Episode Summary:
Shawn Mahoney of NFPA’s Technical Services team returns to The Fire Protection Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation with Drew that closes in on a problem the industry keeps overlooking: construction-site fires, and the standard that already exists to prevent them.
Light wood-frame buildings under construction are burning to the ground, like the 238-unit complex lost in Denver and the South Park fire in North Carolina that killed two workers. The standard meant to address this, NFPA 241, Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations, has existed since 1930 and is referenced by NFPA 1, NFPA 101, the IBC, and the IFC. The problem isn’t the code. “The biggest issue is people just aren’t using it,” Shawn says. In most jurisdictions, 241 simply isn’t enforced.
Drew and Shawn talk through what real enforcement looks like (Boston will shut a site down if the fire prevention program manager isn’t present), the legislative momentum building after the North Carolina fire, and what the Fire Prevention Program Manager role actually involves on a working construction site.
Earlier in the episode, the two preview the NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, including Drew’s Tuesday session on AI and fire protection. They get into how AI is reshaping the codes world through NFPA LiNK, CASI, and the new Notebooks feature, and why data centers and small nuclear reactors are introducing fire-protection challenges in places that have never had to plan for them.
Join Drew for Episode 96 for a straight conversation about why the standards we already have only matter if someone enforces them.
NFPA Conference & Expo NFPA LiNK
