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1) What is NFPA?
NFPA
Stands for National Fire Protection Association. It
is an international, non profit, membership organization,
founded in 1896 or 108 years ago, headquartered in
the United States of America. There are more than
75,000 individual memberships and 80 professional
and trade organization around the world. Its mission
is to reduce the burden of fire on life and property
by advocating scientifically-based consensus codes
and standards, research and education for fire and
related safety issues. NFPA also sponsors meetings,
programs, seminars and workshops for specialized training
and professional development.Moreover, NFPA is known
for its open consensus code and standard making system
which produces the National Fire Codes. This set of
close to 300 codes and standards is used in nearly
every country in the world. These include the design,
installation, inspection along with fire suppression.
2) Why is fire inspection important?
Apart
from safe building design and construction from fire,
the fire inspection process appears to be one of the
important consequences. This process should be completed
by the potent and knowledgeable fire inspector who
has been trained. In order to maintain the secure
building, the said inspection process should be performed
regularly so that the building management executives
will be able to learn the building’s system
condition.
3)
What are some of the reasons that the existing building
safety system is not effective?
-
The building’s fire protection safety policy
is not implemented comparing to other building’s
facilities, technology and appearance.
- The fire protection system and equipment of the
building is decaying over period of time.
- Frequency of inspection and lack of maintenance
over a period of time due to the non-existing fire
protection safety policy and lack of experienced personnel
who can inspect.
4) In general, will we be able to know whether the
fire protection system is working or not in case of
emergency?
In general, we
will not be able to know whether the fire protection
system is ready to work or not. The fire protection
system only works in case of emergency. This is different
from other system such as the electrical lighting
system or the ventilation system, which we can notice
when the light is out or the air conditioning is not
cooling. Therefore, in this case, the fire inspection
and testing should be performed regularly
5)
Why could not the fire fighters control the spreading
of the fire and smoke, which broke out at “The
Royal Jomtien Pattaya” in Pattaya, Chonburi
province and caused 91 people to die?
The
NFPA investigation team found that the said building
was legally designed and the fire protection system
was appropriately installed similar to other buildings
in general but it lacked of efficient inspection and
proper maintenance. As a result, the fire protection
system failed to operate when there is a fire. The
witnesses said that they could not hear the alarm
bell and it lacked of water in the system. These reasons
leaded to unable to control the rapidly spreading
of fire and brought about the death of 91 people and
the lost of businesses. However, NFPA suggested one
of the significant ways to solve this problem, that
is to have the building inspected.
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