report: Carrier Set to Sell Chubb Fire and Safety for $2B |
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3/29/21
By Ben Harrington, Daily Mail, London
Security Infowatch.com
Company's former parent, UTC, tried to sell it two years ago but failed to receive high enough bid offers
One of Britain's oldest lock makers could be about to change hands for more than £2 billion. City sources said Chubb Fire & Safety was being prepared for sale by its US owner Carrier Global Corporation.
Financiers from Bank of America are said to be working with Carrier, whose market capitalization stands at $35 billion (£25 billion), on a possible sale of Chubb.
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Lawyers for Town of Peshtigo Call Tyco $17.5M Offer “Fair” |
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3/26/21
By John Liesveld, Staff Writer
EagleHerald
MARINETTE -- Class council lawyers, representing the Town of Peshtigo (TOP) residents involved in a PFAS contamination lawsuit that recently reached a $17.5 million settlement, characterized the agreement as a fair and reconciliatory consignment by Tyco Fire Products LP.
Tyco represents only one of the defendants. ChemDesign Products, Inc. and ChemGuard Inc. were also named as defendants in the suit. All three companies operate facilities in Marinette.
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Generator Fire Causes Data Center Outage (Utah) |
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The exterior of the WebNX data center in Ogden, Utah. (Image: Google Maps) |
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4/7/21
By Rich Miller
Data Center Frontier
An emergency generator caught fire at a data center in Ogden, Utah over the Easter weekend, causing the full shutdown of the data center and lengthy outages for customers. The incident at a WebNX facility comes a month after a more serious fire that destroyed an entire OVH data center in Strasbourg, France.
Dedicated server hosting firm WebNX says a backup generator experienced a “catastrophic failure” and fire officials opted to cut power to the entire building. The company says a small number of servers may have suffered water damage as emergency crews battled the generator fire.
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Engine Room Fire Diverts Ship – Suppression System Douse |
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MPV Everest in the Antarctic on one of its supply missions (AAD photo) |
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4/7/21
The Maritime Executive
A vessel chartered by the Australian Antarctic Division to run crewing and supply missions to bases in the Antarctic is diverting to the closest port after a fire disabled one of the vessel’s engine rooms while it was sailing deep in the Southern Ocean. The crew and Antarctic personnel aboard are all reported to be safe and the vessel is making headway at reduced speed to “avoid some challenging Southern Ocean weather.”
Australian Antarctic Division General Manager of Operations and Safety, Charlton Clark, said the captain of MPV Everest, a 476-foot-long multipurpose offshore construction vessel, has decided to head for the closest port.
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Huge Industrial Fire Breaks Out at Hand Sanitizer Factory |
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A blaze at an industrial site in Logan south of Brisbane (Daily Mail Australia) |
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3/18/21
By Kylie Stevens
Daily Mail Australia
Firefighters in Queensland and New South Wales battled two deadly industrial fires burning perilously close to homes.
Officials feared the fires burning near Liverpool in Sydney's south-west and Logan in Brisbane's south could cause dangerous explosions with stashes of chemicals at both sites.
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Engine Fire Causes Boeing 737 to Make Emergency Landing |
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The Boeing 737-300 from Nauru after safe landing in Brisbane (Instagram picture by Darren Pepe Les) |
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3/20/21
By André Orban
Aviation24.be
A Nauru Airlines Boeing 737-300 with 48 people on board has made an emergency landing after flames appeared to shoot from its engine during descent to Brisbane.
Bright flashes lit up the night sky and concerned residents below.
The aircraft registered VH-PNI was operating flight ON1 from Nauru to Brisbane when an engine stalled and choked.
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Chemours Set to Reduce HFC Emissions |
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3/13/21
By John S. Forrester
Powder & Bulk Solids
Chemicals firm Chemours announced plans for an improvement project at its Louisville, KY production facility that will lower process emissions of HFC-23. Custom designed and built proprietary technology will be installed capable of capturing at least 99% of the hydrofluorocarbon at the site.
While HFC-23 is used commercially in ultra-low temperature refrigerants for vaccines, medical use, and the semiconductor industry, it is also a greenhouse gas that can contribute to global warming.
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Collins Aerospace to Expand Decorah Plant for Aviation Detection and Suppression |
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3/9/21
Decorahnews.com
Collins Aerospace will be expanding its Decorah plant with a 6,500 square foot addition. Construction is expected to begin in the spring and likely continue through the end of the year.
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What Happens When an Aircraft Engine Fails |
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The engine of United Airlines Flight 328 is on fire after after experiencing a "right-engine failure" shortly after takeoff from Denver International Airport on February 20. (Photo: Chad Schnell/AP) |
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3/1/21
By Michael Gebicki
Traveller
Over the weekend of 20-21 February, video on social media appeared showing a United Airlines Boeing 777 with an engine on fire and vibrating from side to side. Passengers on the starboard side got an instructional view of the innards of a jet engine as bits of the shattered turbofan fell away, raining down on Broomfield, Colorado, landing in the yards of surprised homeowners and narrowly missing the half-dozen teams at soccer practice on the city's Commons Park.
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New FAA Directive: All US Boeing 787s Need to be Checked |
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The FAA is extending an earlier airworthiness directive to now cover all US-registered 787 Dreamliners. (Photo: Boeing) |
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4/19/21
By Andrew Curran
Simple Flying
Boeing’s 787 program has received another setback with news the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new airworthiness directive. To take effect in early May, the directive applies to all Boeing 787s registered in the United States. The directive deals with the threat of decompression panels disengaging on the aircraft type.
According to a FlightGlobal report, this airworthiness directive supplements a related directive issued in March. The FAA acted in response to reports of some decompression panels tearing in the 787’s bilge area.
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4 Hrs. 30,000 Gallons of Water. Tesla Continues to Burn |
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Car batteries burn differently to petrol. (Getty) |
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4/19/21
By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff
Forbes
Two men were killed in Texas after a Tesla car with reportedly nobody driving crashed and triggered a battery fire authorities said repeatedly reignited after being put out, with the incident underscoring the need for better guidance on responding to relatively novel and rare car battery fires.
Harris County Constable Mark Herman said it took firefighters four hours and more than 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish a battery fire in a 2019 Tesla Model S, something he said responders would normally have controlled in a matter of “minutes” while crews had to call Tesla for advice.
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Pye Barker Acquires United Fire Protection (Florida) |
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L-R: PBFS VP of Business Development Chuck Reimel, United Fire founders Blake More, Chad Norris, and Rick Scott, and PBFS Regional Director Chris Jensen |
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3/12/21
By Pye-Barker Fire & Safety
Cision PR Newswire
ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Pye-Barker Fire & Safety is proud to announce the acquisition of United Fire Protection, headquartered in Tampa, FL. The purchase was finalized in March and furthers the dominant presence Pye-Barker Fire has established in the state over the past few years. Financial details have not been disclosed.
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Pye Barker Acquires Gerry’s Fire and Safety (St. Paul, MN) |
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L-R: PBFS VP of Business Development Chuck Reimel, owner Gerry Rohr, and PBFS Regional Director Chris Jensen, formerly VP of Nardini Fire |
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4/6/21
By Pye-Barker Fire & Safety
Cision PR Newswire
ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Pye-Barker Fire & Safety is proud to announce the acquisition of Gerry's Fire & Safety, Inc., located in south Saint Paul, Minnesota. The purchase was finalized at the end of March and follows Pye-Barker Fire's recent entrance into the area with the addition of Nardini Fire Equipment. Financial details have not been disclosed.
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Pye Barker Expands in Dallas |
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(PRNewsfoto/Pye-Barker Fire & Safety) |
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3/26/21
By Pye-Barker Fire & Safety
Cision PR Newswire
ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Pye-Barker Fire & Safety is proud to announce the acquisition of LPS, a full service life safety company based in Dallas, TX. The purchase was finalized in March and solidifies Pye-Barker Fire's presence in the state's largest metropolitan. Financial details have not been disclosed.
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Key Capital Partners Acquires Minority Stake in Total Integrated Solutions (UK) |
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4/7/21
By Adam Beech Digital, Staff Writer
Insider Media Limited
A Mansfield-headquartered fire safety and security services provider has secured investment from private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP).
Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) installs, maintains and services systems, with credentials across a range of sectors including retirement villages, open space CCTV and smart city installations, the Ministry of Defence and further education.
The deal involves KCP acquiring a significant minority stake in the business which employs 140 staff across five sites.
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Perimeter Solutions Acquires Phos-Chek (Australia) |
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4/1/21
By PR Newswire
The Joplin Globe
A Mansfield-headquartered fire safety and security services provider has secured investment from private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP).
Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) installs, maintains and services systems, with credentials across a range of sectors including retirement villages, open space CCTV and smart city installations, the Ministry of Defence and further education.
The deal involves KCP acquiring a significant minority stake in the business which employs 140 staff across five sites.
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Taking Stock of the Effect the OVHCloud Fire Could Have on Data Centers |
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4/8/21
By Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK
ComputerWeekly.com
One month on from the OVHCloud datacentre fire, it is time to assess the lasting impact the event might have on the way server farm operators run their facilities, and cloud users approach disaster recovery
The OVHCloud data center campus fire in Strasbourg, France, sent shockwaves through the hyperscale cloud community when it happened in early March 2021, but the industry-wide after-effects of the event could be transformational. In terms of addressing shortcomings in enterprise attitudes towards cloud backups and disaster recovery, while also changing the way that data center operators worldwide approach fire suppression.
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Data Center Fire Leads to Questions of Vulnerability |
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4/5/21
By Andy Lawrence
UptimeInstitute
The catastrophic fire that occurred at OVHcloud’s SBG2 data center in Strasbourg, France has led many operators to question their vulnerability to fires.
Fires at data centers are a constant concern, but are rare. In almost all cases of data center fire, the source is quickly located, the equipment isolated, and damage contained to a small area.
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Reducing Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Waste Facilities |
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4/1/21
By Stefanie Valentic
Waste 360
Sarah Edwards, Eunomia CEO, said to pardon the pun, but the waste and recycling industry has seen an "explosion of incidences in our waste management collection system and processing systems that are caused by lithium-ion batteries."
The impacts of a lithium-ion battery fire don't just impact the health and safety of workers. Recycling facilities inherit a business risk and cost associated with these incidents as well.
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“Very Rapid” Removal of Gases Vital to Explosion Prevention in Li-Ion Fires |
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Matthew Paiss, technical advisor, battery materials & systems at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory detailed the importance of "preventing an explosion in the first place" when it comes to battery energy storage fires. (Image: ESRG) |
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3/25/21
By Alice Grundy, Reporter, Solar Media
Energy Storage News
The challenges of explosion prevention – with flammable gases needing to be vented “very rapidly” – in the event of a battery fire have been highlighted at Energy Storage Summit USA.
Speaking at the event, hosted by our publisher Solar Media, Matthew Paiss, technical advisor, battery materials & systems at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), referenced the two most recent high-profile battery fires, with one at utility Arizona Public Services’s (APS) energy storage facility in 2019 and one at Ørsted’s 20MW project in Liverpool, England in 2020.
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Fire Protection of Dry Dock Storage Facilities |
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3/22/21
By Tracey Bellamy
Marina Dock Age
With the ever-increasing competitive nature of dry boat dock facilities, the industry seeks to attract customers and increase their storage capacity by building larger and more sophisticated storage facilities. This drive to larger and taller facilities is further driven by the increasing premium cost of property in areas adjacent to the water. It is now not unheard of to find facilities reaching heights up to 60 to 70 feet – and beyond – housing hundreds of recreational boats as large as 50 feet in length.
Additionally, modern facilities provide the desired protection for the boats and weathering, and in some cases, devastating events such as the winds and storm surges of a hurricane. While all of these items tend to form the primary basis for the customer’s decision-making in selecting their accommodations for their boat, there is an underlying expectation and obligation that the facility will always provide an appropriate level of protection for the storage boats against the ravages of a fire.
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NIST Tool to Help Military Test Halon Alternatives |
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The U.S. Army uses NIST’s PROFISSY computer program to help understand the performance and calculate the maximum charging pressure for this automatic fire extinguishing system, which protects the crew in an armored ground vehicle from explosive fires. (Credit: U.S. Army) |
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3/3/21
Mirage
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new, interactive spreadsheet that will help the U.S. military extinguish aircraft and vehicle fires using the latest environmentally friendly chemicals.
While it may sound old-school, the spreadsheet is actually an upgrade of a NIST computer program that has helped protect valuable military assets and lives for several decades, despite being based on the vintage operating system MS-DOS.
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NIST: Simulating Hidden Fires in Commercial Aviation |
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NIST researchers used the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to model the temperatures of smoke throughout the overhead compartment of an airliner. A 3D rendering of FDS’s output shows a slice of smoke rising from a gas burner placed at the front of the compartment, with colors indicating temperature from hot (red) to cold (blue). (NIST) |
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3/26/21
Homeland Security Today
Some of the most dangerous fires are the ones you don’t see coming. That goes not only for fires in buildings but for those kilometers off the ground, aboard commercial airliners. Many aircraft have systems to detect fires early on, but fires that spark in their attics, or overhead compartments — spaces with curved ceilings, filled with air ducts, electrical wiring and structural elements — could potentially sneak past them.
“Attic fires are less likely to occur than elsewhere in a plane, but they are hard to detect,” said Haiqing Guo, a contract fire research scientist at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “By the time you see it, it’s too late.”
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Most Popular Stories from March 2021 |
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