The Code Committee Insider: Fire Alarms, CO Detection & What’s Coming Next

Drew sits down with Dr. Roger Reiswig, Industry Liaison at Johnson Controls, for a deep conversation on how NFPA 72 has evolved over the years and where fire alarm standards are headed. Roger brings nearly 40 years of experience at JCI (starting as a Simplex technician in 1986) and shares his perspective on everything from international code adoption to the practical challenges of testing devices at 40-foot ceilings. Topics covered:

• How countries outside the US adopt and implement NFPA codes (often faster than US states)
• European EN standards vs NFPA: where they align and where they differ
• Europe’s requirement to replace smoke detectors on a fixed cycle vs the US approach
• The 2010 scope change in NFPA 72 and why inspections actually pulled back
• Remote and automated inspection technology: where adoption stands today
• How UL and NFPA standards push each other forward
• NFPA 3 & 4: integrated testing requirements now showing up in building codes
• Carbon monoxide detection moving from NFPA 720 into NFPA 72
• How CO detectors are functionally tested (and why it took work with UL to figure that out)
• Canada’s ULC certification model vs the US approach