Tag Archives: D4/1

Loading
loading..

Property Loss Prevention

Architect and Engineers Data Sheet Download | Updates January 2026

These are generally downloads.  We are happy to pick through the changes to the Electrical stack depending upon interest.

Left Panel Of George Julian Zolnay’s Allegorical “Academic, Business & Manual Education” Granite Frieze At Francis L. Cardozo High School (Washington, DC)

All fifty United States have their own “signature” disaster with which to reckon; some more than others.   California has earthquakes, Florida has hurricanes, Missouri has floods; and so on,  Life and property loss are preventable; but losses will persist because technical solutions notwithstanding, culture determines human behavior.  It is impossible to be alive and safe.

FM Global is one of several organizations that curate privately developed consensus products that set the standard of care for many industries; education communities among them.  These standards contribute to the reduction in the risk of property loss due to fire, weather conditions, and failure of electrical or mechanical equipment.  They incorporate nearly 200 years of property loss experience, research and engineering results, as well as input from consensus standards committees, equipment manufacturers and others.

If you want FMGlobal as your insurance carrier, or to supplement your organization’s self-insurance program, then you will likely be assigned an FMGlobal conformity professional.

A scan of its list data sheets indicate a number of noteworthy updates of documents establishing minimum requirements for safety technologies common in education facilities:

Technical Reports Supporting Code Change

Note that the bulk of the safety concepts in the foregoing titles incorporate by reference the safety concepts that cross our radar every day   FM Global provides direct access to the full span of its documents at this link:

FM GLOBAL PROPERTY LOSS PREVENTION DATA SHEETS

Note FM Global updates its standards every three months:

Standards in Progress

To respond to calls for public consultation you will need to set up (free) access credentials.

We keep FMGlobal titles — and the literature of other property insurers involved in standards setting — on the standing agenda of our Risk, Snow and Prometheus colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next meeting.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Risk, Facility Asset Management


More

Deloitte University: Innovation in Insurance

University of Pennsylvania demonstrates the critical importance of sprinklers in dormitories

Syracuse University presents an eclectic mix of risk management challenges

Jackson Laboratory

Representative force majeure clauses.

Example 1: Basic Force Majeure Clause

“Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performance of its obligations under this agreement due to events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, war, terrorism, civil commotion, labor strikes, and natural disasters. The affected party shall promptly notify the other party of the force majeure event and take reasonable steps to mitigate its impact on performance. During the continuance of such events, the obligations of the affected party shall be suspended, and the time for performance shall be extended.”

Example 2: Detailed Force Majeure Clause

“In the event that either party is unable to perform its obligations under this agreement due to a force majeure event, the affected party shall promptly notify the other party in writing, specifying the nature and anticipated duration of the force majeure event. Force majeure events shall include, but are not limited to, acts of God, strikes, lockouts, government action or inaction, war, terrorism, epidemics, and natural disasters. The affected party shall use reasonable efforts to overcome or mitigate the effects of the force majeure event. If the force majeure event continues for a period of [specified duration], either party may terminate this agreement by providing written notice to the other party.”

 

 

International Fire Code

2024 International Fire Code | Free Access

Crosswalk: NFPA Fire Code and ICC International Fire Code

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES based on Committee Action Hearings October 2024

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

ICC BCAC | Comments to be presented at October Hearings

Noteworthy Proposals:

IFC 1010.27 Locking arrangements, PDF page 252

IFC 1020.2 Corridor Fire Resistance Ratings. PDF page 356

IFC 915 More Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems, PDF page 1156

IBC 917 Mass notification for Group E occupancies, PDF page 1176

IFC 5701 More Process Hazard Analysis, PDF page 1571

The transcript (Complete Monograph) of Committee Actions should be available by September 5th.

Committee Action Hearings on Proposed Changes: October 23-31 Long Beach, California

“A Square with Imaginary Buildings” | Hendrik van Steenwijck (1614)

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

Higher Education Laboratories

“Waking Effectiveness of Alarms for Adults Who Are Hard of Hearing” 2007  Victoria University, Australia

Health Facilities: Navigating IBC and NFPA differences


Posted February 14, 2023

Free access to the latest edition of the IFC is linked below:

2021 International Fire Code

Following the ICC Group A revision cycle public consultation on the 2024 International Fire Code will begin.  The ICC will announce the development schedule sometime in 2022.

We limit our resources simply tracking the proposals that run through Group E (Educational) and Group I (Institutional) occupancies in the Group A suite with closer attention to the state they are adopted whole cloth or with local exceptions.  In many cases, IFC adoption by state and local authorities is delayed by one or more previous code revisions.  This delay in adoption may be necessary in order for jurisdictions to evaluate the impact of changes upon the region under their authority.

Public safety budgets historically support the local and state fire marshal and his or her staff.   The revenue stream of many trade associations originates from membership, conference attendance, training and certification enterprises that service the public sector stakeholder.   Manufacturer sponsorship of trade association conferences is noteworthy.

Unless there is an idea, or proposed regulation that has run off the rails (either in terms of rigor or cost increase) — we place fire safety in the middle of our ranking of priorities.  With gathering pace, we find many fires safety goals being met with electrotechnologies where we place our highest priority.

Click on image for more information. The map is updated by expert agencies frequently so we recommend a web search for an update.

Significant code changes rarely happen within a 3-year cycle so it is wise to follow ideas as they travel through the agendas of technical committees through several cycles as administered by the Fire Code Action Committee.

The ICC posts the transcripts of public proposals, technical committee responses to public proposals, public response to the technical committee response and the final balloting in a fair and reasonable fashion as can be seen in the transcripts linked below:

2021 International Fire Code Proposed Changes

2021 International Fire Code Public Comment Agenda 

A search on the terms “classroom” or “school” in any of the documents above offers granular insight into the trend of current thinking.   We find fire extinguishers placement a perennial concern across several standards suites.   You will note the careful consideration of proposals for use of the mass notification systems, now integrated into fire alarm systems and their deployment in active shooter situations.

The transcripts reveal detailed understanding and subtlety.

“The Country School” | Winslow Homer

There are many issues affecting the safety and sustainability of the education facility industry.  We add value to the industry because of our cross-cutting perspective on the hundreds of “silos”created by the competition (and sometimes cooperation) among accredited, consortia and open-source standards developers.  We have the door open every day at 11 AM Eastern time to enlighten understanding of them all.  We also host a breakout teleconference every month to drill into the specifics of standards action on fire safety for the real assets of school districts, colleges and universities.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Finally, we persist in encouraging education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process.  You may do so by CLICKING HERE.

The ICC Group B Code Meetings will be hosted soon and open to the public:   

International Code Council 2022 Group B Public Comment Agenda (September 14-21 Kentucky International Convention Center)

The Group B tranche is largely focused on energy, structural, residential and existing building concepts but all of the titles cross-reference the IFC in some way so it is wise to follow how the concepts re-arrange and cross-reference themselves with each cycle.

 

Issue: [16-169]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management, Space Planning

Colleagues: Mike Anthony,  Casey Grant, Joshua Evolve, Marcelo Hirschler


More

2021/2022 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

FINAL ACTION RESULTS ON THE 2018 PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE INTERNATIONAL CODES – GROUP A

2018 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES COLUMBUS COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE

2018 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS ON THE 2018 EDITIONS OF THE GROUP A INTERNATIONAL CODES

 

 

Exploring technological preventive methods for school shootings

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Exploring technological preventive methods for school shootings

Kelechi M. Ikegwu – Evelyn Sowells – Howard Hardiman

Department of Computer Systems Technology, North Carolina A&T State University

 

ABSTRACT.  The horrific and tragic deaths that have resulted from infamous school shootings have deprived Americans of the sense of security in what has traditionally been a nurturing and safe environment. This paper will discuss different preventive methods for school shootings. The most current preventive methods are examined for fitness based on a variety of school shootings that have occurred in the past. Then a framework for a new school shooting protection device is proposed and evaluated. Concepts from computer vision, anomaly detection, and electromagnetic propulsion are discussed with respect to the proposed framework. Ideally, the goal of the framework presented in this paper is to prevent deaths and injuries from occurring during a school shooting. With the framework, an efficient and comparatively affordable preventive method could be released in the near future.

CLICK HERE to order complete paper

 

K-12 School Security

Case Study: Center Grove Community School Corporation Security

Standards Indiana § Greenwood

“Center Grove Schools enters the 2022/2023 school year with a new high-tech safety partner — Centegix CrisisAlert — purchased in part with school safety grant money that pairs with their Emergency Operations Center that opened in January 2022.  The CrisisAlert program  puts security at the fingertips of all teachers and staff.

Both systems address what the district learned it had to work on from a school safety assessment back in 2018 – live monitoring and faster response times in an emergency.   Seven-hundred cameras will scan every school in real-time from the district’s Emergency Operations Center. — More”

Center Grove school security at the push of a button

Security 100

Center Grove Community School Corporation

“A Sunny Day in Springville (Lawrence County, Indiana)” | n.d. Will Vawter

 

K-12 School Security

Fire Safety

“Creation of humanity by Prometheus as Athena looks on”

Fire safety leadership usually finds itself involved in nearly every dimension of risk on the #WiseCampus; not just the built environment but security of interior spaces with combustibles but along the perimeter and within the footprint of the education community overall.

The Campus Fire Marshal, for example, usually signs the certificate of occupancy for a new building but may be drawn into meetings where decisions about cybersecurity are made.   Fire protection systems coincide with evacuation systems when there is no risk and both may be at risk because of cyber-risk.

The job description of a campus fire safety official is linked below offers some insight into why fire safety technologies reach into every risk dimension:

University of California Santa Cruz Office of Emergency Services

University of Tennessee Emergency Service Training

The development of the highest level fire safety consensus product in the world is led by the British Standards Institute, under the administration of the International Standardization Organization, with Committee E05 on Fire Standards of  ASTM International as the US Technical Advisory Group Administrator.  The business plan and the map of global participants is linked below:

BUSINESS PLAN ISO/TC 92 Fire safety EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The consensus products developed by TC 92 are intended to save lives, reduce fire losses, reduce technical barriers to trade, provide for international harmonization of tests and methods and bring substantial cost savings in design. ISO/TC 92 standards are expected to be of special value to developing countries, which are less likely to have national standards.  As with all ISO standards, the TC 92 consensus product is a performance standard suitable for use in prescriptive regulations and provide for a proven route to increased fire safety.

We do not advocate in this standard at the moment; we only track it.  The International Fire Code and the Fire Code have been our priorities since 2006.  The fire safety space is well populated with knowledgeable facility professionals because conformity budgets in the fire safety world — i.e. the local or state fire marshal — usually has a budget.  When you have a budget you usually have people keeping pace with best practice.

We encourage our colleagues in the United States on either the business or academic side of the education facility industry to communicate directly with ANSI’s ISO Team and/or the ASTM Contact: Tom O’Toole, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959 Phone: (610) 832-9739, Email: totoole@astm.org

We maintain this title on the agenda of our periodic Global and Prometheus colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting;  open to everyone.

Issue: [19-104]

Category: Fire Safety, Fire Protection, International

Contact: Mike Anthony, Joe DeRosier, Alan Sactor, Joshua Elvove, Casey Grant

More:

The Challenges of Storage and Not Enough Space, Alan Sactor

Guide to Premises Security

2026 Revision First Draft Ballot | NFPA 730

2026 Revision First Draft Report | NFPA 731

First Draft Meeting Agenda (Meetings were remote)

NFPA 731: Standard for the Installation of Premises Security Systems

Library of Alexandria

NFPA 730 Guide to Premise Security guide describes construction, protection, occupancy features, and practices intended to reduce security vulnerabilities to life and property.  Related document — NFPA 731 Standard for the Installation of Electronic Premises Security Systems covers the application, location, installation, performance, testing, and maintenance of electronic premises security systems and their components.

The original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprise (see ABOUT) began following the evolution of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 since the 2008 Edition.   That enterprise began a collaboration  with trade associations and subject matter experts from other universities (notably Georgetown University and Evergreen State University) to advocate user-interest concepts in the 2011 edition.    A summary of advocacy action is summarized in the links below:

in the appeared in a trade association journal Facilities Manager:

APPA Code Talkers Anthony Davis Facility Manager May June 2011

An online presentation by Michael C. Peele (Georgetown University) — one of the voting members of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 technical committees– was recorded and is linked below.

FREE ACCESS: 2023 Guide for Premises Security

FREE ACCESS: 2018 NFPA 730 Guide to Premise Security

Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 Edition will be received until January 3, 2025.  You may key in your own ideas by clicking in to our user-interest Public Consultation Meeting Point or by communicating directly with the NFPA.

This title remains on the standing agenda of our Security colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

K-12 School Security

CLICK ON IMAGE (Note that the link may move around quite a bit)

 

Clery Act

Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research

Apollo – Helios Driving The Chariot Of The Sun, 1517-18

“DIFFER” is a research institute domiciled at TU/e that is focused on advancing the development of sustainable energy technologies, such as fusion energy and solar fuels. It conducts fundamental research on plasma physics and materials science to understand the behavior of matter at extremely high temperatures and under extreme conditions.

DIFFER also collaborates with universities, research institutions, and industry partners to translate their research into practical applications. The institute’s ultimate goal is to develop new and innovative solutions to meet the world’s growing demand for energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact.  

Among its findings and recommendations: “Electrochemical Production of Ammonia from Renewable Energy: A Thermodynamic Analysis” published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society in 2018, which evaluated the thermodynamic feasibility of using renewable energy to produce ammonia, an important fertilizer, through electrochemical processes.

N.B. Ammonia can be deployed for energy conservation purposes in various ways, such as:

  1. Energy storage: Ammonia can be used as a means of storing energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, in the form of chemical energy. This stored energy can be released by converting ammonia back into electricity through fuel cells or by burning it in a combustion engine.
  2. Power generation: Ammonia can be used directly as a fuel in combustion engines or turbines to generate electricity, without emitting greenhouse gases or other harmful pollutants.
  3. Heating and cooling: Ammonia can be used as a refrigerant or heat transfer fluid in industrial processes, air conditioning systems, or district heating networks, reducing the energy required for cooling and heating.
  4. Fuel for transportation: Ammonia can be used as a fuel for ships, trains, or other heavy-duty vehicles, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

However, it is worth noting that the deployment of ammonia for energy conservation purposes requires the development of suitable technologies for its production, transportation, and storage, as well as the necessary infrastructure to support its use.

Nederland

"What are you afraid of losing, when nothing in the world actually belongs to you." -- Marcus Aurelius

Security 300

I think every school needs a protection plan with a either police officer or certified armed security. - Wayne LaPierre

Today we run a status check on the stream of technical and management standards evolving to assure the highest possible level of security for education communities.  The literature expands significantly from an assortment of national standards-setting bodies, trade associations, ad hoc consortia and open source standards developers.  CLICK HERE for a sample of our work in this domain.

School security is big business in the United States.  A few years ago we could deal with physical security separately from cybersecurity.  Not so much anymore.  In today’s colloquium — essentially a survey module presenting a broad overview — we seek to understand product and interoperability standards for the following technologies:

Video surveillance: indoor and outdoor cameras, cameras with night vision and motion detection capabilities and cameras that can be integrated with other security systems for enhanced monitoring and control.

Access control: doors, remote locking, privacy and considerations for persons with disabilities.

As time permits, we will reckon with first cost and long-term maintenance cost, including software maintenance.

According to a report by Markets and Markets, the global school and campus security market size was valued at USD 14.0 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 21.7 billion by 2025, at a combined annual growth rate of 7.2% during the forecast period.  Another report by Research And Markets estimates that the US school security market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 8% between 2020 and 2025, driven by factors such as increasing incidents of school violence, rising demand for access control and surveillance systems, and increasing government funding for school safety initiatives.

Noteworthy: The combined annual growth rate of the school and campus security market is greater than the growth rate of the education “industry” itself.


Education Community Safety catalog is one of the fast-growing catalogs of best practice literature.  We link a small sample below and update ahead of every Security colloquium.

Executive Order 13929 of June 16, 2020 Safe Policing for Safe Communities

Clery Act

Clery Compliance | 2024 Nova Southeastern University Public Safety Department

National Center for Education Statistics: School Safety and Security Measures

International Code Council

2021 International Building Code

Section 1010.1.9.4 Locks and latches

Section 1010.2.13 Delayed egress.

Section 1010.2.14 Controlled egress doors in Groups I-1 and I-2.

Free Access: NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code

Free Access: NFPA 731 Standard for the Installation of Premises Security Systems

IEEE: Design and Implementation of Campus Security System Based on Internet of Things

APCO/NENA 2.105 Emergency Incident Data Document 

C-TECC Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Guidelines

Department of Transportation Emergency Response Guidebook 2016

NENA-STA-004.1-2014 Next Generation United States Civic Location Data Exchange Format

Example Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness Plan (Tougaloo College,  Jackson, Mississippi)

Partner Alliance for Safer Schools

Federal Bureau of Investigation Academia Program

Most Dangerous Universities in America

Federal Bureau of Investigation: Uniform Crime Reporting Program

ICYMI: Guide to Campus Security

 


Security 100

Security 200

Security 400

Layout mode
Predefined Skins
Custom Colors
Choose your skin color
Patterns Background
Images Background
Standards Michigan
error: Content is protected !!
Skip to content