Fire Prevention & Code Enforcement, Essay Example

Although humans first developed the ability to harness the power of fire thousands of years ago, it has only been relatively recently that scientific principles have been applied to our understanding and use of fire. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there have been a number of “revolutions” related to our understanding of fire, and our ability to apply scientific principles to such practices as fire testing (fire.nist.gov, 2009). The first of these revolutions occurred in the 19^th century with the development of calorimetry and the development of the first law of thermodynamics; the next came in the early 20^th century with the development of national and international standards for fire testing; and the third came in the late 20^th century with the development of digital technology that made it possible to aggregate and analyze vast amounts of data. Although there have been significant advances made in fire testing since the early 1900s when fire testing methods were first developed, there are still a number of issues and problems related to fire testing a century later.

While scientific advances in the 1600s and 1700s made it possible for researchers to begin to understand how to measure the properties of fire, it was not until the 1800s that practical matters began to spur a focused movement towards developing materials that were resistant to fire, as well as methods for extinguishing fires on a large scale. These practical issues were largely related to building fires in urban settings, such as the Great New York City Fire of 1835 and other major fires in Chicago, New York, and other cities. These fires prompted efforts to test materials and structural designs for the purpose of developing ways to avoid fires as well as methods to extinguish fires. By the early 1900s the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was developing its fire endurance test method, and in 1918 the NFPA adopted a standard 251 as its official test method.

The fire testing procedures and protocols in the early 20^th century were largely concerned with the basic issues of construction materials and design; in practical terms this meant that fire testing was focused on how and with what materials buildings were built, and how these materials and designs could withstand fire or be extinguished if a fire broke out. In the first few decades after NFPA 251 was adopted in 1918, a new concern was raised related not to the buildings themselves, but to the contents of buildings. According to NIST, a number of fatal movie-theater fires occurred in the 1920s as nitrocellulose film stock burned, while a 1925 building fire fueled by Christmas decorations led to the deaths of 36 people in Oklahoma (fire,nist.gov, 2009). These and other similar incidents led to new testing protocols that focused on testing building contents, a process that is far more wide-ranging than the more basic testing of building materials.

As advances in scientific testing procedures and computational data analysis have made fire testing a more exact science, new dangers have also come into existence. According to Underwriters Laboratories (UL), advances in technology, construction design, and building contents have made “fire more dangerous today than in the past” (newscience.ul.com, 2014). A recent from the NFPA addresses a number of issues related to fires testing, noting that building contents still pose a significant hazard (Durso, 2013). One example offered by the NFPA relates to the materials used in furniture; the advent of synthetic materials in contemporary furniture makes it difficult to test all such materials -or to even know what materials are being used (Durso, 2013). A wide range of new technologies, such as the development and use of lithium-ion batteries in automobiles, solar-power systems in homes and commercial buildings, and other new materials and products all pose significant risks for fire and present new challenges for researchers engaged in fire testing.

According to UL, modern homes have a flashover rate that is eight times faster than homes built fifty years ago (newscience.ul.com, 2014). Contemporary building materials and contents often utilize synthetic materials that are prone to burn quickly and to produce smoke that is more toxic than that produced by older materials. Even as advances in design are developed to help prevent fires, the risk of fires related to contemporary materials has grown significantly. The use of these new materials and technologies makes the challenge of fire testing far greater than it was in 1918 when the first NFPA standards were adopted, and will continue to pose significant risks and challenges in the years to come.

References

Durso, F. (2013). Old Problem Fresh Look. Nfpa.org. Retrieved 27 May 2014, from http://www.nfpa.org/newsandpublications/nfpa-journal/2013/september-october-2013/features/old-problem-fresh-look

Newscience.ul.com,. (2014). New Science | Fire Safety. Retrieved 27 May 2014, from http://newscience.ul.com/firesafety

U.S. Department of Commerce,. (2009). A History of Fire Testing. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology.