12/29/20

By Leslie Josephs
CNBC

MIAMI -- The first U.S. commercial flight of Boeing's 737 Max since two deadly crashes prompted a worldwide grounding of the planes in March 2019 took off on December 29th.

American Airlines Flight 718 took off from Miami International Airport at about 10:40 a.m. for New York's LaGuardia Airport, where it landed at 1:08 p.m., slightly ahead of schedule.

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12/16/20

By Randall Chase, AP Business Writer
Greenwich Time

DOVER, Del. -- Delaware's Supreme Court has upheld a judge's dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that the DuPont Co. massively downplayed the cost of environmental liabilities imposed on spinoff company Chemours.

The court issued a one-page ruling affirming the March decision of a Chancery Court judge who said he had no jurisdiction to hear the case because the dispute was subject to mandatory arbitration.

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12/17/20

By Judy Greenwald
Business Insurance

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's ruling in favor of a Markel Corp. unit, stating restaurant owners were not entitled to coverage for a fire at their Seattle restaurant because of false statements they had made in their policy application.

The policy included a "Concealment, Misrepresentation or Fraud" condition that voided coverage in any case of fraud relating to coverage, the covered property, interest in the covered property or a claim, according to the ruling. Following a fire at the restaurant, United Special denied coverage based on this condition in the policy.

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Provided by KGAN Cedar Rapids

12/14/20

By Marissa Schwartz
Microsoft News

Crews are investigated a fire at a Collins Aerospace building in Cedar Rapids.

According to the city of Cedar Rapids, there was a minor fire at the building and it was contained to the heating/cooling unit. That area filled with smoke and the fire was extinguished quickly.

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Workers were evacuated from the bulk handling facility (Credit: Geraldton Guardian)

12/14/20

By Liam Beatty, Geraldton Guardian
The West Australian

Workers at a CBH Group bulk handling facility in Geraldton were evacuated following a false alarm at the port building.

"A port user was undertaking a clean up job around a fire suppression system," the spokesperson said. "The dust created as a result of this clean up triggered a fire alarm, which triggered the suppression system."

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An explosion at the Optima Chemicals Company in Belle rocked the Upper Kanawha Valley, killing one man and injuring four others. Lora Roupe Foster, a resident of Hansford, captured this image from her home on the other side of the river near Montgomery. (Courtesy photo/Lora Roupe Foster)

12/17/20

By Steve Keenan
The Montgomery Herald

An explosion and fire at Optima Belle, a tenant of the Chemours chemical plant in Belle in Kanawha County, left one person dead and others injured. Debris from the explosion flew across the river onto the interstate, local residents reported houses shaking as far away as Cedar Grove and the noise from the explosion was heard up and down the Kanawha River Valley.

A shelter-in-place order was issued by Kanawha County Emergency Management for those within a 2-mile radius of the plant, and the order was eventually lifted at about 2:30 a.m., once the fire was extinguished and there appeared to be no further danger. Roads in the vicinity which had been closed were reopened.

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12/22/20

By Associated Press
The Virginian-Pilot

CHESTERFIELD -- Firefighters at a Virginia fire station apparently forgot one of their universal rules when they rushed to respond to a medical emergency.

A crew from the Courthouse Road Fire Station in Chesterfield County dashed off, forgetting that there was food cooking on the stove, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

An automatic fire suppression system extinguished the fire before it spread, and a chemical agent doused the flames on top of the stove, and a water sprinkler head activated just outside the area of the stove, Deputy Fire Marshal Joe Harvey said.

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Water pours out of foam generators as part of a fire suppression system test in the newly renovated fuel cell hangar at Duke Field, Florida, Dec. 2, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Dylan Gentile)

12/9/20

By Nicole King, 919th Special Operations Wing
Dobbins Air Reserve Base

DUKE FIELD, Fla. -- The 919th Special Operations Wing and 492 SOW will soon have a newly renovated fuel cell hangar ready for use. Civil engineers and contractors performed a fire suppression test last week marking one of the final steps for project completion.

The new fire suppression system uses high expansion foam that is fluorine and surfactant free with a higher ratio of air to water in the finished product making it more environmentally friendly than low expansion foam. This new system replaced the low expansion foam system that was previously in place.

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Boeing 777 burned out after 16 hours at Dubai airport, 3 August 2016 Credit: YouTube/TheFlightChannel - no copyright infringement is intended

12/18/20

By Mike Willson, Fire Protection Consultant
International Airport Review

How well are we being protected when we travel? Are we facing a false 'sense of security' from approval standards which may not seem focused on addressing worst-case scenarios? Could a post-COVID-19 world encourage more transparency, with approval modifications to improve fire safety, by addressing these issues?

Fear of continuing PFAS contamination seems unjustified

Regulatory pressures and fear of historic Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) contamination principally derived from legacy long-chain C8 foams discharged during repeated extensive firefighter training at specific locations, seem to be driving a change. Even though firefighter training is now generally tightly controlled, it often uses Fluorine Free Foams (F3s) with all discharges normally regulated to be contained, collected, treated and disposed of safely.

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12/23/20

Consulting-Specifying Engineer

Safety, budget and flexibility are key factors when designing laboratory and research space

How has the cost and complexity of fire protection systems involved with laboratory and research facility projects changed over the years? How did these changes impact the overall design process?

Adam Fry: When it comes to life safety systems that include fire protection/suppression and detector systems, I would hope costs wouldn't override protecting lives. Different types of systems are available for use in all building types regardless of the complexity or type of building but protecting lives is most important when deciding on the type of system that should be provided to protect people, equipment and buildings.

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