Please share this information with anyone you may know who is or will be enrolled in a fire protection program and/or any schools that have a fire  protection program.  To qualify for a scholarship, the applicant must complete the FSSA Scholarship Application online form and upload the necessary documents to FSSA Educational Foundation Headquarters by Saturday, June 1, 2024.

As part of FSSA's partnership with FPA Australia, the Global Outreach Committee is sharing this event with our members. Fire Australia 2024 will be held May 7-9 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. If any FSSA members are attending, feel free to comment on this post so you can connect with each other. Visit the FPA Australia website for event details.

On July 20, 2023, the EPA published an update to (40 CFR Part 84) which implements the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act. The updated regulations, effective September 18, 2023, include new requirements to verify the quality of HFC fire suppressant agents by laboratory testing as well as additional recordkeeping requirements. These updated regulations affect FSSA members who fill or recharge HFC fire system cylinders. An overview of the EPA regulation was given at the FSSA Annual Forum and discussed at the division meetings. (88 Fed. Reg. 46836)

SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY UPDATES

FSSA has filed petitions in Maine and Minnesota, seeking a Currently Unavoidable Use (CUU) exemption from the Maine PFAS law and the Minnesota PFAS law that seek to regulate products containing “intentionally added PFAS.”  These laws define PFAS so broadly they would encompass certain clean agent fire suppressant agents, including HFC-227ea, FK-5-1-12 and HFC-125.

Copies of the FSSA petitions are linked below.

NFPA 855 What To Do for Data Centers When They Want to Change Out the Lead Acid Batteries to Lithium Ion?

NFPA 855 Partnering with AHJs to Implement Local Codes

NFPA 855 Why is Partnering with Organizations like FSSA, NFPA & ICC Important?

The FSSA Global Outreach Committee is connecting with other like organizations with the goal of sharing information across the industry.  The Fire Protection Association of Australia published the following information bulletin, Selection and Use of Firefighting Foams.

The purpose of this Information Bulletin is to increase awareness of the issues surrounding the selection and use of firefighting foams based on their:

NFPA 855 How to Work with Your AHJ on an HMA

NFPA 855: Would Annunciator Panels Have Made a Difference at the McMicken Arizona Lithium-Ion Facility Fire?

NFPA 855: What is a Plume Study and Why is it Important to your Hazard Mitigation Analysis (HMA)?

The Hazard Mitigation Analysis (HMA) is step number one. This is the first thing that you as manufacturers, you as installers, you as property managers that are looking for properties, need to talk about; do we have an HMA for our batteries? I had someone come up to me recently and say, well, sometimes when we pick a site, we don't know the technology. Okay, you normally have a couple in mind or two, or three. Make an HMA with all three technologies and then we can just get rid of the ones that you don't end up using. But let's start this hazard mitigation analysis early. Because what it does is it looks at the consequences of failure. And if you look at the Phoenix Fire Code, we require this for every single battery installation. NFPA 855 and the base International Fire Code (IFC) has three different criteria.

NFPA 855: How are battery manufacturers working with UL to create safer batteries?

In the ICC, Chapter 12 is what deals with lithium ion and other batteries Currently, there's a committee called the Fire Code Action Committee that brings in industry, manufacturers, AHJ’s, like myself, and experts. We're working on different parts of Chapter 12 for energy issues. Be careful, just because a jurisdiction adopts Chapter 12, we might amend it. In the City of Phoenix, we amended Chapter 12, heavily. Ours is probably a little bit more restrictive than most of the country. I would say our sprinkler density, that we'll talk about here in a little bit, is more restrictive. We wanna require our AHJs to be more restrictive, so be careful. Always look at the code amendments from that local jurisdiction.

How do we try to make these as safe as possible? It starts for us with the codes and standards. You have the International Code Council, which is the ICC, that creates the International Fire Code, the International Building Code. We have the National Fire Protection Association, the NFPA. We also have to have standards testing. UL has UL 9540, which is the listing for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). You look at all the codes and the codes will require UL 9540 listing for all batteries. And the test is the 9540 A test. So these have all been updated and worked on after McMicken, after Victoria in Australia, after Moss landing, after all of the fires. We're doing a much better job about getting everyone together in a room and creating better codes.

We always try to learn lessons. What worked well, what didn't work well. McMicken showed us that a clean agent type fire protection system alone is not adequate. We need something else. We need sprinklers. If we're going to be in an occupiable space, once again, we know that sprinklers don't control the thermal runaway, so all we're really doing is cooling it. Now, sprinkler water, as well as the water mist system, is really good about keeping vapors down, which is another thing that we're working on here in the valley with one of our battery installations. But sprinklers alone are not going to control the thermal runaway. It's going to do its thing until it's done.

The Fire Suppression Systems Association (FSSA) is the leading authority and advocate of special hazard fire protection. As the industry’s premier annual event for education and networking, the FSSA Annual Forum attracts a select group of top decision-makers in the industry. This year, we are expecting another record-breaking attendance, with more than 125 attendees registered.

A Joint Study by the Fire Suppression Systems Association and the Fire Industry Association (UK)

Issued November 1, 2023 - Released December 15, 2023

"The Fire Industry Association (FIA), a non-profit organisation, has pledged to dedicate a portion of its yearly revenue to support joint research initiatives that contribute to the well-being of its members, the industry, or public safety. Collaboration with other organisations is integral to the success of these projects. The partnership with the Fire Suppression Systems Association (FSSA) exemplifies the FIA's steadfast commitment to this initiative." - Robert Thilthorpe, Technical Manager, Fire Industry Association

“This research report is the culmination of almost six years’ collaboration between the UK’s Fire Industry Association (FIA) and the USA’s Fire Suppression Systems Association (FSSA).  The research demonstrated that continuous recirculating airflow can enhance uniformity of gaseous agent concentrations in data center applications, even in spaces where aisle containments are present.  The conclusions of the report should be quite useful to those responsible for designing and maintaining clean agent fire extinguishing systems for data centers” - Tom Wysocki, Technical Director, Fire Suppression Systems Association

FSSA is excited to host our 2024 Annual Forum at the historic Wigwam featuring elegant rooms and suites, three championship golf courses, three swimming pools, a tennis center, 440 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, a world-class meeting center and more. There are so many things you'll love about The Wigwam, one of the top Arizona luxury resorts.