Finish the article here.

 

3/13/19

By Tia Johnson
Action News 2

TOWN OF PESHTIGO, Wis. -- It's been a year since we first told you about dozens of families in the Town of Peshtigo drinking bottled water because their wells tested positive for contamination.

A report showed that contaminates from a firefighting foam, manufactured nearby at Tyco Fire Protection Products were being found in people's drinking water.

Last week, Tyco announced it will pay the full cost for a municipal water system within contaminated areas in the Town of Peshtigo.

Click here to finish reading this article.

 

Sprinkler heads made by Viking Corporation. The company operates a manufacturing facility for fire suppression equipment in Hastings, Mich. (MLive file photo) (BPN)

2/22/19

By Garret Ellison
MLive Media Group

HASTINGS, MI -- Extremely high levels of toxic fluorochemical contamination has been discovered in groundwater at a fire suppression equipment manufacturing plant in Barry County.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says groundwater under the Viking Corporation facility in Hastings recently tested at 335,000 parts-per-trillion (ppt) for Total PFAS, in an area where the company tests products using chemical-based firefighting foam.

Read the full article here.

 

Tyco Fire Product operates a fire technology center in Marinette where chemicals used in firefighting foam have been found in groundwater. (Photo: Johnson Controls)

2/13/19

By Ellen Knickmeyer and John Flesher, Associated Press
Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency says it is moving forward with a response to a class of long-lasting chemical contaminants amid criticism from members of Congress and environmentalists that the agency has not moved aggressively enough to regulate them.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was expected to announce the plan during a briefing in Philadelphia.

Read the full article here.

 

3/15/19

Turkish Hvac News

A manufacturer based at the İzmir Institute of Technology (IYTE) has been produced the world's first boron extinguisher powder. The powder is considered to be also the first product in the solid cooling technology.

Boron, which has widespread use in different industries, can also be used to extinguish all types of fires, including very high temperatures and metal fires.

To continue reading, click here.

 

3/8/19

By Graham Orme, International director, BRE Ltd
IFSEC Global

The vast majority of fire protection products such as fire detection and suppression systems, construction materials and products, fire stopping and service installations are within the scope of the European Construction Products Regulation (CPR) No. 305/2011.

The CPR harmonises how the performance of construction products is assessed and marketed and provides the means for verifying the conformity of construction products to a series of European technical standards (hEN or EAD, i.e. harmonised European standards or European Assessment Document).

Click here to finish reading this story.

 

3/15/19

By Lynn Wilkins
Seneca Standard

The U.S. government said it is issuing new rules barring airlines from carrying potentially hazardous lithium-ion cells and batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft, and setting new requirements for transporting them on cargo planes.

The U.S. Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) unveiled the new rules after Congress last year ordered the agency to complete them by early 2019. The agency is adopting requirements that have been in force in other countries since 2016.

The rest of this story can be found here.

 

Read the full story here.

 

2/6/19

By MDM Publishing LTD
Gulf Fire

Revolutionary fire solution launched in November 2018 and is the only liquid able to quickly extinguish all classes of fire (A, B, C, D, E, & F)

One hundred and fifty service providers have partnered with Firexo to become official resellers of its ground-breaking fire extinguishing solution, just three months from the company's launch in November 2018, as of February 2019.

Read the rest of this article here.

 

2/20/19

By Baibhav Mishra
Sea News

The time and cost involved in checking the fill levels in banks of fire extinguishers in hazardous areas can be considerable, since it can require lengthy shutdowns and a large number of man hours. However, this is not the case with the ULLC IS from Link Instruments Ltd which being intrinsically safe allows the extinguisher levels to be checked without interrupting normal operation.

ATEX certified to II 2G Ex ib IIC T4 Gb, the upgraded device uses ultrasound to locate the boundary between the liquified and gaseous gas. It is suitable for fire extinguisher cylinders using liquid CO2, Halon, FM200, NOVEC etc.

Read the full article here.

 

3/8/19

By David Petersile, Bill Mackay
T&D World

As modern society takes uninterrupted electricity supply for granted, electrical utility providers are increasingly measured by the reliability of the infrastructure used to deliver power to consumers. A single unplanned outage can not only cause economic disaster but can also unduly damage a utility provider's good name. Consumers show little patience and less understanding of the complexities necessary to provide uninterrupted electrical service.

This was clearly demonstrated when a fire erupted in a Boston substation causing widespread power outages and compelling authorities to close subway stations, block roads and evacuate a major hotel. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, however, the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods were paralyzed during the evening rush hour with commuters forced to seek alternative ways to get home as a part of the Massachusetts Turnpike was closed to traffic. Over 21,000 residential and business power customers lost electricity across a broad area of central Boston for days. Politicians and citizenry became increasingly outraged by the event and ambivalent to the valiant efforts of the utility to quickly and safely remediate the situation.

Continue reading this story here.

 

3/1/19

By Kristen Bigda
NFPA Journal

Hazardous areas, hazardous materials, and hazard of contents are all terms used in NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®. They may sound alike, but they can result in different applications of the code.

We routinely receive questions on these terms via outlets such as NFPA's Technical Questions Service and face-to-face interactions at NFPA seminars, and it's clear that being able to distinguish how to properly protect a hazardous area and how to identify requirements for contents with varying hazard levels is a compliance matter that requires further clarification.

Click here to finish this story.

 

2/14/19

By Adam Bannister, Editor
IFSEC Global

Fire protection guidance for warehouses staffed by robots has been published by property insurer FM Global.

Protection for Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) includes advice on sprinkler arrangement, independence of in-rack and ceiling sprinkler systems, container design and racking structure.

The guidance arrives in the wake of a fire that gutted an Ocado warehouse in Andover, Hampshire in early February. Despite the efforts of around 200 firefighters, the fire raged for 48 hours before being extinguished.

Read the full story here.

 

2/20/19

By Martyn Wingrove
Tug Technology & Business

Workboats and tugs need remote emergency engine shutdown devices in the wheelhouse to provide redundancy and back-up in the event of a fire.

This was one of the key findings from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)'s investigation into a fire that gutted a towboat in Alabama.

NTSB recommended that alternative emergency shutdowns should be located outside the engineroom to prevent fires from intensifying.

Read the rest of this article here.

 

1/24/19

By James Burns
Fire Engineering

Most of us can recall environmental issues affecting fire safety in the past. Consider the move to raise all underground tanks above ground. In their effort to solve an environmental problem, the initial effort didn't recognize that (unprotected) above ground tanks killed many firefighters over the years (thus the reason they were usually placed below ground, especially in urban environments.) The fire service responded, working with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to create a standard for protected above ground tanks that is currently the ultimate in safety for above ground tanks. When halon became an environmental pariah, industry developed alternatives that satisfied the need for clean agent extinguishing systems and portables. Each of these examples are clear cases where fire service and industry worked hand in hand to develop alternatives that satisfy the environmental concerns without jeopardizing the safety of the public and firefighters.

Now we're facing an industry that has responded to an environmental concern by creating a significant fire risk to our communities. I'm talking about refrigerants - that stuff in your air conditioning system that makes it cool. Historically, the refrigerants in our homes and businesses have been non-flammable and non-toxic. Unfortunately, the current refrigerants have a chemical in them that adds considerably to global warming; the term used in environmental circles is "high gwp" (global warming potential) materials.

Click here to read more of this article.

 

2/7/19

Electrical Review

Matt De Frece, divisional director at Power Control discusses the role of the UPS system in ensuring your fire protection system is failsafe.

Fire and methods of fire protection have been a hot topic uttered by many FM's, data centers, business owners and landlords following the tragic Grenfell tower incident. Fire suppression systems in particular have been a key focus when discussing businesses fire protection strategies as being one of the most vital forms of fire safety.

Not to be confused with sprinkler systems, fire suppression systems can use a number of different extinguishing agents, and although parts of their systems may look similar, the way in which they extinguish or control fires and their applications are very different.

Click here for the full article.

 

3/15/19

By Rusoh, Inc.
Firehouse

The Rusoh Eliminator fire extinguisher has been awarded "Editor's Choice" in the 2019 Most Innovative Products (MIP) at the World of Concrete Awards.

Eau Claire, WI -- Hanley Wood, the premier marketing company serving the construction industry, based in Washington, D.C. has announced that the Rusoh Eliminator fire extinguisher has been awarded "Editor's Choice" in the 2019 Most Innovative Products (MIP) at the World of Concrete Awards.

Read the full story here.