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Strategic Roadmap for Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings and Communities

September 10, 2012

Strategic Roadmap for Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings and Communities

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology

From press release:

The United States already has one of the highest direct fire loss rates among developed nations, and progress in reducing this tremendous burden is slowing.

Fires claim more than 3,000 lives a year, injure more than 90,000 firefighters and civilians, and impose costs and losses totaling more than $300 billion—equivalent to about 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Fire researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) believe that the devastating annual toll can be significantly reduced over the next two decades. Even better, they have a plan that prioritizes and details the research and other work needed to enable that goal.

Crafted with input from fire service organizations, standards and building-code developers, equipment manufacturers, insurers and others, NIST’s newly issued "strategic roadmap"* lays out a clear technological course for reducing the risk of fire in buildings and communities. It calls for tackling the nation’s fire problem on three fronts:

  • Reducing fire hazards in buildings,
  • Advancing firefighter technologies, and
  • Reducing the risk of fire in communities bordering forests and "wildlands."

The new roadmap is NIST’s most comprehensive effort to establish fire-risk reduction goals for its programs since the influential America Burning report was published in the mid-1970s.

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Categories: fires and fire protection, National Institute of Standards and Technology
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